PUBLICATION:        The Toronto Sun 

DATE:                         2004.03.05

EDITION:                    Final 

SECTION:                  Editorial/Opinion 

PAGE:                         15 

BYLINE:                     CHRISTINA BLIZZARD, TORONTO SUN 

COLUMN:                  Queen's Park 

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SEEING RED

STREETS RUN WITH BLOOD, BUT IT'S OUR COPS WHO FEEL HANDCUFFED

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Scientists revealed this week there's evidence of water on Mars, fuelling speculation life could exist there.

What a coincidence. Because based on his comments yesterday, I suspect premier Dalton McGuinty must be cavorting with little green men on the red planet.

In the wake of three shootings in Scarborough Wednesday, McGuinty was pushed by CTV reporter Paul Bliss to commit to getting his Liberal MPPs out in cruisers with cops, to see what's happening in some of the crime-infested parts of the city. (This week, Liberal MPPs were all ordered to visit schools in their ridings.)

McGuinty made the bizarre response that politicians can't rush off visiting and seeing and talking about public policy around the province.

Hello? Earth to premier. No one's asking him to check moose tags in Rainy River. We're simply asking that his Toronto-area MPPs to get in cruisers and spend some time on Toronto's bloody streets.

One of the shootings on Wednesday night was a brazen daylight attack in which one person was shot and killed at a major intersection. Later that evening, in the same area, another person was shot and wounded.

Police Chief Julian Fantino says this is becoming all too routine for our cops.  "They are executing one another out there now," he told me in a telephone interview yesterday.

"People are appropriating guns with full intention to use them - and they do use them. And even when they wound somebody, they are not happy with that.

"They chase them down and they execute them even when they are down and they do that in full view of hundreds of witnesses - and those people are terrorized. How do you expect those people to come forward?" asked the chief.

Of course, there are those who will say he's scare-mongering. They'll tell you crime stats are down.

Well, to cite a quote attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, there are three kinds of lies: "Lies, damned lies and statistics." 

This year, there have been 11 homicides, eight of them gun-related. This time last year, we had seven, three of them involving guns.

"You can break statistics down, you can manipulate them however you want, you can do all kinds of wonderful things, but the reality is there is a different crime happening in our city and in society generally and there is a different type of criminal out there," Fantino said.

And different kinds of politicians, as well.

Once upon a time, if you promised 1,000 more police officers, you had to deliver them. The Liberals are now vague on when we will see more of those cops on the streets.

Public Safety Minister Monte Kwinter held his "Green Tide Summit," on marijuana grow houses yesterday. He made some good points about how pot grown in Canada is exported to the U.S. - and how we get guns and crack cocaine in return.

Kwinter said cops have said soft sentences are more of a problem than a lack of personnel. And he says budget pressures will make it tough for the government to deliver the promised extra cops any time soon.

"The police have not said to me that their problem is that they don't have enough police on the ground," Kwinter said.

"You have to understand that we have made a commitment for 1,000 new police officers, they are not all going into Toronto."

So, 500 communities around the province could get an extra two cops each.

Fantino had a pre-arranged meeting with McGuinty yesterday, as well as having a separate meeting with Kwinter and Attorney General Michael Bryant.

The chief says the system just isn't working.

"You have all kinds of these individuals who are very much veterans of the system, they are in and out (of jail) and have established criminal records. They are not deterred," he said.

Just as crime has increased, the number of cops is down. There are 350 fewer officers on the Toronto force now than in 1992. Meanwhile, cops are increasingly tied up filling out the massive amount of paperwork needed to put someone behind bars.

"Our work has grown exponentially," Fantino said. "The amount of paperwork we do today takes so many of our people off the street.

"In many respects the handcuffs are really on the police today, not on the bad guys."

Earth to premier. Are you on the same wavelength? Can you come in, please.