Has the city lost it's mind... | GTAMotorcycle.com

Has the city lost it's mind...

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mimico_polak

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Seems like each week since the start of the New Year we hear about attacks on the TTC, random attacks, youth swarmings of innocent people for nothing more than a laugh, or a bottle of liquor as in a recent case.

www.thestar.com

Four 13-year-olds arrested in ‘despicable’ TTC swarming attack

The 13-year-old suspects were taken into custody a day after two TTC employees were assaulted on a bus in Scarborough by a group of 10 to 15 youths
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

VIDEO of above: Four boys arrested following 'swarming' attack on TTC operators as video surfaces of incident

www.thestar.com

Woman in her 20s stabbed multiple times on TTC streetcar, female suspect arrested

Toronto police say it is unclear if the victim and suspect knew each other in the attack on the busy Spadina streetcar, the latest violent incident on the city’s transit system
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

www.thestar.com

Toronto police arrest young teen wanted for stabbing a 17-year-old

The 14-year-old male suspect faces nine charges, including aggravated assault, after the attack earlier this month
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

www.cp24.com

Suspect who allegedly shoved elderly woman to the ground downtown now charged with manslaughter: police

The aggravated assault charge against a Toronto man who allegedly pushed an 89-year-woman to her death on a downtown sidewalk has been upgraded to manslaughter.
www.cp24.com www.cp24.com

www.cp24.com

Boy, 14, charged with attempted murder in stabbing in Toronto's west end

A 14-year-old boy is facing several charges, including attempted murder, in connection with a stabbing in Toronto’s west end earlier this month.
www.cp24.com www.cp24.com

I don't know whether it's a lack of policing (which is why the force is asking for more money and more officers), or mental health, or COVID issues, or wtf is going on but this doesn't seem to be the right path.
 
Welcome to big city life. Sad part is, even the suburbs aren't safe anymore with car jacking, assults and armed robberies.
 
One part (imo) the young offenders act has helped this devolve .
There is a serious lack of parental oversite and engagment with kids
Mental health is a bigger problem than we may realize

oh and BAN all knives with blades over 2" , and box cutters, and chefs can learn to just tear up food. That will eliminate all stabbings , once all the knives are gone. Unless its an Olympic knife, then you can practise with it

I'm putting a lot of blame on parents
 
I don't think that more policing will help. In all of the stories mentioned, the attacks would not be stopped by more police unless there is an officer on every corner and on every bus, street car, subway, etc. Also the suspect is apprehended in every story so it seems like the police are doing as much as possible.

I would normally blame drugs/mental health etc. but these teenagers swarming people just baffles me. I'm sure there was plenty of unengaged parents in the past.
 
When you have single parent families, or two parents working their butts off just to make ends meet, then are too exhausted to properly deal with kids. Then you have kids raised in daycare and not taught proper social skills or responsibilities, you end up 'Lord of The Flies' society. Back in the day, yes I'm that old, one parent was always home and watching their own kids and the neighbourhood kids so they could report to the proper parents. No kid got away with anything, and if it was school related, well Principle got to use the strap, then you got more when you got home.
Kids now have no idea what it like to have structure in their lives and know the consequences of their actions are next to nothing.
Just my 2 cents (nickels? since we don't have pennies any more) To far gone now to go back.
Not sure what the answer is. :unsure:
 
timtune said:
Can't argue with that.

Anyone want to suggest that violent video games might not be helping?
Click to expand...
You think so? I think it's more of the earlier comments where parents take a completely passive role in their kids' development.

Plus the fact that youth don't really have any real consequences, some bad apples and peer pressure...and here we are.

I'm not saying video games aren't an issue in some instances...but overall I think it's more of a whole family (or lack of) structure that helps these kind of a$$hats and $hitheads grow up to be a$$holes in society.
 
mimico_polak said:
You think so? I think it's more of the earlier comments where parents take a completely passive role in their kids' development.

Plus the fact that youth don't really have any real consequences, some bad apples and peer pressure...and here we are.

I'm not saying video games aren't an issue in some instances...but overall I think it's more of a whole family (or lack of) structure that helps these kind of a$$hats and $hitheads grow up to be a$$holes in society.
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I agree that most of this is probably a parenting problem. I grew up like @just-me said (with a stay at home parent) and I really think that's best. Not always possible (especially today) but likely best. But as I postulated I don't think violent games add much good.
 
Yeah there does seem to be a lot more youth related crimes or criminal activities going on recently. I believe there was another one about gold theft.

I'm sure the economic situation isn't helping and people could be restoring to extreme solutions to deal with increasing costs.

As for more police, it all depends how they are utilized. Sure asking for more officers only to put them onto parking duty won't help this. Having more of a public presence of enforcement would. This is something I have noticed travelling to Europe specifically in Spain there was always a police presence in large cities like Madrid or Barcelona. Any large gathering places there was always a cop car in the area with 2 cops with rifles. Later in the evening more police would be around. I've also seen horse patrols and dog units in park areas. I can't remember if they were also in the transit system. This might seem extreme, but having visible patrols has to be better then not having them. This conversation of "year of the gun" has been going on now for several years maybe the city should get it's head out of it's ass and do something?

If all those speeding cameras are generating so much income why couldn't it be used for more policing?
 
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crankcall said:
One part (imo) the young offenders act has helped this devolve .
There is a serious lack of parental oversite and engagment with kids
Mental health is a bigger problem than we may realize

oh and BAN all knives with blades over 2" , and box cutters, and chefs can learn to just tear up food. That will eliminate all stabbings , once all the knives are gone. Unless its an Olympic knife, then you can practise with it

I'm putting a lot of blame on parents
Click to expand...
To prevent mass shootings, ban guns.

Then to prevent mass murders, ban rental vans.
 
timtune said:
Can't argue with that.

Anyone want to suggest that violent video games might not be helping?
Click to expand...
Video anything IMO is a problem. Movies, TV, Funniest videos etc.

A kid in Florida body slammed his sister thinking it was OK because wrestlers do it all the time. I think she died.

Maybe we're paying for the accumulated brain damage from all the hits to the head.
 
just-me said:
When you have single parent families, or two parents working their butts off just to make ends meet, then are too exhausted to properly deal with kids. Then you have kids raised in daycare and not taught proper social skills or responsibilities, you end up 'Lord of The Flies' society. Back in the day, yes I'm that old, one parent was always home and watching their own kids and the neighbourhood kids so they could report to the proper parents. No kid got away with anything, and if it was school related, well Principle got to use the strap, then you got more when you got home.
Kids now have no idea what it like to have structure in their lives and know the consequences of their actions are next to nothing.
Just my 2 cents (nickels? since we don't have pennies any more) To far gone now to go back.
Not sure what the answer is. :unsure:
Click to expand...

I actually feel nearly the polar opposite. I think kids are given too much attention today even going back to when I was raised in the 90s.

My mom was raised in the 60s by a single mother of 4. My dad did have a stay at home mom but there was 7 kids and it doesn't sound like grandpa did much child rearing. I find it hard to believe that they got more attention then myself or my children get.
 
nobbie48 said:
Video anything IMO is a problem. Movies, TV, Funniest videos etc.

A kid in Florida body slammed his sister thinking it was OK because wrestlers do it all the time. I think she died.

Maybe we're paying for the accumulated brain damage from all the hits to the head.
Click to expand...
Get with the times. Its the internet.
 
IMO and IME it is not one thing but a combination and different for different incidents.

There have always been poor parenting, not a thing has changed here. The difference these days, schools have been handcuffed on discipline so that is one less level of discipline in the kids lives. The schools are also getting hammered on race issues, further degrading the ability to hand out discipline. In short, some of this is running wild in certain schools (look at York Memorial). Social media encouraging and used as a tool to connect up or brag about exploits. These are a big part of the kids aspect.

Broken young offenders act plays a minor role but much larger in more organized crimes like car theft and gang violence. Send the kids, they will get off easy...

COVID and WFH is taking a toll on mental health for some people. They have lost personal interaction and it impacts some and not others. This is hitting many people in general.

Drugs and metal health and the enabling approach are pushing people deeper into despair. Same with enabling homeless encampments. It is the argument, it is unefthical to do something about it, it is unethical not to, even more unethical to enable. Many of these random one on one crimes (again not all) are being committed by these people.

Racism and again social media, QAnon, etc. in some cases where someone was a target. The Asian population seems to be at bigger risk these days. In the past Muslims were being targeted more (and still are BTW, just a shift).

Policing, while they can't be everywhere but it seems more and more like they are no-where. Many crime rates are up. In the last three weeks 18 vehicles were stolen from my neighbourhood. Cops just don't seem to care, come in do a report and insurance will take care of it. What is so pressing they cannot be bothered with organized crime?
 
backmarkerducati said:
Policing, while they can't be everywhere but it seems more and more like they are no-where. Many crime rates are up. In the last three weeks 18 vehicles were stolen from my neighbourhood. Cops just don't seem to care, come in do a report and insurance will take care of it. What is so pressing they cannot be bothered with organized crime?
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Cost per cop has gone so crazy that they don't have enough head count. Drop comp by 50K for new hires, you get the same candidates applying (still a great comp package for education and skills required) and you have can 50-100% more cops within the same budget.

Cops are frustrated with justice system. Why bother investigating property crimes when they are released tomorrow with few consequences? Hell, even firearms crimes seem easy to get bail. Just promise not to carry guns until trial. Oh, you got arrested with a gun again, try to do better next time, back on the street. The whole system is setup to ostrich and ignore issues. I don't entirely blame the cops for getting disenfranchised.
 
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crankcall said:
One part (imo) the young offenders act has helped this devolve .
There is a serious lack of parental oversite and engagment with kids
Mental health is a bigger problem than we may realize

I'm putting a lot of blame on parents
Click to expand...
I, to a degree, understand the young offenders act.

When I was five or six years old I would ask my mother to buy me a toy and be disappointed when she said she couldn't afford it. I knew she had the money in her purse.

When I got older I realized that if I bought every toy I wanted as soon as I had the money there wouldn't be any food on the table and maybe no table with a roof over it. It's called growing up or thinking ahead.

The problem I have with the YO act is that most young offenders know that what they are doing is wrong. That's why they run, hide and lie. If they didn't think their actions wrong when the parents even asked what they did last night the answer would be "We got together and swarmed some guy" instead of lying about being at the mall or at someone's place watching videos. The problem is that when you're 17 years, 364 days old you're a juvenile. The next day you're an adult. Maybe we need graduated maturing, A-1, A-2 full A.

There are too many factors to list.

Parental neglect: Before cell phones parents would talk to infants while pushing strollers. "That's a robin, that's a sparrow. See the colour of the leaf. It's red now because it's fall." Now the kid gets pushed while the parents chat and text with their friends.

Day care vs home care: Look at the attention ratio 30:1 vs 1:1. If a kid needs attention they might get a bit by being really good, a kissass, or will get a lot by doing something bad. "I WILL NOT BE IGNORED", said to the sound of a crashing lamp.

Economics: Read The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence. Basically the pursuit of wealth.

The future: Your own home is laughable for most, in TO anyways. Even renting is iffy. You have to live in Toronto or you're a hick loser. SF

Where is your home? Not necessarily the listing on your driver's license but the place you feel safe, 24/7? Some people feel safer living under a bridge. Now we bring in a sub section of home problems.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that not all brains are created equal. Many of our leaders and decision makers are older and while that brings experience to the plate it can also bring reactionary attitudes and the "When I was your age...." mantra.

mimico_polak's OP is disturbing without mentioning the hit and run at an intersection used daily by his wife and kids.

I don't know the details of the collision and the fault may even lie with the pedestrian. However the conscienceless running seems all to common.

The future doesn't look good. However if you go to library archives and read a newspaper from 50 years ago you'll find the same stuff. Only the prices have changed.
 
Re; young offenders act and parenting , both my parents worked , mom did nursing shifts , pop was mostly days, however one of the things we talked about , and we talked about lots because dinner was for family talks , never in front of a TV , was how messed your life can be from ONE stupid incident. Get a pot charge and you may not be allowed into the US, get a crminal record and you severly limit job opportunity. Percentage of marriages that work out when 16yr old dolly get preggers?
Teach critical thinking
 
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