Violent crime shows defunding police in Toronto not an option

Five guns visible and more than 60 shots fired.

It’s pure ugliness and terror. It makes the wild west look tame.

Perhaps this is how a Toronto, defunded of police, would look like?

The security video of this crazy shootout reveals how it already is in Toronto. It’s a shooting range. Night after night.

Imagine what it will be like when $122 million is cut from the budget as two councillors are pushing for?

One thing is for sure, no nurse or social worker would have been trained or equipped to deal with this mayhem. If police had been involved, there would have been an SIU probe — perhaps a massive protest. But with the law on the street meting out their own justice, there’s no oversight or accountability.

And if not for this video, perhaps no scrutiny either.

It all happened Tuesday night in a parking lot behind a business, on Beverly Hills Dr. in the Jane and Wilson area, nestled up against Highway 401. A large crowd was in a parking lot participating in a vigil for recently slain rapper Dimarjio Jenkins, known as Houdini, when all hell broke loose.

“Someone drove up along the 401, stopped on the shoulder and just started shooting,” said a person close to this businesses nearby. “It was crazy.”

The bullet holes can be seen in the wall. The glass from the broken bottles is still on the pavement.

The video shows people scrambling for cover behind a garbage bin. You can see bullets creating sparks, hitting bottles and you can hear the sound of screaming. But the most troubling thing were the guns brought out and being fired in retaliation. The video shows five were shooting back, but police sources say they believe at least seven guns were involved.

Two men went to hospital with serious but non life-threatening wounds. How there weren’t more hit is a miracle.

You can see people trying to get inside a local restaurant which had its back door open. You can see others running away. What you don’t see is how many attacking gunmen there were.

Toronto Police are all over this investigation, which began with Houdini’s homicide outside a downtown Entertainment District hotel.

The armed gangsters don’t even hide that they are packing anymore. They are policing themselves. They are out of control. They need to be brought under control. Now.

Some war zones have had less bullets and guns.

This video, and all of the other violence, is not something that is going away, by putting one’s head in the sand which is what most of our leaders are doing.

Toronto needs to push back with some guts and strength and take back the streets from the gangs and stop with the excuses and fear of being called names.

If the city is going to police crowds at Trinity Bellwoods Park or people wearing masks on the TTC, they had better police those carrying guns.

This nastiness is real and it’s putting the whole city at risk. Battlefield Toronto 2020 is a far more dangerous situation than any street sign or statue.

What is seen in this video is obscene. And it does show Toronto doesn’t need defunding for police.

It needs more funding.  Not fewer police. More police.

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