Tragedy in Lawrence Heights

 

Hassan was gunned down ouside an apartment complex on Flemington Road, near Lawrence Avenue West and Allen Road, shortly after midnight.

 

 

I know that building.  In fact, I've stood at that doorstep many times.  It's TCH property - inside is any empty room that some young community leaders are hoping to turn into an entrepreneurship centre, kind of a mini, rent-free Centre For Social Innovation.  There are some great people who live here; people who care about their community, who work hard at what they do and aspire to a better life for themselves and their families.

 

What I don't know is the story behind this shooting.  There are regular concerns about crime in the community and there have been shootings in the past, but it's been relatively quiet for a while now.  I can only hope that residents come forward and share whatever they know about the murder with the authorities, even if it's just a description of the car taken from people poking their noses out windows.

 

The sad truth, though, is that many people in the community don't trust police, don't have faith in the City and aren't convinced that anyone beyond their borders care what happens to them.  They feel abandoned and, more than they should, afraid.

 

If common ground could be found between the police, the public service and the community, all kinds of solutions are possible.  The problem is, so many community workers get cycled through, with commitments made and not followed up on that there's precious little reason for residents to trust the process. 

 

There are some great police officers who care about the community - some of them get cycled through, too, but there are also those more focused on traditional practices of law enforcement and omerta-keeping that simply aren't effective in communities like this.

 

The big tragedy of Lawrence Heights isn't that it lacks potential (there's a ton of it) or that there is a lack of good will (there's a ton of that, too) but that the good people in the schools, the police force, city agencies and most importantly, the grassroots leaders in the community don't have the communications, organizational resource, training, etc. tools they need to succeed.

 

But they could. 

 

Communities like Lawrence Heights lie on all of our doorsteps; we pass by them every day, not paying attention until something bad happens. 

 

It's time we stop reacting with scorn or fear and start fixing these problems proactively, collaboratively.

 

It shouldn't take dead bodies for us to engage.

Lawrence Heights is a community like any