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March 09, 2004
The Myth That We are Safer in Canada
Our eyes shut to crime -- Reason to Fear says Police Union Leader Michele Mandel, Mar. 7, 2004, Toronto Sun
[. . . Rick McIntosh] believes living in Toronto is becoming more dangerous than living in an American city.
"It's a myth that we're safer in Canada, in Toronto, than in the States. We're not," insists McIntosh, president of the Toronto Police Association. "It's a total myth."
[. . . McIntosh says] we stand more of a chance than our American neighbours do of having our car stolen or our home broken into. . .
[According] to Statistics Canada, there were about 30% more break-ins and motor vehicle thefts per capita in Canada than there were in the U.S. in 2000.
[. . . . ] In the States, most of the violent crime occurs in the city ghettos. Stay out of those areas, he contends, and there's little risk of harm. But here, gun crime has plagued virtually every part of the city.
[. . . There is a list of the areas in which there are problems: Scarborough, downtown, Regent Park, Jane and Falstaff, Etobicoke flats.
[. . . In] the States, they write off one area of the city but for the rest of the working public [. . . . Is it the case that ] many of Toronto's recent homicides have been gang related. If we're not involved with that kind of criminal element, then we having nothing to fear. Or do we?
[. . . . ] In a recent Ipsos-Reid poll, 15% of Torontonians said they had been a victim of crime in the past two years, with one quarter of them saying they had been personally injured or assaulted.
And while crime rates appear to be heading down, the experts tell us that only a limited number of the crimes Canadians suffer are actually being reported to the police. The Ipsos-Reid study found just two-thirds of victims reported the crime, compared to 76% in 1992. Another study found that just two-thirds of Canadian break-and-enters and one half of vehicle thefts were reported, while police were called in only one-third of the assaults.
[. . . . We] reassure ourselves that American murder rates are still three times that of our own. [. . . . ]
Home invasions, drive-by shootings, weapon detectors in schools -- we were convinced that such American travesties would never travel north. And then suddenly here they were.
[. . . . We] stubbornly cling to our old view of ourselves, eyes wide shut, cleaving to the mirage that our streets are still safe. . . .
It's a blind complacency that worries the police union boss. [. . . . ]
"It doesn't take 20 years to become Detroit. And we're heading there. We're heading there fast," he warns. "We're going down this slippery slope and we won't be able to stop it pretty soon."
# posted by News Junkie Canada at 10:20 PM
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