In which I will politicize a tragedy, because this tragedy is political

[sabotabby]

So just as Toronto's funding for priority neighbourhoods is about to dry up, some gangbangers opened fire on a party full of children, killing two innocent people and injuring 25.

Holy fuck. As I do every time there's a shooting in Scarborough, I refreshed the news every few minutes until the names of the victims were released. This time, it isn't one of mine, but it's somebody's daughter, friend, student, neighbour. Everyone's horrified at the death of a 14-year-old girl, but ever since I became a teacher, these tragedies hit harder. I look at her photo and see my kids. The other victim coached basketball in the community where I teach. I might have seen him around.

I think about the girl who told me that there's a suspected gang house down the street from her, and sometimes at night a car drives by and someone shoots at it.

There are things that divert kids from gangs, and save other kids from becoming the victims of gangs. They aren't, as the Honourable Wifebeater claims, bootstraps, cops, and prisons (though I do agree about jobs; youth unemployment is a huge factor in the upswing in violence here—he's not talking about job creation, though). They're the very social programs we're losing, the community projects that he was the sole voice on council against funding. This isn't rocket science: If the schools and community centres are crumbling, and the pools are closed, and you can't find a job, and you're isolated in your bleak exburb, and you're living in a climate of fear, poverty, and stress, you fall back on violence and machismo and anger because it's all that remains. I can't comprehend the thought process of someone who carries around a gun and on a sweltering summer night, opens fire on a group of children, but I encounter the conditions that produce this mindset every time I head out to Scarborough.

Swagger and machismo aren't solely found in housing projects, though; they're also currently running the city. The worst thing we can do is respond to violence with state violence. Be outraged, yes, but be honest and sensible. Look at what's worked. Rebuild the frayed social safety net. Build transit out to these neighbourhoods. Create jobs. It would help if those with power actually spent some time in the communities where gang violence has taken root and, you know, figure out what people there actually need to make their lives safer.

Oh, and:



"Toronto's the safest city in North America." For fuck's sake, do you think that's what the victims' families need to hear right now? Also the quote about it being "like the aftermath of any barbecue, except with shell casings" strikes me as particularly vile and insensitive.

Comments

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Fuck.

Fuckity-fuck.

[sabotabby]

That about sums it up.

[sabotabby]

A community block party.

For. Fuck's. Sake.

[intangir-heath.livejournal.com]

If only whoever is running the planet would allow people like you to be in charge... This entire post resonated with me... One thing that needs a lot more attention though is what you said about there not being anything left: It's so fucking true. Life is psychological, and if it's neglected or abused, the damage doesn't just go away. The damage becomes part of that life. I fucking want to explode people (such as my mother) who say things like, "you're just giving them an excuse for their behavior". Yeah and if you touch butter with a hot knife, it needs an excuse to say it's been cut. I hate (most) people.

[sabotabby]

I would be terrible at running the planet. I just know how not to do it.

[intangir-heath.livejournal.com]

Well, like Frank Discussion said, "That's a damned good start."

[poetic-pixie-13.livejournal.com]

You know I grew up in and still live in Malvern, a priority neighbourhood. I feel like in the past few years there really has been a sense of community growing. Just, ugh. I don't want to think about how many kids I went to elementary with are dead. I don't even know because when a black boy is shot dead he isn't turned into a martyr by the media, the victim of the violence and poverty he grew up. That's saved for pretty white girls like Jane Creba.

To be quite honest when I heard about this I didn't blink. It's heartbreaking to lose anyone, especially our kids. But the shooting itself... I've become numb to the idea of shootings out in the open like that. I just always prey that no one has to die. Sometimes at least that happens.

ETA @CP24: BREAKING: One man is dead following a shooting in the Eglinton Avenue West and Emmett Avenue area, Toronto police have confirmed.

Motherfucking goddamned fucking fuck asdlkjhflskadhiateuw jkashdfkjahthkwejhn fkja

Fuck everyone. Fuck the police who enable this shit. Fuck the mayor who'd rather see us kill ourselves one by one. Fuck city council who does jack shit. Fuck Torontonians who just ignore our dead because they don't live in our zip code. Fuck this racist, classist, sexist, bullshit fucked up fucking system that makes us do their fucking dirty work while they make money off the bodies of our children and shove us into the dirt while saying it's our own fucking fault for being there.

[sabotabby]

What you said.

[culpster.livejournal.com]

Those Fordings bugged the shit out of me as well. Thanks for pushing beyond them to the real world. This is no fucking good.

The work you do out there is so good and so important - and in spreading the word when you can't be there yourself, too.

This community deserves more, not less. Like so many of them. Desiring a Sabs cloning appapatus.

[sabotabby]

Oh God, more of me? We'd just sit around on the couch and complain that we were tired.

[tuff-ghost.livejournal.com]

Good post

[sabotabby]

Thanks.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

This post is public. If that was your intention, then I'll share it around...

[sabotabby]

Totally my intention. By all means!

[lienne.livejournal.com]

lhjufkgdlhjgh SHIP HIM TO FUCKING MARS

[sabotabby]

Him and the gangbangers. They could bluster at each other for 30 seconds before choking to death.

[ironed_orchid]

I like this plan

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

That would be seen as an act of war by the Martians.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

Wah.
It sounds worse than in the UK, but that might be because I don't pay much attention and don't live in areas where these things happen.
Are cities very segregated into richer and poorer areas there? London is very mixed, but of course there are still areas that are full of vast housing estates with few resources or shops or anything. Just not where I live! And it does seem to have been getting worse in recent years. More children shooting each other. It is horrible. I little (11 year old) boy was stabbed to death for "looking" at a 16 year old boy outside my old front door in North London a few years ago. When I was that age it was normal for boys to beat people up for looking at them, but not to stab them. I don't get that mentality at all - it is an area with lots of resources (relative to the rest of the country) and plenty for young people to do, so I think there is more to it than social deprivation.

I can understand wanting to go and shoot lots of people at a barbecue or whatever - just growing up having it made clear to me that I was not part of society, not acceptable, despised and disliked whatever I did and having to watch people enjoy themselves from the margins was enough! I still feel like it a lot as I am still marginalised and near the very bottom socially. But obviously I am fortunate enough not to have grown up in areas of such deprivation that violence is more a norm so am able to be more balanced and put those feelings in context.

[sabotabby]

I don't think cities are segregated here like in the States. You'll see very rich pockets and very poor pockets quite close together. But there are wealthy suburbs, like Etobicoke, with a disproportionate amount of political clout, and poor suburbs, like Scarborough. Here's a map, because I like maps.

[joysilence.livejournal.com]

I think Toronto should organise a city-wide community spit roast with Ford as the pig and then, just before they shove the spike through him and stuff his nether regions with apples, they can ask him again how funny he thinks "barbecues" actually are.

[sabotabby]

I'm a vegetarian.

I'd make an exception.

[kryss-labryn.livejournal.com]

There's an ex-gang member who does talks in schools about the effects of bullying. They had him on the CBC a while back. See, he was one of these guys who could just walk up to a restaurant full of people and open fire and be just fine with that, and, he says, you can't do that unless you learn to hate. And being bullied leads to hating.

In his case it was a step-father who was unbelievably horrible to him. You might not want to read the rest of this paragraph because it's unbelievable anyone could be so heartless, but there you go. You've been warned. When he was ten his dog, who of course was absolutely a family member to him, had puppies. And the step-father didn't want them and wanted to get rid of them. And rather than waiting until they were weaned and then selling or giving them away, or dropping them off at the pound like a normal person, the step-father took a shotgun, pointed it at this little kid, and told him he was going to kill him if he didn't drown the puppies. That poor kid then had to take each little puppy in that litter, the children of his best friend, and, one at a time, hold their heads under water until they died. And if he didn't then he was going to be killed himself.

And that is when he learned to hate, and he didn't have a single person accept him for who he was until he met the leader of a gang. And that gang leader was the first person who ever showed him any kind of compassion, who ever accepted him, and so of course he became a gang member himself. And of course he was able to go out and mow down innocent people without giving the slightest thought to them.

You can't take everything away from people and expect them to grow up as model citizens, as anything but filled with resentment and hate. The sooner Ford is canned, the better for all concerned, I think.

[sabotabby]

That is unbelievably horrible. You don't want to think that there are people so evil in the world, but yeah. Sometimes I hear about what goes on in my kids' homes and I'm surprised they're as well-adjusted as they are.