Police counting on those who know the gunmen
9 Aug 2005 | GLOBE AND MAIL | by JOHN BARBER. The immediate police response to yet another night of blazing guns and bleeding bodies almost seemed desperate. "Just give us some names," Inspector Brian O'Connor pleaded before the cameras as his colleagues taped off two downtown intersections and updated their statistics to record yet another multiple handgun homicide. "Give us a lead." "A name at least gives us a lead," he added, "and a lead we can work with." The desperate tone had disappeared by the end of the day, when Chief Bill Blair joined Mayor David Miller to comment on the latest slayings, but the message was still the same.
"We know that there are people in our community who have knowledge of these violent crimes," the chief said, after offering condolences to the families of the latest victims, "and we need them to find the courage and the conviction to come forward and assist the police in bringing those responsible for this violence to justice." The chief was quick to note that some information was coming in, that the Crime Stoppers tip line had received a record number of calls (four times the usual amount), and that his force is not completely clueless about those responsible for this summer's vicious outbreak of gang-related handgun violence. But the blunt truth is that the police desperately need witnesses -- people willing to testify in court against the gangsters now terrorizing their neighbourhoods -- and that without such courageous figures, their ability to catch and jail the shooters is severely compromised.
In the meantime, the chief asks us to take his word that there are a "relatively small number of individuals" involved in criminal gangs who are responsible for the shootings. But that gets harder every day. As soon as the chief announced a new task force to pacify the increasingly violent public-housing neighbourhoods of northwest Toronto, three more people died in separate incidents in Scarborough and downtown.
The two most recent victims, shot in an apparently unprovoked attack after they left the Phoenix nightclub early yesterday morning, were the city's 41st and 42nd homicide victims of the year. More alarmingly, they were the 27th and 28th victims of death by handgun, pushing the total number of handgun deaths this year above the 27 recorded in all 2004. If this persists, twice as many people will be gunned down in 2005.
So far, the service has shown little inclination to share whatever intelligence it may have about this violent underworld, even going so far as to withhold the names of the gangs allegedly involved.
Pressed, the chief pleaded for time, once again holding out theinvestigation that resulted in mass arrests in Malvern last year as a model. "We have a great deal of information about gangsters," he said, "but we need more information from the public." And tips just aren't enough, added Staff Inspector Jeff McGuire, who is leading the current investigation. "Knowing what's happening and having evidence that you can use to make arrests are two different things," he explained. In at least one of the killings, he added, "we know for a fact that people within that community know who the shooters are." Given the personal dangers they would face as a result of coming forward, however, their silence is understandable.
"I'm not here to look down on these people," Staff Insp. McGuire added. "I've been in a lot of these neighbourhoods myself, seen a lot of murders over the last 10 years. And it's tough to step forward and be counted, to step forward for your community. But that's what we need." Yes, more social spending is desperately needed in Toronto's "vulnerable neighbourhoods." More uniformed officers are needed, maybe new laws.
But none of that will solve the latest murders. "If I don't have evidence, we can't lay charges," Staff Insp. McGuire said. "We can't even get around to complaining about how the courts treat [shooters] if we can't get them to court." What the police need now, in short, is heroes.
jbarber@globeandmail.ca