November 17, 2003
It’s been one full year now since the Toronto Star branded the Toronto police force racist in last November’s series on racial profiling, statistics of which were deemed flawed by a coterie of experts.
It is time for the Star to stop demoralizing our city’s all-important blueline.
Since the publicity of the racial profiling series, our police have had to suffer the further indignities of newspaper reporters accusing Police Chief Julian Fantino of arranging acts of violence in an effort to influence the outcome of the recent municipal election. Indeed, if anyone tried to influence the outcome of November 10, it was more than ever the mainline media.
"Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino kept the issue of hiring more police officers at centre stage in the mayoralty race yesterday by stating in a live radio interview that the force is `stretched to the limit’ and struggling to deal with the `gun-crazed gangsters’ running around city streets," wrote Star reporter Betsy Powell.
That kind of rhetoric is only destined to inflame an already potentially deadly situation.
"We need more people. There’s just no way we can cope," Fantino had told Radio CFRB listeners.
Fantino was trying to convince those who make light of what he perceives as a sharp increase in "calls for service", traffic fatalities and collisions to look at the facts. Add to the mix a dramatic jump in population, while there are 350 fewer officers on the street today than in 1992.
"I shouldn’t have to go begging to get the people I need to get the job done," says the chief.
Nor should the chief be accused of staging the crime situation only to influence the outcome of a municipal election. The accusation renders the surge of homicides, including a brawl outside a Don Mills school that left one teen dead, insignificant.
This was The Star’s endorsed mayoral candidate David Miller’s take on the escalating violence: "We have a problem with guns and gangs in our city" that must be addressed even though he made it clear he did not support hiring more officers.
How to address guns and gangs without more police officers?
Perhaps Miller was planning to send NDP colleagues Howard Moscoe and Olivia Chow after them.
At the time of Fantino’s pleas, there had been five homicides in the last seven days. The chief called for an inquiry to examine the effectiveness of Canada’s criminal justice system.
"I’m sure we’ll see a barrage of activity from Mr. (John) Tory, but I really don’t think people should be playing politics with the kinds of tragedies that have happened on the streets of Toronto the past few days. I don’t think that’s acceptable," said Miller.
It’s time for the Toronto Star to lay down the hatchet against the police and to get on with the business of newspapering.
The Toronto Star plays, afterall plays in the sometimes-hysterical arena of politics, while the police work in the real world where homicides don’t coincide with municipal elections.
The community at large never benefits when its police force is being demoralized.