City
Saturday Brew: Burke Family Tragedy, Racial Profiling, Toronto's Financial Crisis, TTC Vows to Get Better, Ruby Dhalla for Mayor?, Parking Ticket Losses
Photo: "due roundabout now" by jentse, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke has lost his youngest son to a car accident in Indiana. Whatever one's feelings about the state of our loved and loathed hockey team, a tragedy of this nature transcends the ice. My thoughts and wishes go out to the Burke family at this most difficult time.
Through a freedom of information request, the Toronto Star has found that black people across the GTA are three times more likely to be stopped by the police. I suppose this isn't groundbreaking information -- many have speculated that racial profiling is a police tactic -- but the confirmation is unsettling. Also unsettling is the ridiculous lead photo the paper has run with the article, which depicts two black men, one deemed to be good and the other bad. For a piece that barely hides its moral superiority, this image selection is an embarrassment.
A York University professor argues that the financial mess facing Toronto is downright scary. Citing the $500-million hole in the city's 2010 operating budget, he predicts Toronto's capital debt will skyrocket from $803-million (last year) to a projected $4.69-billion in 2019. Who's to blame? Well, David Miller for one. But, according to Professor Schwartz, Mike Harris and his downloading ways were also critical contributors to our gloomy economy.
The Toronto Sun just can't stop talking about the TTC and its woes. Today's installment, however, throws the Commission a bone by giving spokesperson, Brad Ross, a little paper-space to pledge that things will get better. I know I've been hard on the TTC too, but amidst Ross's promising, the article rejoices in revealing other foolish/lazy behavior on the part of our transit employees. I guess they deserve it, but I'm getting tired of talking about it.
To be fair, the Globe is also capitalizing on the bad buzz, but with an editorial that underscores just how important public transportation is to the life of our city.
Please read this article about the "possibility" that Ruby Dhalla will run for mayor and tell me if it's as bad journalism as I think it is. Yikes.
Mayor Miller is blaming the province for letting parking offenders get away with their offences, and it sounds like he has good reason. More than 100,000 motorists drive away before the officer can hand over the ticket or place it under the windshield wiper each year, but because of an Ontario law, the City doesn't have the power to mail them a ticket. As such, they get off scott-free, costing Toronto almost $5 million in lost revenue.
I don't want to write much about it, but last night's Leaf loss was f-cked!
Discussion
24 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
As to the racial profiling - puhlease! When I was in my early 20s, I got pulled over all the time, stopped on the street, harassed, etc. - and I am white! It's the cop's way, and they were (somewhat) right to wonder what I was doing wandering the streets at 3 and 4 in the morning. If you're young, drive a $2k Honda with $5k worth of rubber and indigo lights glowing underneath - HELLO!
Unless you're actually there for a purpose, get the f#ck out of the way so people can board the streetcar!
I also bet that more males get stopped than females. And that younger people are more likely to be stopped than older folks. Is this kind of sex and age profiling unacceptable? Or is it wise, given that young men are far more likely to commit crimes than elderly ladies?
So YES! Your argument is racist…oh, and dumb.
I hope the other mayoral candidates start having these tough conversations with the electorate. Unless Giambrone dedicates a significant portion of his platform to how he would right our financial situation he is not worth a second look. Miller was wonderful but unaffordable, we need to come to terms with that.
blacks are overrepresented in jail, in the legal system - why that's the case is the topic for some history course - but that's the fact, I don't know where you get your "fact" about all populations being just as likely to commit crimes. On the face of it that seems ridiculous.
So there's more crime among the poor, esp. poor black, so they get hassled more - what do you expect. The problem isn't the cops, the problem is the poverty, and the messed up culture that goes along with it.
To stir the pot, Muslims should be selectively profiled as potential terrorists, as we don't see many non-Muslims wearing explosive belts and looking forward to virgins in heaven (I wonder what those female suicide bombers look forward to?). Sure, we get the occasional McVeigh and Unabomber, but that's random psychosis, not organized jihad.
Regardless of whether the police are profiling or not, just about every time you hear about some one getting shot in this city, or knifed, lo and behold, they're black, and the person police now have in custody, are .... surprise surprise!! Black, or maybe mulatto.
Don't blame the police for why they're doing what they're doing. Ask Jim Junkin! He knows why.
You know, I don't think that's exactly a very smart way of going after that sort of evildoers. The police seems to share my viewpoint, it would seem.
That's why nearly every time someone is murdered in this city, the murderer (and the victim) tends to be... no, wait, don't tell, me, let me guess... uh, I donno... black?... Wow. Astounding.
And that's why Toronto banned collecting race-based crime statistics. Because a report by Julian Fantino in 1989 showed that all races were equally likely to commit crimes, so why bother... Oops, no, scratch that, I think I got that last one a little mixed up.
However, no one is questioning whether it is because the police are targeting race, or because they are targeting certain activities, and blacks just happen to be engaged in those activities more often than representatives of other races. How on earth can you blame the police if the latter is the case? What next - you demand that the police go out and find more white murderers? Preferably 80-year-old grannies? To even out the numbers, you know. 'Cause there can be no way they are less likely to commit violent crimes than 20-year-old black males. That would be racist, sexist and ageist to even dare to suggest such a thing!
To think of all the evil grannies who've gotten away with murder because of the police discriminatory attitudes to suspects! Tsk, tsk, tsk!