Guns and Gangs

"If it's proven in court that the motivation was that of retaliation, I would suggest to you that the individual who died had nothing at all to do with the events that occurred earlier in that building."
"There are many variables. He [Malcolm Marfo] was in a stairwell, confronted by the group. It could have been a mistaken identity. There are a number of things that could have occurred. I don't know what was in the mindset of the individuals who are responsible for this."
"At times there are people who want to step up and fill a void. That's what I think is going on here. In my experience this is a vicious circle, and this will continue. The thing that you can hope for ... is that people in these communities continue to step forward to assist us in eradicating gun violence."
Staff Inspector Greg McLane, Toronto Police Services

Toronto Police  Accused of involvement in the death of Malcolm Marfo are, from left: Saieed Hagi, 20; Ali Mohamned Isse, 21; Mohamed Omar, 26; Hanad Farah, 21; Sharmarke Farah, 18; and Lioban Hussein, 20.

Sometimes, cultures are so alien and hostile to each other's values that clashes can be guaranteed. Simply put, when a country is open to welcoming immigration from other countries, their immigration services personnel are trained when they interview prospective immigrants, to determine whether they appear to represent people capable of fitting into the values and customs of the receiving society.

Ideally, such people should be flexible enough to understand that it is incumbent upon them as new immigrants to gradually accept the laws, beliefs, values and concerns of a country they are migrating to, to become good citizens, and to integrate into the larger society. If the immigrants themselves do so only partially, it is always hoped that succeeding generations will meet that obligation by having been exposed from a young age to the welcoming country's social and legal covenant.

Another class of immigrants are those placed in refugee camps as a result of having been displaced during times of civil unrest, civil war, or conflict between neighbouring countries. Most advanced countries of the world feel an obligation to accept a certain number of refugees to offer them a new opportunity to advance themselves and begin to live normal lives with equality of opportunities to aspire to do so a given.

The trouble is that people coming from tribal societies, from countries where religious persecution takes place, where the rule of law is often flouted, where clan hostilities and gang violence is common, have already been acculturated, and some among them seem incapable of, or unwilling to leave behind the influences that are deleterious to the welcoming country. In Somalia, where Al-Shabab ['the youth'] has become a killing scourge, their counterparts can be seen elsewhere.

In Toronto, children from immigrant communities often appear psychologically resistant -- despite having been born in Canada and exposed to and raised in Canadian society with its expectations of normative behaviour -- to value lawful behaviour. This is not a Toronto-centric problem, but one that arises in these minority, often visible-minority communities wherever they happen to settle, across the country. Not that Canada doesn't have enough of a concern with indigenous Canadian thugs.

Readily-identifiable ethnic/religious names like Lioban Hussein, 20; Mohamed Omar, 26; Saieed Hagi, 20; Sharmarke Farah, 18; Hanad Farah and Ali Mohamed Isse, 21, however, appear in the news disproportionate to their numbers in society. An additional young man's name has gone unpublished, protected under the youth crime act. These are seven young men, members of a criminal gang, the Dixon City Bloods gang, who have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Two separate shootings took place on March 17 when police were called to respond initially to find Ahmed Siyad, 21, had sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. After police left that venue another call was made to respond to the same building. This time a 22-year-old man, Malcolm Marfo, had been shot multiple times in the highrise building; it was the same building where the officers had responded to the first call. He later died of his wounds, in hospital.

Guns and gangs are a problem country-wide. Area police have established special police units to respond to these threats to society, and attempt to have people living in the areas where the crimes tend to take place cooperate with police, to give information to enable them to identify and detain those involved. Such cooperation is seldom forthcoming. Since Malcolm Marfo was killed, two more homicides have taken place locally.

While walking outside an apartment building near Eglinton Avenue West, 17 year-old Trevor Seraphine was "gunned down in cold blood" on March 21. Earlier this week 46-year-old Donald Beckles was shot fatally, while he was smoking on the porch of his Jamestown Crescent home. Paris has its infamous immigrant 'banlieues' infested with immigrant resentment and crime, where even police fear to tread; Canada has its 'gangs'.

The community has been informed that police "will vigorously investigate and charge people involved in crime or people who are supporting crime. When things like this happen, it sheds a negative light on the community, but the facts are, most people are law-abiding and want to do the right thing", Superintendent Ron Taverner, explained.

Were most people involved, we would be living in a country of violent anarchy; similar to the areas of the world where these youthful gang members' families emigrated from to arrive in Canada.