OK, maybe we will move

There has always been some kind of shit going on in this great city of ours. Having lived in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) for 35 of my 37 years, I can tell you that I never have really been concerned about my safety or that of my family's more than the normal amount. That is starting to change.

Every single day now, there seems to be a truly violent act in this city. The thing that is worrisome is that there is not necessarily a big confrontation, run-in or domestic dispute that blew up and got out of control. We have what seems to be a little argument between adults that has one of the parties go off the handle and decide that killing the person is the next step.

Example One. Some guy goes to Sick Kids hospital and gets refused treatment. Whatever the reason, he engages in an argument with an Oriental gentleman on his way out. The Oriental guy continues out and the white guy goes to his vehicle. The Oriental guy starts to cross the street at the lights down from the hospital and buddy deliberately runs him over and takes off, leaving him for dead. The guy is still in hospital; his attacker has been captured.

Example Two. Buddies try to enter a club. Either they are drunk or nasty looking or known as troublemakers or not dressed right or whatever. The Bouncer says no. They argue and are refused entry. They go back to the vehicle and pull weapons, beat and shoot the bouncer and leave him for dead. The bouncer died at the scene; no arrests have been made.

Example Three. There is an altercation in a park with a bunch of youths. My first question is of course, "Why are the bunch of youths asses not at home where they belong?" As the car of chased people speeds out of the park, the cars of chasers take off after them. Unfortunately, one of the cars is a pickup and one drunk youth tumbles out of it, injures himself and dies.

Example four. Patrons are at a restaurant when four or five men storm the place. They had obviously tracked this one guy down. It was probably gang or drug or both related as it was an Asian man, fired upon by Asian attackers in an Asian restaurant. He is shot four or five times and died at the scene. No arrests have been made.

Other examples include a propensity for middle aged white men to try to steal people's young daughters at the bus stop, in front of a school, in a school, in a restaurant and more. You have the drive by shootings that the crossfire of one recently cost a TTC bus driver one eye. You have the home invasions typically by Asian gangs as they raid homes known to have cash and jewelry because the recently immigrated do not yet trust the banking establishment. And you have the youth, not properly taught to respect others, not taught to live a good life, and left far too much to their own devices that think being a thug and a gangster is cool.

Finally, you have a justice system that is an utter (*&^%( joke. Every youth crime is being treated with such a slap on the wrist that the youths going through the system look upon your "six months" of time served as a rite of passage, a seasoning step, into the gang of choice. A mandatory ten year sentence, regardless of age, for any crime committed with a weapon should be enforced and will make the thugs think again. At that length of time, the only seasoning they will know is as someone's sweet bitch in jail.

Not only has all this senseless violence made it harder to move from our cozy, safer neighbourhood, it has brought the realization that no where is safe anymore. Rather, it is more a matter of how long it takes to affect your neck of the woods. Barrie, Brampton, and various parts of the outer reaches of Peel and Durham and slowly coming to this realization. Once upon a time, I could think about moving just about anywhere in this city. Now, unfortunately, it is becoming that I can only think about where to move out to.

Peace.