the darkerside to rants

The Toronto Star has a new series about Toronto and it’s problems. Today: Building an argument for action

The sound of sirens

There were 33,717 violent crimes last year, down 1,435 from the year before. Gee, I feel better already.

We also averaged 25 murders per million last year, up a couple from 23 in 2002. Before you buy a bullet-proof vest, you might note that the murder rate in Chicago is 207 per million.

I asked the Mother Teresa students if they knew anyone who had been the victim of violent crime; four did. One of the boys said, “A guy I know, he was at home and these guys broke into his house. They tied up the mother and the daughter, and they brought the son upstairs and shot him. They stole some jewellery.” Yikes.

One of the girls said, quietly, that she knew Jeffrey Reodica, the teen who died recently after being shot in the back by the police. She thought that was a crime; nothing will convince her otherwise.

One of the high school girls also said, pointedly, that she grew up in Malvern and she always felt safe in her neighbourhood. But one of the boys said he never felt safe. After some discussion, they thought maybe that’s just the way it is for teenaged boys and girls.

The Ryerson students? They are adults. They tend to feel safe. But two of the women knew women who’d been sexually assaulted.

And one man, a wag, wanted to know if white-collar crime was considered violent. I think it is.

But that’s just me.