Memorializing bad guys

It’s a relatively new phenomenon; erecting a public memorial or shrine near where a person has either been killed by accident or a criminal act. These shrines usually consist of flowers, cards, stuffed animals and an assortment of other things. When a member of a gang, or as we love to call them, a “disadvantaged youth” is the subject of the memorial, gang memorabilia is often included.

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The city of Berkeley is in the process of giving the police the authority to remove shrines to homicide victims that are found on public property. Last month a group of gangbangers were paying respects to two deceased members by firing guns at the memorial constructed where the thugs met their end. A 42-year-old woman who was taking her trash out to the curb was hit in the abdomen by a bullet. According to the authorities in Berkeley, these shrines have to be removed as a matter of public safety. In Toronto, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti would like to see public shrines regulated but for a slightly different reason. While guns have proliferated in Toronto in recent years, we have yet to have an incident where an innocent person was shot during a celebration of a gangbanger’s life. This hasn’t happened yet, even in the wild wild west part of Toronto where Mammoliti’s ward is located. The councillor is just of the view that remembrances to dead criminals who have “terrorized” his community shouldn’t be allowed to exist on public property. His proposal, which comes before the local council next week is to ban these shrines for persons who are “known to police”. Needless to say, there is opposition to these proposals from Toronto’s large hug-a-thug community. Some people whine that pretty well all young black males are racially profiled and therefore “known to the police”. Others cry that these drug dealers and gangbangers are people too and, boo hoo, it’s not fair. Fairness for these people only comes into play when the gangster is portrayed as the victim; never for the real victims of violent crime. Until public opinion falls clearly on the side of law abiding citizens and away from the human garbage that’s out there, Mammoliti’s ideas will not be easily accepted. Of course much of the media doesn’t help with their stories about these poor misunderstood and disadvantaged gangbangers who always seem, at the time of their deaths, to be turning their lives around. In the absence of any other facts, this usually means that they haven’t been arrested in the two weeks between the time they last got out of jail and the time they met their demise. While it’s true that these criminals are people too, law abiding citizens should not have to put up with shrines in public places that memorialize their anti-social lives. At some stage someone has to take a stand and say enough is enough. And now someone has. The reality is that the “known to the police” test might result in some unfairness. A completely innocent middle aged murder victim may have committed serious crimes in his youth. There will be borderline cases where whether shrines should be taken down will not be clear cut. There is an easy answer to all this; prohibit all public shrines. Yes, this would include the makeshift memorial to a small child who was killed by a drunken driver while crossing the street with her mother on a green light. But these types of shrines are not really for those who were killed; or even for their family and friends although they no doubt take some comfort in them. The shrines exist in a world filled with Oprahization, where total strangers get off grieving in public. But these shrines aren’t really necessary. There are lots of things that strangers can do to honour those truly innocent people who die at the hands of killers, either through design or accident. If we can’t find an effective way to rid public places of shrines to criminals and gang members we should just put a stop to all of them. Yes, criminals are people too. But that does not mean that we all have to memorialize them in public. The public still has some rights left.

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