Crackdown On Gangs Not The Success It Seems

This is a mobile society and it is surprising in the number of miles and urban centers you can travel to in an hour so "cracking down on gang activity" reduces the problem in one area but shifts that problem to someone else's backyard. The justice system has to stop allowing gang members out on bail, it needs to speed up their trials and it needs to incarcerate them not allow them to emigrate to neighboring communities. It is not a total solution but it is a start.....

Gangs pushed outside city

Police chiefs outside GTA complain they are seeing more guns and violence as a result of Toronto crackdowns that have forced criminals to seek less heat
February 28, 2007
Betsy Powell
Crime Reporter

Windsor police Chief Glenn Stannard says the arrest of an alleged gang member in his border city last month is an example of Toronto driving its bad guys out of town and into other cities across the province.

"Toronto and (police) Chief (Bill) Blair have done a great job in turning up the pressure on issues of guns, gangs and violence. But when they pushed the bubble ... it pushed some of the people out," Stannard said yesterday, echoing comments made a day earlier by Peterborough police Chief Terry McLaren.

Last month, Windsor police charged Kevin Bingham, 34, alleged to be a member of The Gatorz, a street gang that deals in guns and drugs, the Windsor Star reported. A small alligator, which police said was a symbol of the gang, was seized along with crack cocaine from a house which inside was painted green – another sign of gang affiliation.

Windsor police contacted Toronto counterparts and established the link and have identified four street gangs "with connections to Toronto." While Stannard said that a jump in firearm-related crimes in the community of 220,000 might relate to the Toronto influx, it would be unfair to blame the Ontario capital for "all of Windsor's problems."

McLaren, speaking on Monday to an audience at the Peterborough Rotary Club, said Toronto, which has had four major crime sweeps since 2004, has been so effective in ridding its streets of gunplay that gang members and other members of the criminal element are seeking refuge in other cities such as London, Windsor and Peterborough.

Hamilton police Chief Brian Mullan has also stated publicly "there is an influx of Toronto gang members coming to our community."

Part of the gang-sweep initiative came as a result of funding from the province which kicked in $51 million to expand the guns and gangs task force and establish TAVIS, the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy.

Premier Dalton McGuinty – joined by Blair and OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino – is scheduled to make an announcement relating to guns and gangs at Queen's Park today.

But McLaren, president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, suggested it's time for the province to be more even-handed when it comes to giving out money earmarked for the fight against guns and gangs.

He said he didn't know of "any other police service in the province that got any money for guns and gangs."

McLaren wants a provincial strategy to counter gangs as has been done in Toronto.