UNTIL THE OUTLOOK CHANGES NOTHING ELSE WILL

Toronto Deputy-Police Chief Peter Sloly gave a media interview today in response to  the latest shooting  deaths  and injuries in Toronto. He gave an outline of the department's extensive plans to deal with the willingness of ever- younger individuals to use firearms. 

Mayor John Tory said he had spoken to Police Chief Saunders this afternoon and declared violence  is unacceptable in Toronto's safe neighborhoods.

"They should be put away where they belong " he said. 

The Chief and Deputy Chief are Canadians, born in Jamaica . 

I listen for a hint that  they understand the heart of the problem. 

The silence is deafening.

I attended a panel discussion once on cost of policing at the Federation of Municipalities. I have referred to it  previously in this Blog. 

Three Police Chiefs and a staff member of  Kitchener-Waterloo Social Services Department made up the panel ; three men,one woman. The woman was the last to speak. 

None of the chiefly comments stuck except for defensive tone and support for continued Increases in police numbers and spending. 

The research provided by the  Social Director was indisputable. 

Numbers in detention and similarity of backgrounds provide a factual base of evidence.

By Grade 5, ten years old, the likelihood of incarceration is predictable.

Written off by the school system because they cannot read or write ,the most significant lesson learned is their own worthlessness. 

The facts are clear. The fraction it would cost to provide kids with help they need to learn versus the cost to maintain them as adults behind bars. 

Cost  and commitment to teaching versus cost of policing, custodial detention and the  immeasurable cost of tragedy. 

Full and productive lives for disadvantaged kids as opposed to lives spent locked up with armies of police and custodial guards costing billions to keep them "where they belong" as the Mayor says.,

Last week a rally cry went up in Toronto :  "Black lives matter "

Do they matter enough with all the other ten year olds,to rally to demand the help they need  in school before they slide down the  proven path of inevitability? 

The research has been done. Over and over. Facts speak for themselves. 

Who will speak for the least among us ? The kid who isn't making it in school who learns the most important lesson we have to teach is how little his or anyone else's life counts? 

Politicians troop in their thousands to annual conferences. At great expense evidence is compiled and presented in pleasing and sumptuous surroundings. 

Hearing and listening are not the same thing. 

I didn't see anyone I knew in that workshop.