Innocence Lost?
Hey All,
Something has been on my mind since Boxing Day... our "lost" innocence. Specifically, for those who don't know, a 15 year old girl, Jane Creba, got hit with a stray bullet from a clash of 10-15 people. She wasn't the only one who got hit, but she was the lone casualty. Now, unlike most things you might read, what's on my mind isn't what seems to be on everyone elses mind.
The amount of attention this is getting is really what is interesting to me. It seems to me that the broad range of interests focused on this particular crime for a few obvious reasons. Such as the fact it took place on Yonge street on boxing day, in a time where there were literally thousands of people in that area (perhaps Toronto's largest concentration of shopping on that day). Essentially that "it coulda been me" factor. Another reason seems to be the fact that it wasn't a "punk" kid causing trouble, but a "promising" young woman of 15 who was shopping with her mother. The other factor, though less obvious, seem to be how photogenic Jane used to be. She was pretty.
Now I know this sounds like I am belittling the lose of an innocent life. Let me make this clear, my problem with this whole thing is not Jane, her family, or the fact that people are sympathizing with them. It's not even with the media attention per say. What really bothers me is the notion of "innocence lost". That this specific crime, is both horrible and especially distrubing.
Now you may be asking why I am hattin' so much on this whole thing. It's simple... our "innocence" was lost a long time ago. The last two years has seen a distrubing increase in the lose of innocent life. Jane wasn't even close to the first innocent person who has gotten killed in the last two years.
She just happens to be the first pretty white girl.
There were other young folks who were shot, who were minding their own business, when their lives ended. There were those who had promising futures, who were not "troublemakers". Not all of them got shot outside a nightclub. Some were walking home. Others were driving down the street.
At one point there was a gang who almost had gone out and were going to shoot random black guys. Why? Because they wanted to through the police off, so that they might shot some other folks who pissed them off. One young Somali, visiting from Vancouver got shot in the head because some punk wanted to show how much of a "man" he was. He had been punked off by some people in that neighbourhood. His solution? Kill a random guy who happens to be in that neighbourhood.
So that is why I don't want to hear about "innocence lost". As a black man, I haven't felt safe in a while... after all I'm the most likely to get shot.
All this incident did was make me ask the question... why now? Why not last year? Or the year before? Because if that had happened, maybe I wouldn't be writing about how stupid this "innocence lost" business is.
The Pissed Off Author
Something has been on my mind since Boxing Day... our "lost" innocence. Specifically, for those who don't know, a 15 year old girl, Jane Creba, got hit with a stray bullet from a clash of 10-15 people. She wasn't the only one who got hit, but she was the lone casualty. Now, unlike most things you might read, what's on my mind isn't what seems to be on everyone elses mind.
The amount of attention this is getting is really what is interesting to me. It seems to me that the broad range of interests focused on this particular crime for a few obvious reasons. Such as the fact it took place on Yonge street on boxing day, in a time where there were literally thousands of people in that area (perhaps Toronto's largest concentration of shopping on that day). Essentially that "it coulda been me" factor. Another reason seems to be the fact that it wasn't a "punk" kid causing trouble, but a "promising" young woman of 15 who was shopping with her mother. The other factor, though less obvious, seem to be how photogenic Jane used to be. She was pretty.
Now I know this sounds like I am belittling the lose of an innocent life. Let me make this clear, my problem with this whole thing is not Jane, her family, or the fact that people are sympathizing with them. It's not even with the media attention per say. What really bothers me is the notion of "innocence lost". That this specific crime, is both horrible and especially distrubing.
Now you may be asking why I am hattin' so much on this whole thing. It's simple... our "innocence" was lost a long time ago. The last two years has seen a distrubing increase in the lose of innocent life. Jane wasn't even close to the first innocent person who has gotten killed in the last two years.
She just happens to be the first pretty white girl.
There were other young folks who were shot, who were minding their own business, when their lives ended. There were those who had promising futures, who were not "troublemakers". Not all of them got shot outside a nightclub. Some were walking home. Others were driving down the street.
At one point there was a gang who almost had gone out and were going to shoot random black guys. Why? Because they wanted to through the police off, so that they might shot some other folks who pissed them off. One young Somali, visiting from Vancouver got shot in the head because some punk wanted to show how much of a "man" he was. He had been punked off by some people in that neighbourhood. His solution? Kill a random guy who happens to be in that neighbourhood.
So that is why I don't want to hear about "innocence lost". As a black man, I haven't felt safe in a while... after all I'm the most likely to get shot.
All this incident did was make me ask the question... why now? Why not last year? Or the year before? Because if that had happened, maybe I wouldn't be writing about how stupid this "innocence lost" business is.
The Pissed Off Author
posted by Selam at 2:05 a.m.
7 Comments:
Hey Selam,
I'm with you in that I don't agree with the 'innocence lost' comments either, but I'm not so convinced race plays as big a role in the media frenzy here as you and some others propose.
I only say this because this story was huge LONG before we actually knew the victim was pretty white girl (I mean, it was on CNN in the US the very night it happened, with the victim's identity still not known.) That's huge! I still can't figure out why CNN would run a Toronto murder story... but that's another topic.
I personally think it really struck a chord because it was a potentent combination of two facts: 1. it was done, during normal hours, near the Eaton Centre which everyone knows, and 2. it was done in the midst of Boxing day shopping, which everyone can relate to.
Also it had the appearance of a huge gun shootout, not just a single isolated hit. I mean, when I first heard about there being 7 victims, I pictured a battlefield.
Yes, I know that a dude was killed at Dundas Square earlier that year, but that was during Caribana, something most people can't really relate to (and you've got to admit, every year there's a murder or two during that event, so people are used to hearing about it.) I'm not saying the Caribana death was less news-worthy... all murders should be equally news worth in an ideal world - but I just don't know if race is why everyone is choosing to spaz out about this murder now.
Anyway, I'm a white, 26 year old male, to reveal my biases for you. Regardless of the reason for the media explosion, lets hope something good long term and lasting comes from this - for future pretty white girl victims AND black male victims (which, you astutely noticed, are far more likely to occur.)
Thank you for sharing your information and perspective: that the issue of focus was not that the young woman was an upper-middle class white girl. That CNN ran the storty before her identity was known.
Though your comment is well taken do know that the girl's family didn't know she had died right away...she was shopping with her older sister, not her mother, she had crossed the street to Foot Locker a moment before and walked into the gun fire and was whisked away by the ambulance before her sister was even aware that Jane was missing (read about this in the Glode and Mail story which seems to have the most facts). They only realized that she was killed, or even that there had been a shootout when the mother of the girls was called downtown and they were taken to the hospital to identify Jane.
And when her family did find her they requested her identity remain hidden and they also refused to speak with the media. This does not mean that the media makers didn't know her identity and react to that identity on a personal basis. Or react to her socio-economic position based on what kind of news it would make when her identity was revealed. Remeber reporters and camerapeople have scanners and often get to the scene before the paramedics or police do.
I feel sad that this young woman lost her life. She didn't know it was coming. The world was her oyster. She had recently won an award at her school's athletic banquet. She posed in photos as the articulate and confident do...I'm sure her mother is poring over pictures with poses just like that taken only the day before.
Unfortunately, many young men and women in Toronto, many who do not commit murder or gun violence but who are suffering from various levels of non-belonging, depression, and resentment. They are all empowered to make revolutionary change in their lives and the lives of their families and children. But that change is not easy and they either don't have or don't know where to get the support they need to make change. They just want to belong. But the life they live is a symptom. We could lock them away but that's the equivalent of locking away the waste from our bodies instead of getting rid of it...death.
In the long run we corrode people we do not rehabilitate ...for those we can still reach.
What innocence. I am a 26 year old black female. And 20 years ago a white teacher laughed at me for not knowing how to spell a word. This woman, responsible for my education, one who had the power to expand my perspective instead abused my vulnerability. I have many stories like this in school, in work, on the street. And I'm female and have been part of the lower middle class my whole life.
And I had my share of anger and issues. But I was equipped through other empowering experiences to deal with them. But in this society a lot of others do not. Saying that race, social class, and economic opportunity have NOTHING to do with Jane's death does a great disservice to her life and the lives of the young men involved in the end of her life.
There is so much more twined into this situation that I do not have the space to address here...but I urge you to understand watch and learn....
Hi AO,
Thank you for your response to my anonymous comment above.
You bring up a good point about how the media probably knew she was a white woman before they published the official reports. I wonder if they knew she was pretty too.
However I feel I should clarify that I'm not saying there are no issues of race here at all, I'm just not so sure the huge media frenzy, at least in the initial stages, was because of the victim's race. But perhaps I'm being naive. I just know that when I heard about the shooting I was glued to my TV and extremely sad - even though I had no idea the nationality of the victim.
That said, I completely agree with you in that issues of race and social economic circumstance are really where we need to be looking to understand why this happens.
It makes me so sad to hear people talking about tougher sentences and more police on the street, as if this will have any significant impact on this sort of irrational crime.
I wish the politicans would listen to members of the community where this violence seems to be coming from, and invoke long term changes to break the cycle. It was fantastic to hear the press conference from the Toronto Youth Cabinet and other Toronto youth organizations. We HAVE to listen to these people - they have 100 times more insight into why this happens than a white, upper-middle class person such as myself or the politicians do. I'm all for banning hand guns but realistically, it's going to take so much more than that. We like to talk about how Canada is a multicultural, inclusive society to all of its members, but I think this is more wishful thinking than based in actual reality. AO's experiences are an example of this.
Just my two cents.
I beleive that you have hit this right on the head. I myself am a young white female, and i can still agree.The primary issue is not race, but apparently it is still an issue. I know there were articles about other innocent victims before, but *why* did it take a young white girl not to make the media stand up, but to make the whole *city* come together? People should have been this concerned and willing to pull together LONG before, after many other innocent lives were taken.
I would also like to add, now that i have read previous comments about them not knowing her identity before the shootout was spread all over the news, is that (this is in no way to take away from the fact that this was unfair and should never have happened to this family) her picture and story has been run so many more times than other innocent victims. This is what bothers me. Why were the others not of equal value to the community??its not right, everybody should be paid the same respect
Hey thank you all for commenting,
You all make good points. I would have to clarify one small but important item... it is the primary reason that I even wrote this particular blog. That the murder is by itself sensational, a popular crowded street on a holiday (I don't officially know if it's a holiday, but that's beside the point). BUT, the media coverage for the murder AFTER the identity was revealed was something very very different. Even though it got coverage on CNN (whether or not they knew of her identity, which sounds like they could have) the governments didn't step in until after there was a frenzy with the media. Where were the flowers and candles and condolenses for the other innocent victims that were driving down the street, walking home etc.? The most telling for me was public reaction... the sense that "we" are no longer safe.
AO again,
thank you SB for responding. What we are doing here is important. Thank you Selam for your initial opinioning and for SB and the anonymous woman for your responses. I think dialogue is what is needed, between all groups and classes. This is the hallmark of democracy and the kind of society we live in socialist-capitalist (as opposed to mostly capitalist or purely communist). It is not the equalizing of opportunities that is needed as much as dialogue...or the balancing of opportunities is worthless.
Shootings happen when people lack the ability to express themselves. This is something for which they are responsible, but it is something which others can participate in diffusing as well.
When we speak of race, or class, or economics as barriers we are saying the same thing repeatedly.... a lack of connection, dialogue, and expression. The inability to be heard and have an impact in our own lives and the fate of society means that when we "speak" we resort to more dramatic measures.
Yonge street is not a virgin spot...ask Jason Huxtable's family. But I am only correcting your facts...I am not disagreeing with you entirely. There are a number of factors that make Dec 26 so sensational:
*Mixed demographic crowds: Jason Huxtable was probably in a young, black/non-white, lower income bracket/starter salary dominated crowd - so that would diminish the "coulda been me factor" to those outside that group
*Close to Christmas...the shootings happened the day after a day people have been feeling good feelings, so the contrast was like a day of plus 1 weather after a minus 30 cold spell: it's not warm weather but people react to the difference
*Jane's name was very English
*She lived in Jack Layton's riding - NDP party Leader
*She was upper middle class - I lived close to Pape and Danforth...no matter the direction you walk the homes on the sidestreets are beautiful and medium to large-sized...sometimes rebuilt or obviosly renovated. As a young black female some did double-takes or quickly looked away as I walked through.
*Sixteen is the marker in this society of good times and maturity: license, sweet 16, ability to choose to stay in school, leave home - and Jane just missed it by less than a year: the year of choice
* She was blond, good skin, nice hair, beautiful features: looked like she came straight from the pages of a Shameless magazine feature
*Good grades, prize-winnig athlete: not one of dem gyals that dye their hair black, gel the life out of their hair to make styles from black hair magazines, cut class, and date guys with drop waisted pants - a REAL white girl
*Yonge and Dundas area: not down the road at Regent, or down the road ar St. Jamestown, or Church and Gerrard or even the Yorkdale Subway steps, or the Jane street bus
*Election time, not only for the Feds but also for Miller come November
*Last murder of the year: it's usually "some black guy" at some "jam" or "bash" or "sound clash" who's the last to die
*Killed by gun
*In the afternoon, close to the end of the day - if the shootings had happened at night things might be a little different...we expect things to happen at night...also, had the shootout happened just 40 minutes later Jane would still be here...Foot Locker would have been closed - she wouldn't have dashed over...which she probably did to get a deal before closing time.
*Family girl: she wasn't with friends, she was with her sister - a sister who was home from university and would have left in a few days
*Others shot - including an off duty police officer - another a young woman hit 4 times - twice in each leg
*Shot in a gun battle between groups
*It wasn't personal..had she been shot as a victim of personal violence she would have only made 20th page news or a Rosie DiManno Saturday special on battered women
*No chance to fight for her life: She died instantly or shortly thereafter
Jane's death in it's timing and subject broke all stereotypes. The guns no longer discriminated...they became equal opportunity destroyers. Pointing to all of our society's disconnected pieces. The things we say to our friends and family that we don't discuss across class lines, racial boundaries, or economic position.
Jane's death is not only about guns, but about the very nature of violation and how when we disconnect from one another it lays the soil for violence..which is not possible with connection.
Please respond.
Love and reverence to all,
AO
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