Toronto the Bad needs a Guardian Angel
Hogtown perhaps, but Toronto the Good no longer. When I was a kid living in Toronto it was Hogtown. Later, growing up in that city it became Toronto the Good, and no kidding it was a pretty good place to live in. Still is, of course, but for many it's not so good. Away back then there were street gangs but they were comprised of nuisance kids, bored with themselves and their lives, creating some little havoc here and there, pursuing a promise of genteel criminality, kind of like the Bowery Boys, those raffishly hilarious eschewers of the public norm, social niceties, and societal expectations.That was then, this is now, and street gangs, stupidly vicious gangs and their devoted followers appear to have proliferated, due to many factors, not the least of which is the importation of a variety of cultural values, not easily assimilable with home-grown values, and the easy availability of firearms. No small part of this new reality is also due to poverty living in stark juxtaposition with plenty. Complicated further by a failure in parental guidance and responsibility and the lure of "easy" drug money.
Gangs become a stand-in for family and it is to gang membership that disaffected, neglected young men give their allegiance. They view society at large as irrelevant to their lives, and what looms large on their horizon is the disadvantaged lives they lead, though they hardly recognize this fact, and relish instead inter-gang rivalries and the values their pursuit of easy money, gang affiliation, and rivalries bring to their otherwise socially impoverished lives.
Because their families have relinquished their responsibilities to these young people at critical formative times in their lives, and their communities throw up their hands in despair and/or don't wish to become "involved" through fear of reprisal, their removal from the reality of everyday life around them becomes even more marked, and they find themselves completely disenfranchised from the norm, reject any part of it, and find their satisfaction in gang involvement, warfare and revenge killings.
Enter the red bereted Guardian Angels. Well, they did make some attempts to enter the scene. Their successes, past and future in the mean streets of urban America should have ensured they'd be welcomed in Canada, specifically Toronto with, if not exactly open arms, then at the very least with a modicum of interest. Toronto's mayor, Toronto's police chief have evinced no interest in any kind of collaboration with the Guardian Angels. Twice introduced, twice rejected.
But it looks as though they're interested in coming back to try again. And why not? The killing toll continues as Toronto's population holds its collective breath in hopes that things will fizzle out, but they won't, not on their own. So, give it a try, why not give the Guardian Angels the opportunity to show what they can do? Even the sight of these dedicated volunteers in public areas would have the effect of giving some encouragement to a worried public, and at the very least would give the corrupted youth of housing projects pause for second thought.
The Toronto police could resolve to give the enterprise some encouragement and co-operation. So that when trained and morally-minded volunteers in red berets apprehend a suspect in the commission of a criminal act through a citizen's arrest, the police should be ready to take over the situation with a formal apprehension, then let the law do its work. Why not, for heaven's sake!
Hasn't the mayor, haven't the police gone to the public to plead for assistance in the apprehension of gang members suspected to have committed dreadful anti-social acts that threaten the stability of the city's well-being? What really is the point of trying to ignore the potential offered by the presence of volunteers with a sterling track record in assisting civic authorities? Professional jealousy? Get over it. The fact that the offers of assistance are coming from America? Get over it.
It was an experiment. It worked well. Give it a try.
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, March 05, 2006
<< Home