PUBLICATION:
The
Toronto Sun
DATE: 2004.03.10
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
Editorial/Opinion
PAGE:
14
COLUMN:
Editorial
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OF
GANGS, GUNS AND DENIAL
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What
is it going to take for the powers that be in this city to realize Scarborough
is under siege? Two hundred al-Qaida terrorists roaming the streets, blowing
people up? What's actually
happening, according to Toronto police, isn't much better - 200 hardcore gang
gunmen feuding over control of the lucrative trade in guns and drugs. And God
help anyone who gets in their way.
As
Det.-Sgt. Gary Keys, head of the force's guns and gangs unit tells our reporter,
Tom Godfrey, in today's Sun: "We are seeing more daylight shootings, which
we rarely (used to see)." Innocent
people are being killed.
Police
are targeting four major gangs in Scarborough and yet our politicians -
municipal, provincial and federal - are mostly in denial.
The
Liberal MPs we keep voting into office belong to a party that thinks the way to
fight urban street crime is to register the rifles and shotguns of hunters and
farmers. Right. They're so lost in the fog the last thing they want to hear
about is tougher sentences or even enforcing the gun laws we now have.
As
for the Ontario Liberals, they're led by a premier who tells Torontonians not to
over-react. This from Dalton McGuinty, whose own reaction when his son was
assaulted two years ago by a couple of young thugs who forced him to reveal his
PIN number and emptied his bank account, was to go out and "lay in
wait" for the robbers. Now he wants us to stay calm about people being
executed on our streets. Thanks, preem.
We
don't disagree with Mayor David Miller, or even the Liberals, that the root
causes of crime must be addressed. Only thing is, what are we going to do about
the thugs on our streets now?
We
will give the provincial Liberals credit for having Crown attorneys work with
police to target gun crime and convince judges it's a huge problem in Toronto.
Even then, judges will need the courage to bring down tough sentences which
initially, at least, will be overturned on appeal, given today's sentencing
patterns.
But
we have to start somewhere, and there's no magic bullet. Correction. All the
magic bullets appear to be in hands of the gunmen.
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BREITKREUZ'S PLAN TO KEEP GUNS OUT OF THE HANDS OF PEOPLE WHO SHOULDN'T HAVE THEM
http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/guns114.htm