Group swarmings in public parks: warning from police
A week ago, a friend of mine was sitting in a park in the Bloor and Christie area when he and his companion were surrounded by a group of teenagers, who took their wallets and jewellery before physically assaulting them.
Now, at least, his misery has company: Toronto police are warning the city that nine such swarmings have taken place in parks along the Christie-to-Dufferin stretch of Bloor Street in the past few weeks.
The police are reporting that the swarm-style muggings have been coming from a group of seven or more youths. A single group is believed to have committed all of the crimes. Though they report having a number of suspects, the police have yet to make any arrests.
Until they do, common sense rules apply: stay out of parks after dark, try to travel in groups if possible, and if you see someone in trouble, call 911 immediately.
I'm six feet tall, 200 pounds, a defenceman on my soccer team, and my eyes have been described as "intense." Nevertheless, the other day someone took a pretty nasty shot at me on my bike, and when that shot missed, he took another shot at me, once again deflating the illusion that my physical stature might somehow protect me from random acts of violence. It takes more than one nutter with a rage-on to rattle my cage, but between that minor incident, my friend's mugging at Bloor and Christie, and the horrifying panhandler stabbing last week, August has not exactly blown my skirt up with an overall feeling of safety on our streets.
It starts with a feeling of general unease, but it isn't long before stories like this start affecting the way we interact with our landscape. How do we address concerns like this? Hike up the police protection, create an unofficial Big Brother grid with our constantly-recording cell phones and video cameras, or just try to look out for each other a bit more than we might have done last month or last year? Or do we wait until this particular group of thugs gets taken off the streets, and then assume that Toronto has gone back to being as safe as people who don't live here think it is? What works for you, readers?
Photo, "Aggression in the Mosh Pit," by Torontogal.
Comments (21)
Matt, what park was this in? Thats really weird, unless it was Christie Pits. That place you should NOT be after dark. But the other parks in the hood, I haven't had too much issue with. I used to live across the street from one on Bartlett, and used to go play guitar in the grass at 2am when I had insomnia.
Also, do you play soccer in the winter? We have a team, sponsored by Clintons, and we're always looking for good and big D!
Wait, people are hucking things at you while you're on your bike? Same neighbourhood within the last few days?
I contacted the police when the same thing happened to me very recently - thank god I'm a fervent helmet wearer and the giant rock they threw hit me in the shoulder, not the head, otherwise I'd probably be in a coma right now.
Assuming you can see my hidden email address, could you get in touch with me?
You can buy bear-spray at MEC. Why risk injury for these dicks? Be warned it is not legal to use it, so you wouldn't want to stick around. MEC makes you sign a waiver, but they did not check it against any ID...
For the amount we spend on cops, why don't we see them on foot in trouble areas? Zipping by on bikes, much less sitting in cruisers, is no deterrent. They come when the problem has HAPPENED. Dicks who do this sort of thing have no attention span (trust me, I teach them as 10 year olds) so need to see a cop face-to-face with some regularity to act straight.
Oh yeah, we should do something about poverty, like the federal parties pledged to over a generation past.
They should extend this warning east to Broadview and Danforth. A few weeks ago me and atleast 10 other people were swarmed, robbed, and assaulted by a similar group of people. I have reason to believe that it's the same group.
I don't get how this is allowed to continue? Assuming it's a fairly large group, and that people are calling the cops after it happens, where's the disconnect here? Poor police response time? Do they move too quickly?
Colour me naive, since I've never been swarmed/mugged before, and I don't tend to spend a lot of time in public parks past sunset (damn vamps come out too).
I live in the area, and I've seen a group of kids on bikes harass random people as they ride along. They don't hang around long enough in one place for the cops to show.
Why not have plain-clothes units in the park?
These dudes were in a car - drive by rocking. I put up a damn good chase (pats bike) but they beat the red light at Ossington and I wasn't able to get a license number.
I second the baton. Just go to your nearest army surplus store. What rights do we have here to defend ourselves? I disagree with the US, especially Florida, and using guns as defense, but if a group of ten people come at me and I have a telescoping steel baton, what right do I have to defend myself by kicking some ass?
A bunch of thugs assulted a group of us (I repeat, group, of us, 5 guys, 3 gals, finished first year uni, 3 of us standing taller than 6" for pete's sake.)
We were down by the beaches because two friends of ours are moving to BC together, and we were just chilling out on their last night in toronto. It got dark and we decided to call it a night, but on our way out, a group of drunk thugs began to follow us, hollering at the girls, and eventually threatening to knife us. I quote, "I'm 'unna blade yous, I'm 'unna blade yous'. They didn't even ask us for our wallets or anything, we told them we were backing off and to chill out. Then one of them, a big guy no less, punched my buddy in the face. I got in between them, and I got punched as well. I was on the ground when I rugby tackled the dick. Well, in the end, the the girls called the cops, who took a while (we had to make a group run, and they actually gave chase) but got there promptly and did their thing.
Shit like this was rare a few years ago, yet happens all too often now. An unignorable amount of thug assults have happened in t.o in mere months. It doesn't help that the government wants to cut down on metro police funds. Does the city have any distinguished sociologists work for them to pin point the problem from a sociological perspective? Has the city made any plans, or have any plans already implimented that are not police force focused when it comes to thug violence?
The worst part about this type of shit, is that you always read about them, and it sounds bad, but then reality catches up with you when something like this actually happens to you.
This sucks.
it seems to be the trend of these acts becoming more and more brazen. If you carry a baton or other defensive weapon, if you pull it out (don't snicker), make sure you use it, and use it like you have nothing to lose, because they don't, and if they get it from you, they will use it on you mercilessly. I good resource for self-protection (if you must) is Massad Ayoub.
At this point, Responsible Author Man must remind readers that any weapon you brandish during a fight ends up as a weapon against you in something like 75% of cases. If you don't know what you're doing, don't try it.
That said, I am now carrying a samurai sword everywhere I go. LET THEM TRY...
I generally think that carrying weapon is a bad idea, for the same reason that Matt just mentioned, but if you're going to do it I think alphabet's bear-spray idea sounds more effective.
The other thing you have to worry about is being charged with assault if the cops get involved.
I found the solution! The city should have these roving all parks after dark:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator_Tactical_Unmanned_Ground_Vehicle
My friend's incident? I think he said it was Bickford - south of Christie Pitts by a block or two. But I'd have to do some calling to confirm. :)
And I in fact do NOT play soccer in the winter. But thanks for the invite!
Hey Matt, just wanted to be clear: its indoor, at the Downsview Hangar(no offsides, which helps me since I am awful, and therefore a goal suck). Just in case you were declining, thinking we were insanely playing outdoors in a blizzard!
No, I actually HAVE played outdoors in a blizzard before, but I presumed you meant indoor. :)
I just prefer to abandon the pitch for the pool between November and April.
So sad to read that Toronto is going to hell in a handbasket. And to think I grew up there in the 80s and 90s making fun of the violence in decaying US cities. Are you proud of yourself now, Toronto leaders? Get tough on crime, T.O., or go down in flames.
I'm surprised that Christie Pits and Bickford are being discussed in relation to swarming. When I lived at Bloor and Shaw I would jog through Christie and Bickford alone at night. I never saw any reason to be worried.
I jog through Christie Pits at night too. Last time I was out, a group of guys started making their way over a little too determinedly, but before I took a chance to see if maybe they just wanted the time, I just pretended not to see them and took off out of there. It was maybe 10o pm. I plan to go again, but I'll certainly be watching. And who brings money with them when they're jogging, anyway? If that's what they want I don't see why they'd bother someone running. Perhaps it's naive. Here, take my used water bottle and my 48 year old discman. It skips. Hope you like the mix, I find it motivating...
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