What in the hell is going on in the safest city in North America? On the heels of last month’s mass shooting at the Eaton Center, this happened at a street party in Scarborough:
Toronto’s mayor has come out strongly in defence of the city’s safety in the wake of a gunfight that killed two young people, injured 21 bystanders and left the city’s police chief saying he could remember no worse violence.
The violence came after a neighbourhood barbecue in east-end Toronto was inundated with strangers. An altercation led to an exchange of gunfire.
One of those killed was a 14 year-old girl, and one of the injured was a 22 month-old infant.
Linnaeus
Not just Toronto. We’ve had an uptick in shootings here in Seattle this year.
canuckistani
It’s hard to keep handguns from coming across the border.
Litlebritdifrnt
This might be simplistic but I think the heat makes people do stupid things. There has been an uptick in shootings here in Eastern NC. A guy shot his three year old just to piss off his ex-wife and then turned the gun on himself. In another incident a teenage shot his father and step mother. That was just in one day. I honestly think it is the heat, it fries peoples brains.
Dex
The normal pressures of gang violence, not helped by scorching weather and a flood of illegal handguns from the US.
Perhaps one of the hardest things in facing this for Torontonians is the fact that we’re left to accept that this will happen sometimes. The community it took place in already is part of the TPC’s enhanced communications program for dialogue and programs between them and community leaders, it has enhanced foot patrols and quick car response, and overall, existing programs dealing with gang conditioning and violence in Toronto are considered to be reasonably effective and evolved over the last decade. Of course there’s always room to improve and enhance those programs, but even the best police force in the world will still have crime to deal with.
lacp
@Litlebritdifrnt: Not simplistic at all – that makes a lot of sense. I can remember the news media going on about ‘long hot summers’ many years ago.
WaterGirl
@Litlebritdifrnt: Guns don’t kill people. Heat kills people? :-)
Laura
@Litlebritdifrnt: There’s lots of evidence that there’s more crime and violence and murders during the summer, especially during heat waves. But that doesn’t really explain the uptick in Toronto specifically.
trollhattan
If more Canadadians had guns then this wouldn’t happen. Wait, let me consult my Lucky LaPierre 8-Ball….
Yep, confirmed, it says “more guns, nao”
Litlebritdifrnt
OT but this is via David Corns twitter feed
lacp
@Litlebritdifrnt: Nothing like muddying the waters. Still, seems a bit of a desperation move.
Litlebritdifrnt
@lacp:
Tells me that some Bain execs really hate their former boss.
MattF
More OT, but here’s John McCain expressing his feelings about Mitt Romney:
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/john-mccain-sarah-palin-romney-vp.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
It’s the heat, I guess.
Martin
Wouldn’t have happened if that 14 year old girl and 22 month old had been carrying.
/NRA
The Other Chuck
@trollhattan: Magic 8 ball has an icosahedron in it, with 20 answers. The NRA 8-ball only needs a moebius strip.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
It’s not the heat, it’s the
humiditystupidity.waynski
@lacp:
I’m sure that’s what they’re trying to do, but I don’t see how it helps them to point out that there are people Romney worked with who not only don’t want to vote for him but are actively supporting his opponent. So, I’m with you on the desperation thing.
Must be the heat over at the Romney campaign.
Roger Moore
@The Other Chuck:
A Moebius strip wouldn’t press against the glass correctly. You just need an icosahedron that says “More Guns” on all 20 sides. You can make the Republican version that says “Lower Taxes” instead.
The Other Chuck
@Roger Moore:
It does in Wingnutoplogy :)
The Moar You Know
If you can’t put two and two together I am not going to do it for you. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened, it will happen again at or near the same place, and there’s a lot more where this came from.
Xenos
I am about to travel several thousand miles to Toronto as part of a campaign to get my eldest daughter to go to UT. Damn!
Very sorry to see that beautiful town visited by such misfortune.
Rafer Janders
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Excellent. Romney is now reduced to arguing that there is something wrong with the money generated by Bain. I cannot see how this could backfire on him.
Rafer Janders
@Litlebritdifrnt:
President, CEO, Chairman of the Board and 100% sole stockholder, yes, but is there really any evidence to indicate that Romney was the “boss” at Bain?
Litlebritdifrnt
@Rafer Janders:
I know nothing about running a campaign but I would think that the last thing you want to do is to point out that former employees of your candidate are actively supporting the other guy. That is why I am not being paid the big bucks I guess.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Rafer Janders:
Particularly when one of the largest Romney Superpacs is run by Bain guys, with Bain money.
Felanius Kootea
@MattF: Wait, did McCain just say that the half-wit from Alaska is a better candidate than Romney as part of defending him from tax return scrutiny? With a full-throated defense like that from McCain, Romney needs no enemies.
Romney is the worst presidential candidate I have ever seen emerge from the Republican side. I think they should replace him at the convention; it’s so embarrassing.
BGinCHI
The answer is pretty simple at one level. I lived in TO for several years in the early 90s.
Since about 1998, TO has become much more American. Hence the fuckedupness.
RedKitten
Love the Tragically Hip title. :)
@The Moar You Know: Can you elaborate? Some of us don’t know TO all that well, and so don’t even know what the 2 and 2 ARE, let alone how to put them together.
trollhattan
@The Other Chuck: @Roger Moore:
Probably also requires putting the little answer gizmo in a Klein bottle–same one that swallowed up the entire Republican party.
Comrade Mary
I don’t know if it’s the bloody heat, or the economic downturn, or a myriad of other factors causing the latest flurry of shootings, but what is notable over the past couple of years is the perception that they are happening in several locations in Toronto, not just places like Regent Park and Jane-Finch. For the first time, people in this city are starting to feel that no neighbourhood is safe.
A relative of one of the men killed in the Eaton Centre shooting was killed and his body was dumped in an affluent neighbourhood a few weeks ago. What I remember from initial media coverage was a resident of that neighbourhood insisting in a radio interview even before the man was identified that he was obviously not from the neighbourhood. It was obvious, he said, even though he declined to say why. The man was black, you see, a Somalian immigrant and, sources now say, not known to be involved in anything criminal. But God forbid that property values in that part of Etobicoke plummet if people were to get the wrong idea.
@The Moar You Know:
Um, given that I live in Toronto, and that I used to live in that part of Scarborough (back when the Galloway Boys were just getting started), I’m curious about your theory. I’d rather not guess at what you mean, so could you please spell it out? Assume I’m just a dumb Canuck, if that helps.
Jacobi
+1 for the title lyric reference.
“…with its checkerboard floors“
chrismealy
Toronto’s mayor doesn’t give a shit when it’s people on bikes who are killed. He’s an asshole.
Just One More Canuck
Some context might nelp. Despite the high profile cases, the murder rate here (I live in a suburb of Toronto) was 1.6 per 100000 last year, and has averaged 2.3 per 100000 since 1993. Wikipedia info from 2010 set out the murder rates for 75 US cities. Toronto would be in the lowest 10 of these cities
DS
Basically there was this giant party. And then it went on Facebook. And there were rumors that free Cognac was going to be available. Maybe it was; the police aren’t really sure yet. So people from as far away as London, Ontario (over two hours away) showed up and it got out of control. And then people started drinking and guns were pulled, etc. Meanwhile, in Alabama, nine people were killed at a bar last night, so I’m not sure why everyone is focusing on Toronto. The problem is obviously tied to gangs and drugs. There is a huge Jamaican community in Toronto and unfortunately a lot of the younger kids in the inner suburbs have gotten caught up in the drug trade.
Mark
Btw, Toronto is no stranger to violence. Just google ‘Just Dessert Shooting’. Or ‘Jane Creba Shooting.’ Innocence lost long ago.
Ecks
@Xenos: UT?
Toronto or Tejas?
(depends which side of the border you’re from which one comes to mind first… though the former tends to go a little more by UofT, so that can be used as a disambiguator for those who care).
ps. go uvetee!
ETA
pps. @Mark 34, I was nearly on the jury for the Just Desserts shooting. Strange but true.
ppps. Extra plus points for the lyric reference in the title.
Comrade Mary
@Xenos: We call it U of T to avoid confusion :-) (Ecks, I can’t remember anyone calling it UT. Maybe I don’t move in the right circles.)
Toronto is still pretty safe, safer than many, many major American cities as noted by@Just One More Canuck. And the U of T downtown campus is a blast!
Canuckistani Tom
Late for this, but here are the Toronto Crime stats
http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/statistics/stats.php
The Scarborough shootings bring the number of homicides in 2012 so far to 28. Compared to previous years, the number of people murdered in Toronto by July 17 in 2009, 2010 and 2011 was 29, 33, and 26 respectively.
I ain’t moving.
double nickel
@Canuckistani Tom: Bingo.
tri it
Very late to this as well, but yes, Toronto still has very low homicide rates, its just that these latest ones have been in public places, so they are getting more attention. What is funny is how Americans perceive Toronto as being quite safe, while other Canadians outside of Toronto perceive Toronto as being more scary and crime-ridden, even while Toronto’s numbers are low compared to other Canadian cities.
M. Bouffant
I blame Harper.