Crime in Toronto

Crime in Toronto has been relatively low for a very long period of time; the low crime rate in Toronto has resulted in the city having a reputation as one of the safest large cities in North America. Recent data from Statistics Canada shows that crime has been falling steadily in Toronto's census metropolitan area since 1998, a total drop of 33% for all crimes reported between the period of 1998–2008.^[1]

For comparisons to various cities in North America, in 2007 for example, the homicide rate for the city of Toronto was 3.3 per 100,000 people, yet for Detroit (33.8), Atlanta (19.7), Chicago (15.5), San Francisco (13.6), Boston (10.3) and New York City (6.3) it was higher, while it was only marginally lower in Vancouver (3.1), San Jose (2.9) and Montreal (2.6). Toronto's robbery rate also ranks low, with 207.1 robberies per 100,000 people, compared to Detroit (675.1), Chicago (588.6), Los Angeles (348.5), Vancouver (266.2), New York City (265.9), Montreal (235.3) and San Diego (158.8).^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Organized crime

Large criminal organizations have been operating in the Toronto region since at least the mid-19th century, beginning with the homegrown, yet short-lived Markham Gang. Since that time large-scale organized crime in Toronto has mostly been the domain of international or foreign-based crime syndicates.

By the early 1900s the infamous Black Hand had followed Italian immigrants to Toronto as it had in most major North American cities of the time. Italian organized crime remains prevalent to this day with the Sicilian Mafia, Campanian Camorra, and Calabrian 'Ndrangheta all active at various times and to various degrees within the city.^[8] During prohibition Toronto became a major centre for bootlegging operations into the United States which also saw an increased presence of Italian-American organized crime — specifically the Buffalo crime family.

Today the multicultural face of Toronto is well reflected in the city's underworld, which includes everything from Jamaican posses to Eastern European bratvas to American biker gangs. The genesis of many foreign criminal organizations in Toronto has often been linked to the drug trade, as with the large influx of heroin and various Asian triads during the 1970s, or cocaine and South American cartels in the 1980s.^[9] These criminal groups, however, occasionally have a political bent as well, as with the Tamil organized crime groups and gangs such as the VVT and rival AK Kannan gangs which warred with each other in the city's streets during the 1990s and early 2000s over the brown heroin trade. In recent decades Toronto has also seen an infiltration of major American street gangs such as the Bloods, Crips, and Mara Salvatrucha which have become so large and powerful over the years that they are now generally considered to be organized crime outfits themselves.

Critics have argued that organized crime has been allowed to flourish in Canadian cities such as Toronto due to weak laws and law enforcement, culminating in the Office of the United States Trade Representative placing Canada on a watch list for failing to provide adequate protection or enforcement of intellectual property rights. Today Toronto has become a centre for a wide array of organized and transnational criminal activities, including the counterfeiting of currency, bank cards, digital entertainment products, telemarketing fraud, and the production of marijuana and synthetic drugs.^[9] Toronto also has a comparable rate of car theft to various U.S. cities, although this is lower than in some other Canadian cities. Much of this has been attributed to organized crime, with stolen vehicles ending up being shipped overseas for sale.

Youth gangs

See also: Category:Gangs in Toronto

In his 1945 book Street Gangs in Toronto: A Study of the Forgotten Boy,^[10] Kenneth H. Rogers identified the following gangs active at that time in the following areas of the city:

• Moss Park - Riverdale: Brown Gang, Grey Gang, Porter Gang
• Withrow Park: Beavers, Britch Gang, Graphic Gang (Rogers refers to at least 4 other unnamed gangs in this area)
• North Toronto: Evans Gang, King Gang, Wunkies
• Rosedale: Arnot Gang, Basket Gang, Black Gang, Green Gang, Grey Gang (Rogers refers to 2 other unnamed gangs in this area)
• Bathurst & Queen: Aces Gang, Aggies, Bridge Gang, Cardinal Group, George Gang, Harris Gang, Mix Gang, Park Gang, Rustler Gang, Trapper Gang

Most of these gangs were simply loose-knit groups of juvenile delinquents involved mainly in low-level, petty crimes such as gambling, shop-lifting, and pick-pocketing (Rogers was actually robbed by members of the King Gang while attempting to interview them). The composition of the gangs were mainly poor Caucasian youth of British descent, although some were more ethnically diverse such as the George Gang (Jewish), the Mix Gang (Black), and the Aggies (Polish & Ukrainian).

Recently, gang related incidents have been on the rise. Between the years of 1997 and 2005 over 300 gang-related deaths have occurred. American gang experts have been brought in and increased funding for programs in troubled neighbourhoods have been recently initiated. Other organizations, including the New York City-based group Guardian Angels, have come to Toronto despite the massive displeasure of city residents, city officials, and politicians. Despite these incidents, Toronto police have made significant arrests of gang members, which has resulted in fewer illegal guns on the streets. In late September 2005, Toronto police arrested 44 members of the Rexdale-based "Ardwick Blood Crew" also known as A.B.C. Over 1,000 charges were laid. Then in May 2006, 106 additional gang members were apprehended, who were part of Rexdale's "Jamestown Crips", in the largest gang sweep in Toronto's history. In total, there were over 1,000 charges laid in the anti-gang offensive called Project XXX.^[11] In June 2007, Toronto police arrested about 95 people, including leaders of the Jane and Finch-based "Driftwood Crips" and the sister of murder victim Jordan Manners, for a lengthy list of 700 criminal charges.^[12] Other initiatives include a recent announcement by the Ontario government that they will contribute half the cost of hiring an additional 250 police officers. However, this is viewed by some as a reactionary move to the increased violence. There has also been an increase in social spending, which is aimed at community projects, and getting businesses to hire "at-risk youth" to get them away from gangs. The Ontario government has also come up with an anti-gun strategy.^[13]

Late 1980s and early 1990s

In the late 1980s, gangs in Toronto were becoming increasingly violent. This coincided with the arrival of crack cocaine in the city, which caused more gun violence to occur in low-income neighbourhoods.^[14] At the same time, Toronto police were under scrutiny for a series of shootings of unarmed Black men, beginning in 1988.^[15] In 1991, Toronto experienced its most violent year with 89 murders, 16 of which were linked to drug wars involving rival gangs.^[14][16]

On May 4, 1992, there were riots on Yonge Street, which followed peaceful protesting of a fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man by Toronto police (the eighth such shooting in the last four years, and fourth fatal one).^[17] Later that year, local activist Dudley Laws claimed that police bias against Blacks was worse in Toronto than in Los Angeles.^[15]

2005–present: "Year of the Gun", shootings and the falling murder rate

In 2005, Toronto media coined the term "Year of the Gun" because the number of gun-related homicides reached a record 52 out of 80 murders in total;^[18] almost double the 27 gun deaths recorded the previous year.^[19] On December 26, 2005, 15-year-old Jane Creba was shot and killed in the Boxing Day shooting while shopping on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. After this incident, many people called for the federal government to ban handguns in Canada; this also became an issue in the 2006 federal election, but the number of homicides dropped to 70 in 2006. However, 2007 saw another, smaller wave of gun violence starting in May with the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners at his school, C. W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute. A couple months later, on July 22, 2007, 11-year-old Ephraim Brown was killed after being shot in the neck by a stray bullet, during a gang shooting in the city's north end at Jane Street and Sheppard Avenue. These events raised calls for a ban on handguns once again. 84 murders were committed in 2007, roughly half with a firearm, thus, Toronto had a murder rate of about 3.3 per 100,000 – almost double the rate recorded in 1999 (1.9 per 100,000), but less than the peak of 3.9 in 1991.^[16] There was a drop in murders again in 2008 with 70 (a total of 105 murders in the Greater Toronto Area – including a record 27 in neighbouring Peel Region), and in 2009 with 63. In 2010, there were 60 murders, representing a drop in the city's murder rate for the third straight year.

See also

• Crime in Canada
• Gun politics in Canada
• 2006 Toronto terrorism case

References

1. ^ Police layoffs? Not in this town
2. ^ FBI statistics 2008
3. ^ http://torontoist.com/2008/07/metrocide_historical_homicides.php
4. ^ http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vancouver+murder+rate+North+American+standards/1494291/story.html
5. ^ http://www.spvm.qc.ca/upload/documentations/Bilan_chiffres_Anglais.pdf
6. ^ http://vancouver.ca/police/Planning/StatsDistrict/2007/20022007AnnualSummary.pdf
7. ^ http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/publications/files/reports/2007statsreport.pdf
8. ^ http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Mafia+Crime+families+ruling+Toronto+Italy+alleges/3576903/story.html
9. ^ ^{a b} http://www.storyoforganizedcrime.com/2009/06/toronto-major-player-in-global.html
10. ^ http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6485213M/Street_gangs_in_Toronto
11. ^ CityNews report
12. ^ Gang leaders, Jordan Manners' sister netted in raids, www.cbc.ca, Published June 15, 2007
13. ^ "Ministry of the Attorney General - Backgrounder". Attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca. 2005-10-25. http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/news/2005/20051025-gunviolence-bg.asp. Retrieved 2011-01-09. 
14. ^ ^{a b} Betsy Powell, "Gang life allure: Drugs, fast money, easy sex", Toronto Star, September 5, 2010.
15. ^ ^{a b} K.K. Campbell, "LAWS CHARGES METRO POLICE BIAS AGAINST BLACKS `WORSE THAN L.A.'" Eye Weekly, October 1, 1992
16. ^ ^{a b} "GunControl.ca" (PDF). http://www.guncontrol.ca/English/Home/Works/gangsandguns.pdf. Retrieved 2011-01-09. 
17. ^ Raghu Krishnan, "Remembering Anti-Racism", This Magazine, January 2003.
18. ^ CTV.ca | Despite rise, police say T.O. murder rate 'low'
19. ^ CTV Toronto - Toronto sets a new record for gun-related carnage - CTV News, Shows and Sports - Canadian Television