It's happening here in Toronto, too. (Okay, I don't live in Toronto any more, but I was born there, and spent most of my life there.
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/ ... orontoHome
Family lawyer Selwyn Pieters contends that David was killed because he testified against one of his accused killers in a swarming case two years ago.
"It is clearly the case that Mr. David Latchana met his death because he was considered a snitch for responding to a Crown's summons to testify in a previous case against the accused," Pieters said in a statement. "This has nothing to do with gang membership or the lack thereof."
Mary, I wonder how brave ANY of us would be in the face of this sort of intimidation, knowing we could be gunned down at any moment.
This one is especially sad: a mother who has lost two sons to gang violence, though she herself is an activist against violence:
"It's beyond a nightmare," Wynter told the Sun yesterday from her home. "I feel like a motherless child."
Homicide detectives are continuing to investigate the afternoon shooting of Karim Rashid Ata-Ayi, 29, and are still appealing for any witnesses to come forward.
Wynter said she can't believe she's once again having to live with the awful feeling of knowing someone in her community knows who shot her son and isn't telling police. Worse, the person responsible for her son's death is still walking free.
"How can I end this grief?" she said. "I need justice to be done."
Link:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2007/ ... 3-sun.html
Very, very sad. But unless the cycle is broken, it's just going to keep on happening. The gang culture is totally dysfunctional, and only perpetuates the violence. It is so firmly ingrained in some areas of the city, that when police staged a surprise raid on a known gang community, where drug dealing was a way of life, one of the women shouted at them as they were taking gang members off to jail: "You're taking away our livelihood!"
Beating the system is seen as the only way to get ahead. The young kids see grinding poverty around them, then they see the drug dealers driving fancy cars, and dressed up with tons of bling-bling, and they think, "Hey, that's what I want, too."