It's all taken directly from local news sources, word for scary word.
I guess some folks feel it's best to just avert their gaze... to pretend there is no problem. Unfortunately, shooting the messenger really isn't any sort of a strategy.
Or, how about the lunatics who believe that the problem is... lord love a duck... the horrible, racist police? Or that legalising drugs, or setting up government-subsidised whorehouses will magically fix everything?
The simple truth is, the crime problem in Toronto... is criminals.
Case in point...
Toronto Police were called to the Zellers department store at Sheridan Mall in the Wilson Ave. and Jane St. area around 6 p.m. after receiving reports a 43-year-old woman had been stabbed.And this isn't, as some folks would like you to believe, an isolated incident.
"Six months ago, a customer at the mall got stabbed," he said. "It's very scary. The management here doesn't invest much money in security because business is down from the economy."
Last October, three men were shot in the mall's parking lot. Two days later, Burrell Bennett, 26, died leaving his daughter, 3, without a father.Now this isn't really my fight anymore... we moved out to Hastings County in 2001.
In 2005, four days before the Boxing Day gunbattle that claimed Jane Creba's life, a man was injured by a shotgun blast outside Sheridan Mall.
And in August of 2004 a mall security guard was stabbed in the head during a confrontation at a Pizza Pizza in the mall.
The thing is, I once lived in this area... as well as putting in a year at the now troubled highrise towers on the northeast corner of Jane and Finch. Every time I hear another one of these stories, I just shake my head.
Once upon a time, you could walk those streets, those neighbourhoods, without a second thought. And now... they are war zones.
And guess what folks, the war isn't going all that well.
Witness Mayor "Super Dave" Miller declaring war on legitimate gun clubs within Toronto city limits. He's targeting, among others, some of Canada's Olympic shooters... instead of, you know... actual criminals... but there's a warm fuzzy illusion of actually doing something.
And a lot of people, hearing the socialist party line from CTV and CBC every night... start to believe that the problem is being fixed.
Sorry my friends, it simply doesn't work that way.
But I've done what I could... it ain't my kid in the firing line.
Wake up folks and smell the species. This swamp isn't gonna dry up all by itself.
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UPDATE: Stabber nabbed
A 19-year-old man was arrested yesterday in connection with a stabbing that nearly claimed the life of an undercover security guard at a North York mall less than 24 hours earlier.*
Duong Nguyen was taken into custody around 2:30 p.m. at a bus stop not far from Sheridan Mall, Toronto Police say. He is charged with aggravated assault and numerous weapons, theft and other offences.