Curtis Sliwa, one of the founders of the Guardian angels was in town last week to attempt to have his group patrol the streets of Toronto. Sliwa's visit came after some Torontonians wrote to him and asked for help after the horrendous shootings that took place on Yonge Street in the midst of a crowd of Boxing Day shoppers.
The angels have attempted to come to this city twice before. In 1984, the police labelled the group as vigilantes and ran them out of town so to speak. In 1992, when they came to battle the crack epidemic that was plaguing Parkdale, a citizens' group took a vote and voted to have them leave.
This time it is different. The number of deaths from guns doubled in 2005 from those who died by the gun in 2004. The brutal murder of 15-year-old Jane Creba while she was waiting to go into the Foot Locker store to look for Boxing Day bargains caught the attention of those Toronto residents who may have slept through the previous 51 gun deaths. People are demanding action. The Boxing Day shootings catapulted the issue of crime into prominence in the federal election campaign. The will that Torontonians have to do something to combat violent crime will result in residents being more receptive to the presence of the Guardian angels on our streets.
The angels will not be armed. The volunteer group will have a visible presence on our streets in their red jackets and red berets. They will be equipped with walkie talkies and will call police when they see an incident taking place. If possible, they will catch and hold the suspect until the police arrive. The Guardian angels have spread out from New York to other countries and are hardly considered vigilantes.
The Guardian angels intend to train Canadian volunteers to work in the city that not too long ago was called Toronto the Good. For those that worry about such things we are not about to be invaded by a group of "Damn americans."
It comes as no surprise that both Toronto Mayor David Miller and his boot-licking chief of police, Bill Blair are against the idea of the Guardian angels having a presence in Toronto. Miller refused to meet with Curtis Sliwa. Blair's reason for opposing the angels was that since it didn't work 14 years ago, it won't work now. David Miller told the media that "police should be doing the policing".
Sliwa says that the reason Miller won't meet with him is because no one wants to admit that Toronto has a "New York style crime problem." There is undoubtedly some truth to that. The reason that Miller won't even meet with Curtis Sliwa shows that both Miller and Blair are closed to any solutions to violent crime that don't conform to their narrow ideological views.
Miller is where he has always been--in his own little dream world. "Police should do the policing". In a perfect world there would be enough police officers on the street to act as the deterrent that Sliwa says the Guardian angels are. But Miller just wants to keep on raising property taxes, spend uncontrollably on his little pet projects and give his union buddies big raises while waiting for that magic moment when another level of government will give him money to solve the city's real problems. Miller doesn't give a damn about violent crime; it's all about politics and ideology. While he toughened his stance on violent crime and seemed visibly shaken after the Boxing Day shootings, that had more to do with seeing his term in office get blown away than it did with the fact that more Jane Crebas might meet the same fate.
If Miller and Blair really care about taking violent crime seriously they would explain to Torontonians exactly why the Guardian angel patrols won't help. What would be the downside to having the angels on the streets of Toronto? Instead they rely on namby pamby arguments about police doing the policing. They are doing nothing more than protecting their own violent turf.
Despite their statements to the contrary, David Miller and Bill Blair have not strayed too far from their "hug-a-thug" approach to crime fighting. While they're out hugging and getting in touch with their feminine sides, hopefully the Guardian angels will be walking the streets of Toronto.
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