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sabotabbySo 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-18 10:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 04:58 pm (UTC)