The Escalation of Youth Violence

"They went inside, ordered everyone to the ground and demanded cash from the safe."
"It definitely has been shocking for our community [though robberies by children are not unheard of]." 
"[York Region has seen a] big increase [in bank robberies, there have been upwards of 20 so far this year]."
"In previous years, the highest number for an entire year was 17 [in 2019]."
 Const. Laura Nicolle, York Regional Police

Four people were injured during an armed robbery at an RBC on Markham Rd., north of 16th Avenue, in Markham on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020. (Chris Doucette/Toronto Sun)

Male teens in the Toronto area appear to be on a rip lately. Teenagers have been involved in quite a number of violent bank robberies in and around Toronto in the past short while. A 911 call came in to police in the northeastern suburbs of Toronto, of a violent armed bank robbery then in progress on Wednesday night. On their arrival, the police discovered four injured tellers, two of whom had stab wounds. They were just in time to see three masked boys racing away from the crime scene.

With the use of dogs, the police ran after the boys, chasing them into a construction site. Overhead a police helicopter took elevated note of the proceedings as police cornered and then arrested three people who had attempted to hide inside a house under construction. One of the three is a 13-year-old boy from Mississauga, now facing charges of robbery with a firearm, aggravated assault, disguise with intent and several additional charges.

The other two boys with the 13-year-old were 15, and 16, and they have been identified as having been involved in a very similar violent attack that took place in the east of Toronto, whee Durham police explain they had pistol-whipped two employees, injuring another, in Pickering a week earlier. Three of the injured were treated in hospital for facial injuries. Charges including robbery with a firearm and three counts of assault causing bodily harm have been laid against the older two boys.

Durham police say the same boys, along with a 13-year-old, robbed this RBC branch in Markham. (Jeremy Cohn/CBC)

One of the older boys, 15, has also been charged with breaching probation. Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act the 13-year-old cannot be charged other than for a capital crime, as an adult. And as youth their names are withheld from public scrutiny. It just happened that while the three teens were in the bank assaulting the tellers -- in their possession, a firearm, a fake gun, and a knife -- someone standing outside the bank saw the commotion and dialled 911.

The three boys had driven to an RBC branch in Markham at closing time, 8:00 p.m. They were armed; a real gun, along with the fake, and knives. They drove a Chevrolet Impala, stolen a few days before in a Toronto car theft. During the carjacking the car owner had been stabbed. When the first officer to respond arrived on the scene the three teens ran off into a subdivision development site. A helicopter was called in, and eventually police dogs tracked them in the house under construction.

All are now charged with possession of property obtained by crime. And of course, under the youth act, their identities are not to be disclosed. The two older boys, 15 and 16 appear to be comfortably familiar with guns, hoisting both the handgun and the replica, while the 13-y6er-old had caused some of the injuries sustained by the tellers by kicking the victims in the face. Two male tellers were stabbed, a female teller was otherwise injured.

These are merely the latest of such violent attacks and robberies by youth and gangs in Toronto where guns are being acquired on the black market, usually slipped into the country through the United States. The prevalence of knife use by teens is growing along with the violence. Low income areas in the city in particular have seen a steep increase in violence and knifings largely attributable to the gangs and drug trade. And nor is Toronto the only city where such violence is an ongoing threat to public safety and security.

Ottawa, the nation's capital, is yet another venue among others. And many of the crimes, the stabbings and the shootings, usually related to drug trafficking and gang activities, take place with older teens and those in their 20s and 30s, and they are named. A majority of those named have Middle-East or North African backgrounds, disproportionate to their numbers within society. Appearing to have a disposition to violence, whether by upbringing or culture.

It would be interesting to know the names of these perpetrators of violence, but the Youth Criminal Justice Act shields youth from being publicly identified. This pertains elsewhere in t he world as well where rising crime, criminal gangs, drug trafficking, knifings and riotous behaviour takes place in France, Belgium, Germany and elsewhere, seeming to be linked with the entrance since 2015 of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.

And elsewhere ..... in Germany .....

"The knives are growing longer, the attackers are ever younger. The number of knife attacks by asylum seekers grows constantly."
"I call on Interior minister Horst Seehofer to immediately take the suspects into detention pending deportation and then to eject them from the country."
"It needs to be clear that the state is using all its power to protect its citizens."
Alice Weidel, co-parliamentary leader of the Alternative for GermanyThe Local, Germany

"A review by Gatestone Institute of German police blotters found that 2018 was a record year for stabbings and knife crimes in Germany: Police reported more than 4,100 knife-related crimes in 2018, compared to around 3,800 reported during 2017 — and only 400 in 2008. Overall, during the past ten years, knife-related crimes in Germany have increased by more than 900% — from one a day to more than ten a day. The data shows a notable increase in knife crimes since 2015, when Chancellor Angela Merkel opened German borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants."
"German media do not report most knife-related violence. Crimes that are reported are often dismissed as "isolated incidents" that are unrelated to mass immigration. Moreover, many crime reports, including those in police blotters, omit references to the nationalities of the perpetrators and victims — apparently to avoid inflaming anti-immigration sentiments."
"Knives, axes and machetes have become weapons of choice for criminals in Germany, which has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe. People armed with knives, axes and machetes have brought devastation to all of Germany's 16 federal states. Knives have been used not only not only to carry out jihadist attacks, but also to commit homicides, robberies, home invasions, sexual assaults, honor killings and many other types of violent crime."
"Knife-related crimes have occurred in amusement parks, bicycle trails, hotels, parking lots, parks, public squares, public transportation, restaurants, schools, supermarkets and train stations. Many Germans have the sense that danger lurks everywhere, but the lack of official statistics seemingly allows German authorities to pretend that the problem is imaginary."
Soeren Kern, Senior Fellow, Gatestone Institute, New York