MISFIRING ON CRIME

We know that most Canadians don't care about goings-on in Toronto half as
much as Torontonians might think. But there's no denying that, as Canada's
biggest city, T.O. sets the country's agenda on most urban policy issues.
That's why it's important for all Canadians to understand the folly of the
city's new crime-control strategy.

In response to Toronto's recent explosion of murders, drug-related
shootings and home invasions, Mayor David Miller has unveiled a plan that
would attack what he believes to be the "root causes" of crime. Rather than
putting more police officers on the streets and cracking down on crime
across the board -- two approaches with proven track records in U.S. cities
- -- the Mayor favours more drop-in basketball courts in high-crime
neighbourhoods, make-work jobs for crime-susceptible youth, community
safety co-ordinators and posters discouraging gang membership. Hiring
quotas are also apparently part of his vision: At a luncheon last Tuesday,
Mr. Miller asked suburban business leaders to designate a share of job
openings "for those youth from at-risk communities."

Mr. Miller's proposed solutions might be palatable among Toronto's mostly
liberal voters. But they won't work: Variations on Mr. Miller's proposed
strategy have been tried in many American cities, and they have produced
little in the way of crime reduction. In many cases, they have actually
made the situation worse by effectively rewarding pathological behaviour
with increased government outlays.

Why is Mr. Miller ignoring the best available criminological evidence? A
clue comes from the fact that he is focusing only on those causes that
dovetail with his liberal hobby horses -- poverty, racism, homelessness and
unemployment. But what about those stemming from a breakdown in traditional
values -- fatherless homes, for instance?

An unpleasant fact Toronto politicians typically ignore is that a hugely
disproportionate percentage of the city's violent criminals (not to mention
their victims) are black -- immigrants from Jamaica, in particular. And as
a Statistics Canada study released this week revealed, "a much higher
proportion of black children age zero to 14 live with only one parent."
According to the study, Blacks in Canada, the rate for black children is
46%, versus just 18% for non-blacks.

Since we also know from Statscan and elsewhere that children from
father-absent homes are three to six times more likely to drop out of
school, take drugs, commit juvenile crimes and be unemployed -- all good
predictors of later criminal behaviour -- why is Mr. Miller not campaigning
to promote family cohesion and discourage child-rearing out of wedlock in
Toronto's crime-ridden black neighbourhoods? Oh, right -- because that
would be politically incorrect.

Mr. Miller would much rather stay on safer ground -- even if it means
ignoring the real problem. Thus did he promise on Tuesday to order city
police to conduct security checks of all shooting ranges and gun stores. He
wants to ensure their vaults and storage cabinets are adequate to "stem the
flow of firearms on to city streets." But, of course, legitimate gunsmiths
and sport shooters have little to do with Toronto's crime. As Mr. Miller's
own police chief, Julian Fantino, can tell him, most of the guns recovered
at crime scenes in the city are smuggled into Canada; very, very few are
stolen from lawful businesses or legal owners. Besides, Ottawa has already
maintained stringent "safe storage" laws for more than a decade. Sending
patrolmen to harass law-abiding hunters will do nothing to prevent a career
criminal from acquiring the tools of his trade.

Mr. Miller's desire to tackle Toronto's crime problem may be genuine, but
his approach is doomed to fail. You can't fight crime while wearing the
twin blindfolds of utopian liberalism and political correctness.