Cynics Unlimited

The GTA breathed a collective sigh of relief today as police announced no less than 25 arrests related to the December 26 shooting death of Jane Creba. Charges ranged from second degree murder to conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, with the actual murder being attributed to 8 of the suspects. For all 10 of you who are unfamiliar with the story, Jane Creba was the 15 year old girl who was killed accidentally in the crossfire of a daytime gang shootout near the Eaton’s Center. The Toronto Star is reporting that the shootout was between two West Toronto gangs and may have started when someone’s hat was knocked off – a noble reason for public execution if ever one existed.

When news of the shooting first broke, the involvement of black youths led to a strong outbreak of hysterical bias throughout Canada, which was of course followed by a hysterically defensive reaction from the black community. The ensuing circus included a warmly-received and brief (though terribly expensive) visit from famed US preacher Eugene Rivers, credited for spearheading the crime-fighting “Boston Miracle”. The Guardian Angels also came to town, but were given the cold shoulder by a defiant mayor and police chief who swore they needed no help. An all-too-brief spotlight was shone on good grassroots groups like the Toronto Youth Cabinet, who launched their own initiatives to address crime and the conditions that cause crime within their communities. Their media coverage didn’t last past January.

And finally, with a federal election looming, leaders from all 3 major parties assured Canadians in the strongest possible terms that they would get tough on street crime (and medicate some of the conditions leading to street crime). Mayor David Miller and Premier Dalton McGuinty joined the chorus, even holding a conference where they were so kind as to send representatives to speak about possible solutions (community activists who had been tracking the escalating violence were not invited).

Now that the suspects have finally been caught after 6 months, Canada can finish writing this circular story:

• Probably no more than ½ of the suspects charged directly with Creba’s death will serve significant jail time, due in part to the fact the shooting was accidental and due in large part to Canada’s lax criminal code
• Municipal, Provincial and Federal governments will share credit for “cleaning up Toronto”. They will conveniently forget that the few anti-crime measures launched thus far have not offset Toronto’s crime rate in any meaningful way. David Miller has failed to embrace any particular strategy to reduce Toronto crime, while Stephen Harper felt street racing was a higher priority than gun crime (notwithstanding the CPC’s attempts to dismantle the national gun registry, which was done against police wishes)
• Community activists will gripe about the lack of funding they’ve received since Stephen Harper was elected into office, completely ignoring the fact that the communities where these hoodies were raised decayed steadily under +10 years of Liberal rule.
• Bigots who like to call themselves “conservatives” (hence tarnishing the name of real conservatives) will continue to assail one ethnic community for the Boxing Day Murder. They won’t waste precious time looking at the names of the accused to discover that several groups were likely involved in the shootings (unless there are actually a lot of black people with surnames like Tran and Mijatovic)
• More details will emerge about the suspects, illustrating the same cause/effect patterns that tend to lead to criminal behaviour if left unchecked. Already, details about 20 year-old Andrew Smith (charged with manslaughter) have emerged – no father in the home, mother works multiple jobs, “minor” brushes with the law that were dismissed as trivial, etc
• Most Canadians will openly support the maximum possible sentences for the offenders … then flush the entire story from their minds
• Most Canadians will forget who Chantal Dunn is (if they ever knew) and the irony behind her death
• Most Canadians will wait for the next “big media event”

In other words, history will show that we adequately fulfilled our functions as humans - we reacted to a growing problem only when it was deemed an emergency, emoted profusely/conveniently while in a state of shock and subsequently failed to follow up with any promised preventive action once the story left the front of the newspaper. For most people, the murder became a cash cow, a political bargaining chip or an excuse to air unrelated grievances in a public forum. And as always we blamed the police for failing to ease our collective conscience with speedy arrests, despite knowledge of the copious witnesses on Yonge Street who conveniently caught amnesia. Essentially we primed ourselves for the next high-profile murder, with full intention of espousing the same “shock and grief” we displayed for the murder of Jane Creba.

See you then.