Boxing Day Part II

The other day, I started an entry about Boxing Day shopping, but it turned out to be about the shootings.

Today, I want to talk about Jane Creba, and Boxing Day shopping in general.

On Boxing Day, I went to Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre with my best friend, C. We arrived at 11:30, and I thought, "we're so late! Look at how congested it is! We'll never find a parking spot."

After driving around for 10 mins, I had to go to the washroom, so C. dropped me off and when I got to the washroom, the line-up went outside the washroom and into the corridor that connects it to the foodcourt. Insane!

So, we started shopping and fortuantely, we didn't encounter any rude shoppers. Everyone was very courteous, not trying to bud in line and stuff. I thought, this is cool. This isn't too bad. It's crowded, but everyone is getting along.

Later that evening, we went to dinner with some friends, including C.'s boyfriend. He mentioned to us that there was a shooting downtown at the Eaton Centre. So much for my sense of security.

Jane Creba was the 15 year old who was shot in the head, the victim of a volley of indiscriminate bullets fired across Yonge Street by a group of teenagers fighting over what I am sure was completely meaningless. Everything else becomes meaningless when teens start taking up guns and shoot repeatedly into a crowd.

All summer long, all autumn long, everytime I heard of the shootings, I'd listen for the location where these crimes took place. They were almost always in the J/F area of Toronto north. "This doesn't happen everywhere," I thought. Well, now it's starting to happen in places I would least expect. In broad daylight, no less.

I have faith in the Toronto Police that they will catch these criminals soon. When that happens, I don't want to hear friends and family members of those criminals to tell the media how these were nice boys, who they love their sister very much, how they can't believe these boys did something like this.

I would tell them, stop being in denial. Your son did not turn into a gangbanger overnight. There were so many signs that he was dealing drugs, doing drugs, committing all sorts of felonies, and you turned a blind eye to it. Now, someone's daughter is dead. Someone's sister is dead. One Jane Creba is worth 10X more than all of these losers combined.

If they want to claim innocence in all of this, try doing it in front of the victims of the shootings, in front of Jane Creba's family. I dare them to say their sons are good boys in front of all these grieving victims.