Star: Why so many murders in Peel?

[scarberiankhatru]

I didn't miss the point at all. My point is that a jump from 1 to 6 murders isn't small. Obviously it doesn't tell the whole story, but considering Malton's population, one can't just write it off.

Yes, that jump is small and is easily attributed to random chance, its mostly likely cause. We'll know by 2009 when we learn how many murders Malton sees next year.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Yes, that jump is small and is easily attributed to random chance, its mostly likely cause. We'll know by 2009 when we learn how many murders Malton sees next year.

No need to wait until 2009. One could look at the last ten years or so, and if 2006, 2007 and 2008 show a per capita increase, then you've got sufficient data to make an informed opinion.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

No need to wait until 2009. One could look at the last ten years or so, and if 2006, 2007 and 2008 show a per capita increase, then you've got sufficient data to make an informed opinion.

No, you don't. Per capita values are totally useless when you go from values like two to one to six murders in consecutive years.

 

[doady]

Scarberian is right. This year's 6 murders could easily be an anomaly and useless until data for future years proves otherwise. You cannot see a trend from just a one year increase.

 

[CDL.TO]

So this sixfold increase in one year isn't a sign of a greater trend that would predict 216 murders in Malton in 2010?

That's a relief.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

So this sixfold increase in one year isn't a sign of a greater trend that would predict 216 murders in Malton in 2010?

That's a relief.

Yeah, or by 2015, not only would Malton have a population of zero, everyone who even dares to drive through Malton every year would be murdered.

The good thing is that declining to 3 murders next year would let politicians and CP24 go on about how wonderfully all the new after-school basketball or pixels for pistols programs are working...50% reduction!

 

[syn]

Scarberian is right. This year's 6 murders could easily be an anomaly and useless until data for future years proves otherwise. You cannot see a trend from just a one year increase.

Yes, they could be. Or maybe not. The entire region has seen a sharp jump.

I guess we'll see when crime stats are released next year.

 

[urbandreamer]

Maybe all the drug dealers have moved to Peel? (Aka, cheaper rent in Malton?)

 

[doady]

I think the problems in Malton are the result of gentrification of the inner city. While there is not yet any visible long term trend increased crime in Malton, there is and has been a clear trend of declining incomes, in not just Malton, but also Bramalea, Cooksville, and of course Rexdale, Jane-Finch, and northern Scarborough, and other older suburban neighbourhoods.

In the meanwhile, there has been a long term trend of increasing incomes and declining ethnic diversity in most of the neighbourhoods of the old city of Toronto. This has also forced new immigrants to move directly to the suburbs, even though most of the services for them is still located in the inner city.

Low income people have low mobility to begin with, so if they live in the suburbs they have less access to everything than they would if they lived in the inner city. Less jobs, services, and amenities are within walking distance or accessible by public transit. Malton is probably the worst case imaginable, being isolated from Brampton, Toronto, York Region, and the rest of Mississauga at the same time.

 

[lordmandeep]

I know a guy who lives in Scarborough his whole life and he said he never knew they had a zoo and he does not even know a lot of the main streets like Ellesmere.

His family is rather poor, but I was shocked, how I know more about Scarborugh living in Brampton, then he does living there.

He has just enough money to go from Kennedy Station to Dundas and that's all he travels.


Malton is considering its own place,Mississauga disowns it.

 

[AKS]

Well, it might not be the issue of being poor but not having much of a social life even? Or just not even hanging around the area. I lived in Scarborough for 2 years and I didn't know there's zoo there I mostly hung around STC or I go to other places like Pacific Mall, downtown, Fairview, etc.

 

[Admiral Beez]

In the meanwhile, there has been a long term trend of increasing incomes and declining ethnic diversity in most of the neighbourhoods of the old city of Toronto. This has also forced new immigrants to move directly to the suburbs, even though most of the services for them is still located in the inner city.

Low income people have low mobility to begin with, so if they live in the suburbs they have less access to everything than they would if they lived in the inner city. Less jobs, services, and amenities are within walking distance or accessible by public transit. Malton is probably the worst case imaginable, being isolated from Brampton, Toronto, York Region, and the rest of Mississauga at the same time.

There are more jobs for low income folks in the 'burbs than there are in downtown Toronto.

 

[Tank]

http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Crime/article/518296

Why so many murders in Peel?

Oct 16, 2008 04:30 AM
Robyn Doolittle
Bob Mitchell
Staff Reporters

In the wake of the deaths of four young men on the suburban streets of Mississauga and Brampton since Saturday, community leaders are warning of a potential explosion of youth violence in Peel Region.

They say the window of opportunity to gain control of the problem is rapidly closing as Peel's total homicide tally reached a record 24 on Tuesday.

"There's a tremendous feeling of urgency amongst the leaders in this community and among youth and their families that we need to fix this," said Shelley White, the CEO of United Way of Peel Region.

"When you've got 30,000 new people coming into your community every year and a third of those are youth, and we don't have the capacity to provide the services (and) they're not getting the support they need, something is going to break and this is the tragedy," she said.

This morning, Chief Mike Metcalf will appear before Peel regional council in Brampton to give an overview of this year's homicides.

His visit was announced last week, when there were 20, but now he'll have to include the four unsolved slayings since Saturday, including Tuesday's stabbing death of 14-year-old Ravi Dharamdial as he walked home from school.

Although councillors are hoping to learn why the spike in deadly crime is occurring in record numbers across Peel Region, Metcalf says he doesn't have all the answers.

"I wish there was a pattern, but they're all over the board," he said. "I wish I had an answer as to why this is happening."

Tony da Silva, a trustee with the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board, says the major fear is that as Peel gets larger and larger, urban issues such as guns, gangs and drugs are moving into the region.

"We want to address those early so they don't become larger issues, like some of the troubled communities in Toronto are having to deal with," he said.

Both da Silva and White sit on the Peel Youth Violence Prevention Committee, which is made of council members, police officers, public health officials and other community stakeholders.

"We have four working groups underway that are working on very specific strategies in our communities to create more capacity to support youth," White said.

But what it really comes down to is money, and Peel Region just doesn't have enough of it to accommodate the growth.

"We need partners. We need funding partners. We need all orders of government to work with the community," said White.

"If there's no serious investment and commitment to work with Peel, to build (the infrastructure), it may continue to lead to this serious kind of violence."

When Raymond Caldeira moved to Brampton from Port Credit 15 years ago, he was looking for the quiet, family sitcom-style life.

"Brampton used to be a really nice place. Now it's just overpopulated big time," he said.

"It doesn't matter where you move. You can't shop. You can't park. You can't do anything. Everybody is just very inconsiderate – pushing and shoving."

Over the past five years, Brampton's population has swollen by 33 per cent. It's a similar story in Mississauga.

Of Peel's current population – 1.2 million – about 10 per cent live in poverty, said White.

With poverty comes crime.

On Tuesday, Dharamdial was stabbed to death just a block from Caldeira's home. The teen made a frantic 911 call as he was bleeding to death.

It was the 24th homicide of the year, well above Peel's previous record of 17, reached in 2003.

Caldeira's picket-fenced neighbourhood no longer feels safe, he says.

"Jane and Finch, we're getting all the overflow from that side," he said. "I believe that everyone deserves to own a home, but I think (the crime spike) has a lot to do with bringing low-income housing into the area, without any other infrastructure."

Mississauga Councillor Katie Mahoney, who also sits on the youth violence prevention committee, says all levels of government need to step up and help Peel solve the problem.

"This can't be all on the property taxpayer's back," she said.

"We're reaching a point where, if we don't grab a handle on this, and all of the agencies and government don't get together for an all-out concentrated effort, the problem is going to grow."

*****

As a Scarberian (a resident of Scarborough, not khatru), I wonder if Mississauga and Brampton (or parts of the two cities) have now become the new Scarborough. Either they have become havens for murder, or they are now being unfairly portrayed as crime-ridden areas, like Scarborough has.

Is it time we see parts of Mississauga and Brampton as part of Toronto's "inner suburbs", complete with the same inner suburban problems that Scarborough, Jane & Finch or Rexdale face?

It all has to do with gangs and turf wars. A well known gangster has moved into that area causing all the violence...