What to fight an election on

The opposition looks ready to go to the polls over Afghanistan and/or the pretend medical isotope crisis, but now Harper's attack chipmunk, Peter Van Loan and Rob Nicholson are issuing an ultimatum that the senate pass the crime bill or that will trigger an election on March 1st. I'm not surprised that Conservatives want to run on their mediocre crime bill, it's a right-wing staple to talk about being "tough on crime" whilst scaring people with tales of violence and lawlessness. The problem is that this kind of thing often works.

All the more reason to trigger an election now.

Today's Thousand-Word Picture

John O'Keefe was hit by a stray bullet and killed as he walked past a strip club on Yonge St. A memorial has sprung up there:

Photo by Miles Storey

Mammoliti calls for Martial Law in Toronto

For those of you who don't follow Toronto politics, Giorgio Mammoliti is pretty much the worst of all possible councillors. A former NDPer-turned right-wing whacko, he hasn't seen an office expense he didn't enjoy (including a limo ride to nowhere).

In Mammoliti's latest exposition of his general vileness, he has proposed calling in the military to round up alleged gang members whilst dispensing with any kind of due process. Seriously, here's a sample:

"This idea of asking the federal government to help out came up awhile back. It’s not the first time I’ve been saying it. You know, it comes out of desperation, I think, in a community that has been promised by all three levels of government that the shooting will stop and governments are doing whatever they can to help. It’s been years and it’s not subsiding at all. It’s getting worse. It’s not getting better. It’s gang members that are doing it. They’re holding communities hostage. [People] are afraid to come out of their homes and they want something done immediately. This community, they would like to see these gang members taken off the streets and held indefinitely, if possible. The only people that have that authority are the federal government and the army quite frankly."

Meanwhile, the chief of police, Bill Blair has quite sensibly told Mammoliti to shut the hell up. The gang problem in Toronto is bad enough, but if New York City could survive without the army in the 1980s, then we can manage here.

Letting the facts ruin a witty saying

Have you heard this tripe?

"A Liberal is a Conservative who hasn't been mugged yet."

Heh. The same blog post goes on to point out a rash of muggings near the Junction and some shootings in the Jane-Finch corridor. Okay, fair enough, now let's test this saying: How did the parties perform in the recent Ontario Election? Parkdale-High Park went NDP and York West went Liberal. Who thinks that either of these ridings will go blue in either the next federal or provincial election? I suppose the fact that Torontonians are not rushing into either Harper's or Tory's arms thus fulfilling the above saying somehow "proves" that Toronto is an open-air insane asylum.

Scared Conservative

As an urban voter, apparently I'm supposed to be thankful about the crime bill that the Conservatives are introducing because I'm supposedly living in fear of crime all the time. Consider this wonderful wording by Harper as pointed out by Carol Goar today:

"Canadians feel less safe today and rightly worry about the security of their neighbourhoods and country,"

Of course one cannot truthfully say that Canadians are less safe today, so instead tell us that we feel less safe. Brilliant. The effect to the casual listener is exactly the same, hearing about things being "less safe" and worries about "security." The values of the Conservative party are, by and large, not my values, so I suppose they are hoping that I can at least be frightened into supporting them.

How not to set a trap

This is a summary of what Harper and his ministers have said about the new crime bill over the last day or so:

Vote for it! No amendments! We would be terribly upset if you VOTE AGAINST IT!

Please, whatever you do, don't VOTE AGAINST IT!

We would hate to fight an election where we get to accuse the opposition of being soft on crime!

There's a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin tries rather awkwardly to lay a "trap" for Susie by loudly announcing that it would be terrible for him if his secret coded message fell into her hands. He then proceeds to drop it in front of her more or less. Susie obviously sees through this plan as I suspect the opposition has with Harper's.

Make no mistake, Harper wants an election

He played footsie with the idea with the throne speech, but now the Conservatives want to make their super-duper omnibus crime bill both a confidence vote and an all-or-nothing affair. Apparently Steve doesn't want any amendments or anything, take it or leave it. One wonders what (if anything) Steve will try to slip in there to make it unpalatable so that he can go to the polls hollering about a soft-on-crime opposition.

I'm not sure why this is a big priority for the Conservatives given that crime is on the decline. One of their spokespeople/strategists or what-have-you remarked that this would show that the Conservatives understood urban voters. This is of course based on an idiotic stereotype of urban life and the threat of crime in big cities. Toronto is not early-1980s New York, it's actually a fairly safe place compared to many other parts of Canada.

In related news, at least some Tory-sympathizers are upset that Dion didn't bring down the government. According to this post, this somehow renders Stephane Dion undemocratic. It ought to be plain now which side wants an election.

Where is "Gangster Culture" from?

Daimnation praises the Grope & Flail for this line:

"a gangster culture transplanted in part from Jamaica is sinking its roots into Toronto, and will not soon let go"

So until Jamaicans showed up, there wasn't a "gangster culture" around here? That must have come as quite a surprise to the Irish, Italian, Russian, and Chinese mobs to name but a few. Now those nice people at the Globe will tell you that of course they know about all the other crime gangs and the like - they watched The Untouchables just like the rest of us.

They will tell you that, but they are being disingenuous by doing so. The Jamaica line lingers there with a certain implication. Sure the Globe would never say it outright, but it's happy to leave the implication there that something about Jamaicans makes them a particular threat.

The fact is that "gangster culture" thrives in any immigrant group that is not well integrated into mainstream society. Any group where the prospects for good-paying legitimate work are minuscule and where relationships with the state (police et cetera) are uneasy will spawn organized crime. The history of organized crime is the history of marginalized immigrant groups in North America. The Italian mafia here has faded (despite remaining a force in southern Italy) mainly because Italians have become integral to the fabric of North America - like the Irish before them. That fading out is part of the pattern of organized crime.

There is little to suggest that "gangster culture" has somehow emerged anew from Jamaica. Rather because too many Caribbean immigrants are forced to eke out a living on the margins of Toronto, organized crime becomes a perfectly predictable choice. Don't bullshit us with soft racism, Globe & Mail.

How can you live in a place like that with all the crime?

Apparently that's what those of us living in Toronto and other large Canadian cities should be asking those who live in smaller centres. Sorry for ruining another Toronto stereotype.

Three Strikes vs. Unintended Consequences

Jason Cherniak has posted on Conservative attempts at putting in some kind of three strikes anti-crime legislation. Of course this is a great way to play up their "law-and-order" image.

After three serious offenses, you'd think that someone ought to be put away for good, right? Well the problem is that even the dumbest criminals can count to three, as a result, police wanting to arrest someone who already has two strikes tend to have a real devil of a time with it in the US. If the guy fears he's going away for good there's a much better chance he'll engage in a shoot-out, high-speed chase or something else that risks civilian and police lives.

Of course most "tough-on-crime" politicians just go for emotionally satisfying ploys based on the rules of a sport. The problem is that there are enough people (mostly Toronto Sun columnists) who get swept up by this incredibly stupid rhetoric. It will get most police officers injured, many of the US jurisdictions that have such laws are starting to turn away from them.