City
Morning Brew: February 24th, 2009
Photo: "Hate message" by AshtonPal, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Who killed George Koutroubis, and why? There are seemingly more questions than there are answers in the murder of the much loved, recently married, restauranteur. Police are trying to put together the pieces amid reports that the man may have been working as a bookie on the side.
The fourth high-profile violent crime on the TTC in one month has prompted Mayor Miller and TTC Chair Adam Giambrone to address the issue of passenger safety on our city's struggling transit system. Police are hoping that security cameras on the bus reveal the identities of the suspects, who have not been apprehended. In the meantime, patrols by police and TTC special constables will be stepped up.
Toronto City Council voted 37-1 in favour of allocating $50M of municipal capital funding to upgrading and building new facilities for the 2015 Pan Am games. The money is supposed to demonstrate to the sports organization that we're serious and deserving. Bidding continues in April, and if Toronto's dismal record of international sporting event bids is any indication, we'll soon be moving on to another event.
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Coyotes are posing a serious problem for residents in the Beach area. There are reports that the hungry animals are becoming more of a threat - watching home owners pets through windows, and occasionally snatching up a chihuahua for eats. Now the city is looking into options for their safe removal.
And here's a question for you: would you rather watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play for free, or stumble upon a pile of free snowballs? Both can happen in High Park!
Discussion
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Hand guns need to be banned, then anyone associated with the blood or crips need to workwith the police to bring the gangs down or sent to prison or labour camps in the North West Territories to farm diamonds for the rest of thier lives.
We have alot of work that needs to be done in the most northern reaches of our country and enough idiots that wants to ruin other peoples lives with petty gang banging.
Why not?!?!?!
These guys have a big ego problem and i am certain that a little forced labour will clear that up..
If they can't live civilised with us, live with their own kind!
Remove the guns and they'll find more or use something else.
Put them in jail and you'll have a nice temporary solution, but more people will take their place and you're stuck footing the bill for all those people in prison.
1) How do you take away their guns? Do you think these people are lawfully obtaining these weapons? They are getting them from the black market! A hand-gun ban is only punishing law abiding citizens who obtain guns for sport or defense.
2) These problems are socio-economic, no stop gap solution will work. What do you expect from a city that crams them together in sub-par living conditions in Rexdale and Scarborough. Then they barely subsidize a meager existence where the only options are relieve themselves of welfare for a comparatively low-income job yet lose free time working or engage in illegal activities to live in the evermore expensive city.
That may be efficient.
On the other hand, I think any one caught with an illegal hand gun should recive mandatory firearm training. If the gang bangers knew how to use their guns the crebba incident would have not hurt a bunch of pedestrians and helped to solve the gang problem instead.
People have used their shitty socio-economic status as a way of showing how tough they are. Simply raising their socio-economic status doesn't eliminate the culture that has surrounded them. Especially if you're just dealing with neighbourhoods, or even cities. The culture is a global one. Increasing the wellbeing of a city would barely change the culture they are exposed to.
The majority of the guns are stolen from LAWFUL citizens.
Hense get rid of the guns and some (not all) of the problem is solved.
Secondly, if you listen to nickleback and like guns fuck off and move to aAberta
Outlaw guns and only outlaws will have guns.
It's 2009, a little late for the Nickelback jabs.
LETS BAN BUSSES!!!!
The whole handgun ban thing is stupid. Just look at today's Globe where Toronto's Mayor is demanding a handgun ban and Edmonton's Mayor is demanding that something be done about the menace of knife crime. So not only do we ave to ban (already effectively banned) hand guns, but all cutting or pointy implements. No screwdrivers, chef's knives, saws, carving forks... We will have to ensure anything we eat can be consumed with a spoon and doesn't need to be chopped!
It's well past time to stop trying to ban objects and start punishing people who commit crimes. If not immediate excution, we could at least eliminate credit for pre-trial detention, quadruple max sentences, and require all sentences to be at the max. Combined with prisons located only in the High Arctic, and you cut crime as well as incarceration costs (you don't need walls or many guards when prisoners will starve and freeze if they leave the grounds).
(*as spoken by an atheist agnostic)
I DO NOT COMMIT VIOLENT CRIMEZ..