The tragedy happened very early Saturday morning - a teen was shot by police on a Toronto streetcar. The young man died as a result of the shooting. A very serious happening indeed. In a very few minutes the lives of two families, the teen's and the police constable's, were forever changed. Clearly something went very wrong here - any time shots are fired on city streets, something has gone very wrong. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is examining the incident. That's all I need to know about this very sad event.
Day 6 and it still occupies the top slot in the news.
I don't need to see surveillance and smartphone video over and over and over again! I don't need to be a voyeur on the curbside nor in the living room of a family's aching grief. Of course they are heartbroken and I can only imagine their pain and disbelief. Is that news? I don't need to hear the opinions and speculations of 'experts', on what happened that dark night. They weren't there, and neither was I. And I didn't need to know the name of the police officer involved, in fact I am dismayed and appalled that his name was published.
There is a point when there is just too much information, information that up until yesterday appeared presented in such a way as to undermine trust in our police forces and due process; information that was presented in such a way as to incite anger and fear, two emotions that fuel adversaries - US and THEM. This not helpful.
There will never be satisfactory answers to all the questions. Some, especially the questions beginning with 'why', will remain forever behind doors without handles. but as a community we need to try to understand what happened here. I trust the SIU to do that job. I trust the Toronto Police Services to cooperate fully with the investigation. This will take some time, time in which the best thing that I can do is go about my business, my life, believing in the best, not the worst.
A photo for today? I've struggled with that one for almost an hour now. The best I've been able to come up with is this - a jumble of door handles.
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| Mumbai Street Market |
Text and photo ©2013 April Hoeller
April, your heartfelt words were in my thoughts. Thank you for putting it so perfectly to paper.
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