Tough on (pit bull) crime
By MARGARET WENTE

Here in Toronto, it's just another average week. Last Thursday, a guy was gunned down in broad daylight outside a public-housing complex as a bunch of kids looked on. The victim, Delroy Daring, was initially portrayed as an upstanding citizen, an anti-violence advocate and caring father of 10, until his criminal record came to light. It turns out that his rap sheet
for drug trafficking is about a mile long. When he was shot, he had plenty of drugs on him. He was the city's 32nd gun murder victim so far this year.

In other news, a downtown nightclub called the Phoenix cancelled its popular Sunday hip-hop nights because too many people were getting blown away in the immediate vicinity. Yesterday, police and city councillors were huddling in closed-door briefing sessions. The wave of black gun-violence has grown so bad that even the Mayor's worried.

So what's the biggest crime problem in Ontario today? Pit bulls. Yes. According to our Premier, the correct answer is pit bulls.  Fortunately for us, our crime-fighting government has
attacked the pit-bull crisis with rare courage and tenacity. Thanks to emergency legislation rammed through in record time, pit bulls are now banned in Ontario. Illegal handguns are banned, too, of course, but pit bull owners now face more penalties than owners of illegal handguns, who are usually released on bail and back on the street a few hours after
they're arrested. I'm no fan of pit bulls. I think irresponsible dog owners should be chained and muzzled. But so far this year, the total death toll from pit bulls has been zero (as it was the year before and the year before that, etc.) That's 32 less than the death toll from guns. The cops aren't allowed to intercept suspicious-looking people and check them out for deadly weapons. But they are being encouraged to intercept the owners of suspicious-looking dogs, who
are then obliged to prove that their dogs are not pit bulls. (Maybe the Premier can explain to me why pitbulls are bad but Rottweilers are okay.)

The pit-bull legislation is nakedly populist, deeply flawed and largely unenforceable, since the province has downloaded the enforcement job to the overworked municipalities. But it has achieved its main objective, i.e., tons of flattering media coverage.  "Ontarians will be safer for it," Michael Bryant, the province's Attorney-General, declared triumphantly.  I'm still waiting for him to say something -- anything -- about hand guns, random shootings, drug wars, and
bullet-riddled children who've been caught in the crossfire. But on those subjects, he has been
strangely silent.  Premier Dalton McGuinty did make one bold move to address the gun-crime problem. He spoke sternly to the American ambassador about it. (That will no doubt
scare the bad guys.) He also coughed up a little bit of money for a few more cops, who nobody seems to think will make much difference. So far, he hasn't coughed up more money for more prosecutors, who are so understaffed and overwhelmed that weapons charges
routinely get plea-bargained down to zilch. On paper, penalties for gun crimes are stiff. In practice, the sentences imposed by judges are often light. The system is a revolving door, and many of the people police pick up for weapons offences are repeat offenders.

So what voices are clamouring loudest for more cops on the beat and tougher sentencing? They're the folks who live in the neighbourhoods where gunfire has become routine. They're the people who watch young men with guns chase each other through their back yards almost
every night. They're the people who are scared to let their kids play outside. They think gangsters caught with illegal handguns should go to jail for a long, long time, and they're furious that they don't. Sure, they also want more social and employment programs and better chances for their kids. But first of all, they want the bad guys off the streets.  Of course, these people aren't all that sophisticated. They don't understand the menace that bad dogs pose to society. They don't understand that thanks to their government's courageous crackdown on illegal dogs,
little children can once again sleep safely in their beds. Are we tough on crime around here? You bet.
mwente@globeandmail.ca