[canmark]

Globe and Mail: Police alone can't stop gangs, Toronto Chief Bill Blair says

Might some of those "hug-a-thug" programs be useful? And where is the corporate money that Mayor Ford is always talking about--the companies who are willing to employ teens (not to mention finance subways)?

Two weeks after Toronto was shaken by the largest mass shooting in its history, Police Chief Bill Blair sees the gang violence at its root not as one neighbourhood’s problem but a social issue that demands solutions from Toronto’s business and community leaders.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Globe and Mail Tuesday, Chief Blair said police keep track of people involved in or associated with gangs – roughly 2,100 – and of those about 500 or 600 are considered “really violent.â€

The long-term solution, he said, involves preventing these mostly young men from so-called priority neighbourhoods from going down this road by interceding in their lives when they are much younger. That involves continuing to provide opportunities, including employment, but first requires learning “more about these kids and find out where we lost them.â€

“By the time you go, with a 14- or 15-year-old, and try to get them into a program and play basketball, some of these young guys are so completely lost to us that they represent such a significant danger, all we can do is protect everyone from them,†Chief Blair said.

He said the police force employs about 150 teenagers from priority neighbourhoods each summer, a total of about 1,000 people over the years. While these kids aren’t the ones likely to get in trouble – their progress is tracked after the program and only one participant has been criminally charged – Chief Blair said it’s about police outreach to these communities.

He said he’s now working with the province to get employers from Toronto’s business community to accept kids from these neighbourhoods into their ranks for summer employment.

 

[cdr108]

Globe and Mail: Police alone can't stop gangs, Toronto Chief Bill Blair says

Might some of those "hug-a-thug" programs be useful? And where is the corporate money that Mayor Ford is always talking about--the companies who are willing to employ teens (not to mention finance subways)?

as usual, it's hypocritical of RF with his comments regarding social programs or 'hug-a-thug' as he likes to call them.

as many know, RF has his own 'hug-a-thug' Rob Ford Football Foundation.
i read somewhere that when he was asked about it's success, he said it was 99% effective but couldn't quantify it.
yet he says social programs aren't effective, even though there are studies out there that say they are.

http://metronews.ca/voices/ford-for-toronto/311819/rob-ford-views-on-social-programs/

 

[canmark]

Globe and Mail: Board of Trade sees jobs as way to help police stem gang violence

The Toronto Board of Trade is responding to Police Chief Bill Blair’s call for the business community to attack the root causes of gang violence with jobs.

Carol Wilding, the board’s president and chief executive officer, said Wednesday that the recent spate of violent crime in Toronto already had some members of the business community asking what they could do to help.
* * *
The Board of Trade supports a joint public-private initiative called Partnership to Advance Youth Employment (PAYE) that helps match high-school graduates and university students from priority neighbourhoods with jobs. The program, which started in 2007, has the support of dozens of local employers.

But according to Chief Blair, avoiding gang recruitment needs to start early. In an interview with The Globe and Mail on Tuesday, he said police keep track of people associated with gangs – roughly 2,100 of them – and by the time some kids turn 14 or 15, it may already be too late for intervention.

Ms. Wilding said it may be possible to replicate the PAYE program and use it as a model to reach younger kids.

 

[Marko]

The Board of Trade seems to have good intentions, but matching high school and college GRADUATES with jobs isn't going to prevent any of the problems we're seeing. Those kids are already on a better path in life and yes, they need jobs to improve their lives, but they're also extremely unlikely to be the ones shooting up the neighborhood.

If the jobs-for-grads programs assist in rewarding or rescuing the kids that have worked hard and preventing them from being victims or having kids who grow up in poor neighborhoods, then they are work the effort. It gives a sense of hope and proof that working to finish school does actually provide rewards... but I agree with Blair that for the most part, the problem kids are already beyond the help of this sort of program years before. This is one of the bigger picture efforts that pays off over generations and does need to be pursued, just not as an answer to immediate problems.

It's kind of like the special schools... they aren't going to help the problem kids, but will exist as a safe path for the good kids to succeed.

 

[TrickyRicky]

I wanted to comment on this thread with respect to general crime and homicide given the time for calm and reflection since this incident. While I can't speak about gun crime in general we do know that Toronto has recorded 41 homicides as of October 17th 2012. By contrast we recorded our 41st homicide in 2011 on October 22nd in 2011, a year when the total number of homicides was the lowest since 1986 and the rate per population lower than any modern record I could find.

When we speak about violent criminal instances we should never loose sight of the fact that real people are involved but the statistical data also proves that policy should be set by careful consideration of the trends, not gut-reactions to individual events. We should remember this in July 2013 when history suggest the most gun violence and homicides will occur. Let's hope that 2012 can end with as few instances as possible and that Toronto becomes even more safe in 2013 and beyond.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Interesting video with Jim Carrey about gun control:

[video=youtube_share;GMhhzEKxE48]http://youtu.be/GMhhzEKxE48[/video]

Note the band members from about the 1:15 mark.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Not Scarberia this time, one dead at Yorkdale http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...rontos-yorkdale-mall-reports/article10587865/

Maybe it's time for amnesty on guns, one free gold tooth or oversized ball cap per gun handed in.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

The problem is all these damn guns flowing in freely from the US and hitting our streets. Instead of Harper cutting border security he should be increasing it and stop messing around with billions of dollars refurbishing lemon submarines and ordering military planes that we do not need. Legalize weed too and create a new tax revenue stream which does three things, 1) gives people what they want and greatly reduces the need for the underground pot drug trade, 2) generates new tax revenues and job creation and 3) steers law enforcement away from this time consuming, harmless act and focuses them more on real crime problems.

 

[Max Sterling]

The problem is all these damn guns flowing in freely from the US and hitting our streets. Instead of Harper cutting border security he should be increasing it and stop messing around with billions of dollars refurbishing lemon submarines and ordering military planes that we do not need. Legalize weed too and create a new tax revenue stream which does three things, 1) gives people what they want and greatly reduces the need for the underground pot drug trade, 2) generates new tax revenues and job creation and 3) steers law enforcement away from this time consuming, harmless act and focuses them more on real crime problems.

Its not the guns its the PEOPLE. Why is it that 95-99% of all gun crime every single year in Toronto involves young black males? We have plenty of non-blacks living in the exact same neighborhoods as blacks do yet somehow few if any non-black kids grow up with feeling of needing to carry a gun and using it at the drop of the hat anytime, anywhere without any regard for anyone around them.

You deal with the black population in Toronto and you solve the gun crime problem. Simple as that. Everyone knows this is the problem and it all stems from too many black parents who do a horrible job of raising their kids and keeping them in line. Add all these kids together along with black culture and this is what you get. Aggressive young black males who will fight and kill for pretty much any reason.

 

[Juan_Lennon416]

Why do these fools think that shootings and stabbings are the answer to their problems? They should try using their words.

 

[gabe]

It's a good thing no innocent bystanders were killed or this easily could have top news story around the world like the Eaton Centre shooting.

 

[RC8]

Its not the guns its the PEOPLE.

It's both. If we had US-style gun laws in Toronto/ON we would have much higher crime rates among other demographics.

As for black people - you make a logical mistake. It's not the black community in Toronto, it's a subset of very different communities in the city, most of which are black.

I agree that kids in these backwards communities need to get their education from some place other than 'just' their parents - which is why I strongly support the very necessary interventions that our mayor refers to as 'hug-a-thug' programs. Do you?

 

[Admiral Beez]

As for black people - you make a logical mistake. It's not the black community in Toronto, it's a subset of very different communities in the city, most of which are black.

Indeed. I have several friends from Africa, including Ghana and Uganda who are married couples, with kids all from the same father, and they say they have little in common with folks they meet from the Carribean.

The demographic is actually extremely isolated, that of black males between 17 and 25 years of age of Carribbean, usually Jamaican descent born of unwed mothers living in social housing. That's it, perhaps a total of 25,000 to 50,000 people in all of Toronto. Focus problem reduction resources in this demographic and you're on the right track. Most importantly we must not abandon these kids, it's not their fault who they were born to, and have every right to grow up in safety and with a chance of a good future as anyone else in Toronto.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Its not the guns its the PEOPLE.

It's the bullet(s) from an illegal gun that injure and kill people, social issues run far deeper than weapons. Don't buy into this crap NRA propaganda, we are Canadians and let's not forget that.

 

[Peepers]

Indeed. I have several friends from Africa, including Ghana and Uganda who are married couples, with kids all from the same father, and they say they have little in common with folks they meet from the Carribean.

The demographic is actually extremely isolated, that of black males between 17 and 25 years of age of Carribbean, usually Jamaican descent born of unwed mothers living in social housing. That's it, perhaps a total of 25,000 to 50,000 people in all of Toronto. Focus problem reduction resources in this demographic and you're on the right track. Most importantly we must not abandon these kids, it's not their fault who they were born to, and have every right to grow up in safety and with a chance of a good future as anyone else in Toronto.

I don't disagree with what you wrote but you are forgetting a very large demographic and that is Somalian youth. It seems to me that in recent years about half of the gun crimes involve young males of Somalian background. It would not surprise me if they are responsible for more gun crime than those of Jamaican descent. We don't have a gun problem. We have a culture problem. In certain cultures violence is celebrated and in a perverse way the thugs who commit the crimes are considered role-models within the communities.