Thanks for your comment. I completely agree with you – where poverty exists, so does crime. Same thing with drug use, violence, sexual exploitation, etc. That’s why I’m appalled that this funding money has only been used for ‘gang information sessions’ and not to address the issues that could breed gangs and gang behaviour. The youth in Sudbury need places to go to – healthy places! Things like support services, extracurricular activities, arts programs, etc… even little things like legal graffiti walls, maybe even community gardening, community policing services… all of that can help out. It makes complete sense for these kids to be attracted to gangs or to form their own gangs in order to cope with their day to day lives. It’s a hell of a lot easier to sell drugs and steal and join a “community of ‘brothers and sisters’” than it is to cope with being poor or being abused.. especially when you’re young and vulnerable. It makes me sad that all of this money for this anti-gang initiative hasn’t been used to do something about the problem.

It’s one thing to educate teachers and parents and social service workers but it’s not enough. Unfortunately, there’s not much that people like me can do about it; I’m just hoping that eventually, the community will get together and say “we’ve had enough – let’s do something proactive for a change” instead of waiting for poverty to rise, crime to get worse and sexual assaults to continue to go unreported. It’s a community thing and everyone has to get involved because it’s everyone’s business.

Thanks so much for your comment and no, it’s never too late to share your thoughts!

I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve had a rough time with law enforcement, especially considering what has happened to you. Their actions and response times are inexcusable in situations like that! I’ve also had similar experiences when it came to response by the police in Sudbury when it came to domestic abuse, alleged rape and sexual harassment. I’ve had to call the police several times to protect female neighbours and it always took them hours to respond. When someone is yelling rape, you’d think it would be a high priority to intervene! In one case, a very young girl (I believe she was 16 and the boyfriend was in his mid-twenties) was being threatened by her boyfriend. He loudly yelled that he would blow up the building and he smashed a part of the main door to the building. My roommate and I called the police. The boyfriend disappeared, and the police asked us to keep the young girl in our apartment and that if he returned, we should call the police and they would come and pick him up. Sure enough, he returned. We called the police. They said that there was nothing they could do and that we should let her go back to him. Eventually, they were evicted. I later found out that I could have pressed charges even though the police who responded to the incident said that only the young girl was allowed to press charges.

The problem with Sudbury is that there are a LOT of bad cops. It’s not a generalization, this is something that a lot of us know from experience. The shame in all of it is that there are a few really good ones who can’t do anything about the corruption or else they’ll break the “code”. I have met a few of these good cops and they’re exasperated – they do what they can because they love the profession but even they haven’t been shy to admit that there’s a big problem in policing in Sudbury and particularly when it comes to crimes against women. If I was still in Sudbury, I’d be very comfortable in starting a citizen’s group because it’s time for action and it’s time for reform. And that won’t happen unless the people of Sudbury raises their voices and their fists up in the air and say ‘Hey, we won’t tolerate this anymore.’

And that’s the point: nothing will change if people say nothing about it. Pass on my article, get your friends, colleagues, family members to leave comments. Share your experiences here and join my Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=10150118645405548&ref=ts). And if you want to voice your concerns about policing in general, please start a new group and let me know about it! If we can’t start something locally then we have to do it in the virtual world.

This is the best time in the world to be active about what you care about thanks to technology and to the social networks that exist now to make all of this much easier!

I agree that there is a major disconnect between non-profits and police services when it comes to the online world, I think that is a great idea. I will definitely inform committee members about the importance of targeting youth online. Julie you are correct when you stated that we are missing a large part of our target group by not publishing anything online for youth to access. In future projects I will be sure to keep in mind the importance of targeting youth online.

Julie I appreciate the opportunity for me to redeem myself, as I am very passionate about the work that I do here is Sudbury, and if not for you and your website I may have never started this personal journey. I would also like you to know that my apology was in-fact genuine, and I believe that the apology was necessary for me to acknowledge what it takes to be accountable to the community in which I work.

Take Care
Norm

Apology accepted. It’s not easy to apologize, whether it’s genuine or it’s something you had to do to keep your job, I don’t care. What’s done is done. I’m glad that you’re seeking guidance and I hope that you find new understanding along the way. We all make mistakes and in a lot of cases, we should all be allowed a chance to redeem ourselves. When we’re so deeply passionate about something, it can be really easy to want to defend our passion without thinking of the consequences of our words or actions. You’ll know that you’ll have received the right guidance when you feel that you’ve learned new skills that will allow you to remain passionate without getting personal. That doesn’t mean that you have to disregard some of your core values – sometimes, it does get personal. It’s knowing what values should be yours and be kept private when you have the professional mask on, and which values you won’t let any organization keep you quiet about. I will always support freedom of speech. As Voltaire said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” But, as you know, there are certains things that we just can’t say when we’re in positions that make us responsible and accountable to everyone. And it’s not just about saying it, it’s about what it means to think that way and how even as a private individual, it will prevent you from fully understanding other people around you. In the end, it’s about respect – respect for all women and respect for yourself. See it as a new beginning, a huge opportunity to start over and to grow.

In the spirit of second chances, I’d like to make you an offer. I’m really disappointed that the anti-gang campaign doesn’t even include online information for kids to read if they want to know how to protect themselves from being caught up in gangs. Talk to the people you have to talk to (if you need permission) and if you’re interested, I’d like you to personally write up a little guide for youth, specifically for kids in Sudbury. I’d like you to tell them the following:

- what they should look out for (how do they know the adults or the other kids are in a gang or are trying to recruit them?)
- who they can talk to about it (if they’re being pressured to join a gang)
- what other activities are available to them (if they’re bored, safe places to do things – even better if the activity is free)
- how they can get out of a gang without endangering themselves, their friends or their family

I’d like to publish that under your name at http://scarygangstababies.com This will help your online reputation, and in the end, it will help out the people that we really want to help out: the kids in Sudbury and everywhere else in Ontario. I’ll also post it on the associated facebook group and I’ll try to find other youth groups on Facebook that might benefit from this info.

I would also advise you to share that website with your non-profit colleagues because I’ll be publishing a lot of articles there that could help them with advocacy and online advertising. I think there’s a major, major disconnect between non-profits as well as the police when it comes to the online world and by not publishing any info about street gangs online, they’re missing their target: that’s where the kids are! So, what do you think? Want to do something really useful and write an article for my site?