We do need to address gangs.
The work done by the Ontario and British Columbia governments ('guns & gangs') is a good start but it's just a start.
A key is to go after the finances -- and here the civil remedies legislation, recently upheld by the Supreme Court, is very helpful.
Tragedies like the one below are totally avoidable. We can deal with gangs using lawful means.
(On a slightly different note, I heard a nasty racial comment regarding gangs today. I responded by pointing out that gangs tend to do well in all immigrant groups -- it's not race; it's being new in Canada that makes youth susceptible to being in gangs. So, historically, there have been Irish, Jewish and Italian street gangs. Today the concept of, for example, a serious Jewish gang problem is beyond absurd -- given time the same will happen to the most recent immigrant communities. We have to respond to bigotry immediately upon it raising its head; and respond firmly but with facts).
Girl, 5, hit in shooting
Ron Nurwisah, National Post
A five-year-old girl has been taken to hospital after she was shot in her apartment at 5 Bellevue Crescent, near Jane St. and Weston Rd.
She was shot twice in the back and rushed by family to the nearby Humber Church Hospital. She was then transferred to Sick Kids hospital. Humber hospital officials alerted the police at 7:47 p.m.
According to reports a man opened fire on a group sitting on an apartment patio. A bullet pierced a window and hit the girl.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
3 comments:
The greatest cause of gang violence is poverty. I see it in my own community.
If there were year round jobs that paid a decent wage in these poor communities, many who resort to illicit trade would have alternatives.
If drugs were decriminalized and regulated much the same way alcohol was, you`d see a lot less gang/drug related violence.
"The greatest cause of gang violence is poverty."
Given that reasoning, NFLD should have historically been the most violent province, but of course it is not. Generally speaking, social inequality and lack of a state presence are better predictors than poverty.
"it's not race; it's being new in Canada that makes youth susceptible to being in gangs."
One of the biggest sources of immigrants to Canada is the British. I have never heard someone complain about British gangs. Anyway the reason that various ethnic groups tend to make up a disproportionate number of gang members is that various ethnic groups show more social cohesion and it is this social cohesiveness that helps create and maintain criminal structures. On the flip side of things, a lack of social cohesiveness contributes to a disproportionate number of Native Canadians and African Americans belonging to gangs.
As for war on drugs, the Liberals need to have their knuckles rapped. Parroting an intellecutally bankrupt Conservative approach is not only the wrong thing to do from a policy point of view, it is bad politics. Minimizing the difference between themselves and Conservatives will not stop the Conservatives from capitalizing on the get tough on crime rhetoric. It is the discourse that the Conservatives feed off of not the policy differences.
The Liberals need to realize that legalizing marijuana would be good politics. It would make the Canada "cool" again and by extension the Liberals too. It would also take all the wind out of Conservatives sails. Defending reefer madness myths will all but wipe out what limited intellectual credibility the Conservatives have left. No one I mean no one under thirty five would vote for them.
A key is to go after the finances -- and here the civil remedies legislation, recently upheld by the Supreme Court, is very helpful. The only problem is organized crime adapted years ago to forfeiture legislation. The only people that will lose their homes over this are people behind on their mortgage growing a few pot plants in their basement.
Civil asset forfeiture has bred corruption into US law enforcement, and will breed it into Canadian forces as well.Check out fear.org to get the facts.
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