16 January 2007

The Wild, Wild East

If we just stop talking about crime... it'll go away...
-- Scarborough's reputation is now in the hands of Mayor David Miller. -- Toronto Councillor Norm Kelly had issued a call for city council to ask the media to sign a "protocol" in which news outlets would agree to stop identifying Scarborough as the location of crimes occurring east of Victoria Park Ave.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Toronto area, Scarborough is known these days for its large ethnic population. It also gets a considerable amount of ink in the local papers for rampant criminal activity. 

I remember when I lived in the city some years back, the issue of crime stats came up at City Council. Councillor Bal Balkissoon was quoted as saying then, "We'll just have to come up with a new set of numbers." 

It appears that the commissars of political correctness are back. In David Miller's "Oh, so politically correct" world... the solution isn't to fight crime, it's to hide crime. I say we're better off with the facts, whatever they are.