With the recent crime related craziness in Toronto over the past few weeks, I've been having several conversations with plenty of people about what can be done. I am so confused about our laws and completely agree with Police Chief Fantino who is saying that the laws need to be tougher. Right now, people who committ crimes aren't scared of the consequences. Also, there is such a different idea placed upon criminals in our society. There are high priced defence lawyers whose job is to get a first degree murder suspect off on some technicality...what the phuck is that about?

The other day, my buddy Kris wrote a very good e-mail. I don't know if I should share this but I will. Sorry Kris if you wanted this private. I just thought this was perfect and you've hit the nail on the head...

I don't know what the hell the younger generation is thinking. Who the hell do they think they are carrying a gun. It pisses me off to think that punks without guidance are taking away innocent lives in their conquest for respect. I would have no problem if all these gang-banging little shits were thrown into an oil frigate, shipped to an island off the coast of Greenland and let loose to shoot themselves to death. As long as they hurt only each other and no one else in the process. I hope that all trouble-makers looking for an answer through violence meets a very painful and enduring punishment from either our police force or another foolish child. In these stories when I hear the age of the people killing and being killed, I wish that Canada and perhaps N. America would take on much harsher laws for underage offenders. My "penal matrix" argument still stands. All offenders have one thing to offer - a human body. Thus it should be used for just that. Those who are serving sentences to which there is no possible chance of parole should be used in everything from drug testing to organ donation. For those who aren't serving life sentences, I can think of at least a dozen uses for an able-bodied humans in Canada. Snow shovelling, clearing forestry, serving in soup kitchens, cleaning highways, cleaning public toilets - the chain gang mentality exists in the South-Eastern US states and should be embodied here as well. There is an argument that supervising these gangs are more costly then leaving them in a cell, but my tax money fuels the whopping $65K/year cost for each inmate in prison in Ontario...if I'm going to pay that sort of cash, I want my driveway shovelled in the process.

I think that Kris has hit the nail on the head. It starts with young people and the complete lack of respect they have for human life. It's all about "rep" and being cool....nothing else. When I was at L'Am, there was this kid who came from a bad part of Scarborough right by my house called Glendower. In Grade 9 Intro to Business class, I distinctly remember this - He called me over and opened his backpack slightly and showed me a gun. That's right. There was a gun in his bag. What the hell is that? I still to this day can't believe I saw that thing. It just shows that this has been a prevalent culture in our society for years and it only gets worse with every passing day.

Don't get me wrong...there are plenty of good kids out there with sound heads on their shoulder that work hard, have fun, all of that stuff. But there are those inconsiderate, ignorant fucks out that that just don't understand simple right from wrong. They aren't scared of anything (including dying) and their ill will or ill words spread around amongst others...especially those kids that are considered "outsiders" and are looking for attention. This whole gang mentality is getting to be too much. It's not just one ethnic group that is at fault too. There are black gangs, indian gangs, sri lankan gangs, chinese gangs, vietnamese gangs - you name it...they are all around fighting for turf. I don't live in southcentral LA or anything like that but it sure isn't the way it used to be.

My uncle and I were chatting tonight and he brought up a really interesting thing. When he was in grade school (50 years ago), the kids were scared of the teachers...in fact that behaviour was around when I was in grade school. But over the past 10 - 15 years, that behaviour has slowly been changing. Now the teachers are afraid of the students. How the hell are kids supposed to learn in an environment like that? It's just shear madness.

There are many potential solutions...My choices definitely include tougher laws for criminals and serious offenders and I really agree with the idea of putting criminals to work. This city is getting so filthy and clean. Let's get criminals to clean it up and do other odd jobs. The caveat to this story is that there is always an inherent safety issue. Who would want their kids walking beside some park where a bunch of criminals are picking up garbage? And the story continues...

It just seems that there needs to be more discussion about this matter. Hopefully new Mayor Miller spends less time on that stupid bridge to the Island Airport and more time on more serious issues like the fact that his city is getting more and more unsafe and dirty. Premier McGuinty needs to start looking at this problem as does current Prime Minister Cretien and the new Prime Minister Martin. Politicians, although they are just puppets of society need to start addressing certain issues and tackling them. More and more people are becoming enraged and demanding a cure to the problem.

Something is wrong when a 40 year old man is watching tv with his son in their living room in Markham and a stray bullet comes flying through the wall (bricks, metal, drywall, etc) and hits him in the head and he dies almost instantly. The only thing he was able to do while he was falling off the couch in front of his shocked child was to tell his son to call 911. That is absolutely unbelievable and completely WRONG.