It’s a beautiful feeling to have the little arm and the little fingers touch your body.
I’m going to go get it for them and knowing that this is a real human being that you actually created, and now that you’ve watched them grow up to at least 24, 25, whatever, take him out the door. I’m going to fucking kill this man.
And for somebody else to come and steal that away from you, it’s like death itself to you.
Shagun Farerson is one of 15 young blacks killed in a violent spree in Toronto in the past four months. The 24-year-old’s last words were somehow recorded on his cell phone’s voicemail.
My son was shot to death. I’m asking the public to help and to put an end to these murders.
In the past 6 years, over 125 young black males have been murdered in Toronto, accounting for a third of the city’s homicides. 75% of them remain unsolved, almost double the city’s average. Yet at a candlelight vigil called to raise awareness of the problem, only a small number of people show up.
It is now such a consistent pattern, almost on a weekly basis, for one black youth killing another black youth that it no longer has any meaning for us in terms of the implications for community life, for community self-esteem, for community self-respect, and so on. We just go on and we try to survive. We need to find other ways to deal with this. This is a crisis of immense proportion.
Amen. Give her a round of applause as she comes right now. This is a mother on a mission. It’s been a year since Julia’s son, Shagun Farerson, was murdered and his killers are still at large. She wants them brought to justice, and she wants to save other mothers’ children.
Good evening everyone. This is Shagun Farerson. He’s the young man that was begging for his life on the cell phone. This murder has not been solved, and I’m reaching out to everyone. Everyone: mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers. We live in this community. He goes to school at Marian Academy. Most everyone know this young man. Most of every single mother must have known how hard it is, how difficult it is to work to support your children and to raise them to this age, only for another young person to take this life. I am not angry because if I was angry, I couldn’t be standing before you. I have love in my heart and I can forgive this person. I want to save other children’s lives. I want to help other mothers by bringing this picture in front of everyone. I didn’t have any fear to think that my son could be out there dead because I didn’t expect somebody is going to shoot my son. My son is a caring, loving kid that, you know, he helps everyone. He’s not one of those kids that you’ll pass and you’re afraid to talk to him. He’s the first person to say hello. It doesn’t matter who you are.
As his agent, I would like to introduce to you from the Toronto Marlies hockey organization, Shagun Farerson.
Thank you. I feel proud of my team. We won this medal, World Junior Championships, Canada, Team Canada. We’re alone.
Shagun didn’t have an arrest record. He had been a promising athlete. To his family and friends, he was a sweet-natured person. But the fact is, Shagun ended up dead. He lived in Rexdale on the outskirts of Toronto in a public housing complex known as Duncan Woods. 52 mostly black, mostly poor, single-parent families live in its maze of townhouses. Almost half of Toronto’s blacks live below the poverty line, most of those in public housing. Rexdale has many of these communities and has become a battle zone for criminal youth gangs. Shootings are common, but often the victims aren’t gang members themselves.
Why is it that they think because my son died it has to be either drug-related or gang-related? My son wasn’t in gangs and my son wasn’t in drugs, because surely my son wouldn’t be in drugs in my house. I am a Jamaican. I came here when I was 21 years old. I don’t use drugs, I don’t smoke, and I don’t drink. And that’s how I grow my kids.
I brought this vase. It’s my son’s memory. I want… no, I want 24. 24 in there.
Today is the first anniversary of her son’s death and Julia is holding a memorial service to keep Shagun’s case alive. She’s invited Shagun’s friends, the media, the police, and community leaders.
I was afraid of that. It might not fit, but it has to fit. It’s not easy. It’s hard, but I have to be strong. I have to be strong.
Okay, those are the 36 and those are the 24. Okay sweetheart, the best you can when you go home. Okay. Yeah, first 24 was his number of years that he lived and the one red one, that’s the blood.
We want to make this a lasting remembrance of what brought us together. We are here for a purpose and that purpose is to see changes to the justice system, the education system, and the employment system. Young men, black men, take a look at yourself in the mirror and see what a wonderful human being you are. Put the guns down. I challenge you all as a mother, a sister, a humankind. No more killings.
Sorrow and grief has brought myself and several other mothers together and we have formed U.M.O.V.E.—United Mothers Opposing Violence Everywhere. Quite honestly, we don’t want any more mothers in our group. We really don’t want any more members in our group, ’cause the only reason someone joins our group is because their child has been killed violently and we don’t want them. We don’t want anymore. Our group is big enough right now.
Julia’s group, U.M.O.V.E., has 15 members. None of the mothers have seen their children’s murderers convicted, but Julia has faith that if she can keep up the public pressure, Shagun’s killers will be identified.
I grew up with him. Miss him a lot too.
Why was he killed?
I don’t really… I don’t want to get into that.
I don’t want to get into that one.
You don’t want to get into why?
‘Cause I don’t know why he was killed.
People just like don’t want to talk about it ’cause when they think about it more…
Come on. People are scared. No, let’s face it, people are scared to talk about it. People are trying to protect other people. So let’s be real. Another man just want to bury it and let it go. There’s people out there that knows what happened. For some reason, whether they are afraid or not, I don’t know. But in time, they’re not going to be able to keep their tongue within their mouth. It’s going to be so hot that they have to open it to get a cool breeze so they’ll speak.
Are you optimistic that this can be solved and will be solved?
It will be solved. It will be solved. It might take some time, but it will be solved.
Homicide detectives Ken Taylor and Mark Saunders say they have logged hundreds of hours on Shagun’s case. No arrests have been made.
We saw a pair of running shoes, located a vehicle. We located two bullets that were on scene at that particular point in time as well. So the whole thing is starting to give us a little bit of a picture where we’re going to be going from there, sort of thing.
There is one piece of evidence in Shagun’s case that sets it apart from any others. The last minutes of his life were recorded by his cell phone. The police believe that it takes us right up to the seconds before Shagun was shot and killed.
Why can’t I go? Why can’t I go on the phone right now? Shut up. Yo, I know. Yo, B, just hold on man. Yo, B, I just swear, I’m gonna go get it for you, man. Pick up. Where is it? Yo, B, just let me go get it for them man. Yo, let me go get it for them. I swear to God man, I’ll pay it for out of my own pocket and get it for them. I swear to God, please.
We’re able to get in real time what it occurred: the emotions, the dialogue, the conversation, all of the elements that you normally wouldn’t be able to capture.
Let me fucking kill this. Let me kill this.
We believe that there was four distinct voices on the tape. We were able to identify two of them, one of which was a witness and one of which was Mr. Farerson’s voice.
I swear, B, I swear on my screen, man.
Shagun was the kind of kid everyone expected to do well. Instead, he became one of dozens of young black men to die violently in recent years. Through Julia’s efforts, Shagun’s murder has become the stuff of radio talk shows. This morning, two of Shagun’s former hockey teammates are being interviewed.
Everybody knew Shagun on the ice. He was very tough and feisty and played hard, but it didn’t match his character off the ice.
Julia has been seeking the truth about Shagun’s murder. Now she’s about to hear for the first time that he had a secret life.
But then there’s another side of me that sees him in his coffin. And there is a small part of me that has a little bit of guilt in the sense that I knew that he was getting involved with the wrong crowd, yet I never did anything to try to help him. I knew he was struggling to find a job. He had told me that he was involved with some stuff that he was making a little bit of money. Said that he was having a hard time finding work. He was into something he didn’t want to be in, but he was doing it for his family.
And you know, he, in essence, wound up getting killed as a result of an attempt to consummate a counterfeit money deal.
One of the first words out of their mouth is “Where’s the money? Go get it. Where’s the money? Go get it.” “I’ll get it. Where is it? I don’t have it.” So it was a ripoff for $15,000, which the suspects hoped to get $15,000 worth of counterfeit money. And that’s it. There’s nothing else to read into. That’s it; it was a robbery, and they didn’t get their money, and this person cowardly shot Mr. Farerson in the back.
Right across here. And this is the exact spot he died. His body was lying somewhere across the right along the curve there. That’s where he was. The lady who called the 911, she told me that’s where his body was lying. Like his head was that way and his feet were turning this way. He was right at the curve there. She said that’s where he fell. So whether they push him out of the car, shoot him and then push him out of the car, I don’t know. But I assume that’s what happened.
Only the person that accompanied Shagun can say for sure why he was there that night. According to the police, the witness claims to be unable to recall the facts critical to bringing the case to trial.
We strongly believe we know who the person was who was in the backseat of that car, who pulled the trigger and shot him in the back. And we strongly believe that we have a very good case once we get that one particular phone call.
The police are now hoping that the killer’s accomplice will come forward.
If you ask me the question, what if the driver came forward today and gave you a statement? The person would be arrested immediately after the interview. That’s how close we are.
So far, no one is prepared to testify in Shagun Farerson’s case, a hallmark of the unsolved murders.
It’s a serious problem, but we have to understand how the criminalization and re-criminalization of a lot of our young people occurs consistently. And this creates a lot of bitterness, a lot of anger, a lot of distrust and a lot of fear in young people in terms of dealing with the police or the criminal justice system.
The police have not yet told Julia the name of the witness, but he and the suspects may live in the community. Julia worries about her other children, most of all her surviving son, Kaddafi.
Um, I ask these kids here if they want to pay for them for basketball. I don’t think they want to. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.
So you going up to play ball?
Yeah.
Kaddafi is very quiet. He’s very, very quiet. But he and she used to get along really well. She will tell him the things that he is doing that might be wrong in terms of school or in terms of playing sports. But now that he’s not there to kind of teach him or to show him different things as a big brother, it’s difficult.
Weekends and evenings are free. Then the day is only 50 minutes. You have for the month.
I know. And someone called me. I was telling, “Call me back later.” I’ll call you back later. If every time somebody going to call you and is going to take up the 50 minutes, the whole month… 50 minutes is less than 1 hour for one month, which is 30 days.
Kaddafi doesn’t talk to me now like he doesn’t come to me like before. We could joke working, you know? But now the only time he talked to me he just says, “Mom, the police are not going to do anything.”
For how much games we win, JP? Seven games. Seven games right there. You fried these guys seven times. Seven. The truth right here, Kaddafi. The truth.
In addition to the pessimism about his brother’s case, Kaddafi dislikes his mother’s ongoing activism.
Yeah, I think my mom’s changed, but no, she thinks I changed too. You know what I mean? That’s how life is though. You know, life’s full of changes.
Yeah, my mom’s involvement in all this media stuff. That was a family because I really believe that she should just, you know, stick to her own stuff and anything because honestly like that’s not really helping. I feel… what I feel is not helping. It’s not helping me. Maybe it’s helping her, but it’s not helping me.
Kaddafi leaves the neighborhood every day to play basketball in a quiet suburban community center. He is waiting to hear if he will receive a college scholarship. In spite of this, he fits the profile of what the police call an “at-risk youth.” That is, he’s a black male from a single-parent family and living in public housing.
Basketball keeps me going, keeps my mind straight. I got to be active and just take everything day at a time, you know? And I just make sure everything’s normal to me, ’cause if I have anything changes, that’s going to make my… that’s going to be a downfall for me. And I don’t want to have a downfall because if I have a downfall then I might do something wrong. And right now I’m doing all right.
This is where Gillette Sunbury Lloyd shoot him too.
Gillette is also one of the mothers that is on… that is in the group with us, in the “U.M.O.V.E.” group.
I like to come here. I like to walk among the dead. Better to walk among the dead than walk among the living. This guy, he too was shot down and killed.
I think they’re one of those… they die from the same shooting business. They were the same age as Shagun.
Every victim had a mother and they find solace in each other’s company at a retreat arranged by concerned friends. Also present is a youth at risk whom they hope will give them insight into why young men so easily turn to violence.
I have nine candles for the nine children that we’re giving up. Put one little one for the mothers that are not here. I know he is just there now laughing with his big petite and he always say “Mom, that’s true still.” You know, “True still.” “I love my mom still,” you know? He always said everything he said is “still.”
This young man here, he was talking just like she was saying everything, you know? It’s “right still,” you know, “screw still.”
18-year-old Niggas Tafari is here with his mother who is one of the organizers. They live in a Toronto public housing project where gangs are active.
I don’t know. Still business, guys, ’cause I don’t know what to say and I don’t know. Some of them are born killers, you know? It’s like that anger inside of them. Say, “I want to do it and I don’t care.” You know what I mean? And other youths will pressure them to go and fight other youths. If they’re pointing a gun at me right there, I… that calls for straight retaliation. I think you guys know what I mean by that.
Okay. So is there anything else you could do to prevent them killing you or to protect yourself without you having to take their life first? What do you think you could do to prevent them from actually doing what they’re threatening to do or to protect yourself?
I don’t know. Just take the slug.
Take the slug?
Take it.
Take the what?
Take the slug.
You’re limiting your answers to solutions that you have to come up with on your own, as if you live in isolation, as if you live by yourself and there’s nobody else in the world around you.
No, everybody’s… everybody’s scared too. Everybody’s scared too.
Why should they be scared of…?
They’re scared for their life. So why should they be scared for my life?
There is another side to Nigas that he didn’t reveal at the retreat. On the streets, he’s known as “Ghetto Prophet.”
The name is GP. I’m the best in this game. And I don’t give a spit in your face. And I am not you. And this is not your life. So get off my dick. This is not your fight. Listen to me. I’m young but I’ll have you dead. Get the word. I’ll turn your brain into scramble.
See, like Julia’s family, Nigas Tafari lives in public housing in a high-crime area. And like 40% of black youth in Toronto, Nigas is not in school and is unemployed. In his world, the most important thing is respect. And the way to get respect is through toughness.
A man could just kill a man ’cause he feels like it. A man could just kill a man ’cause he looked at him in the wrong way. And I could just kill a man ’cause, yo, he was chilling with one of his bread, one of our guy that he has beef with. It’s one of his enemies, you know.
I don’t think. I never did think about hope. I believe this is how… something not right here. It’s all of a sudden, it is just popping up like all over the place.
When neighbors meet around Julia’s kitchen table, the subject often turns to the community’s troubles.
It’s pitiful. It’s pitiful.
Then that’s why I ask that question: Why did we grow up this way and all of a sudden the last generation kids just gone sideways? I don’t know. I blame society. I blame the parents them too. But most people, they can’t talk to the kids, ’cause if you talk to the kids, oh it’s abuse. They go to school, the teacher tell them, “If your mom talk to you like that, tell me.” They call children “Zid” and whatever. When you guys was growing up, I don’t care about no children’s. I don’t care about nobody. I’m doing what I supposed to do. So most of these parents out there scared. I’m not giving power to nobody. I beat them up.
Beat them up?
They don’t know that. Just like you. Just like I beat them up. Just like… that’s what most… that’s what most parents of the kids, all my friends, their parents with the same mindset. They did something wrong. Others, now, they’re scared.
And then you… the problem is, though, you see some parents can’t handle… can’t handle it. They don’t know how to do it. They don’t do it with love. They do it with hate. And when you do it with hate, you abuse them. The Bible tell you, “Train up the child how you want him to grow.” Bible tell you that. These kids when they see the stuff on TV, they don’t see the in-between. All they see, these guys their age, fancy cars, lots of women, lots of money.
In 2001, the Toronto police laid over 4,000 firearm possession charges, a five-fold increase in 5 years. In response, the police have set up a citywide guns and gangs task force.
The escalation of firearms in Toronto, the escalation of gangs and the escalation of the drug trade are a very toxic mix. And what’s happened is these scores are being settled with guns.
Shagun Farerson lived in an area with the highest rate of violent crime in Toronto and may have had contact with gang members.
What you have to understand is that the gang is a criminal organization. Criminal organization, there’s a purpose. The purpose is to commit crime, make money. That’s your livelihood. It’s like if I can buy a product from here, I can buy it cheaper over here or I can obtain a service. I’m going to obtain the service over there.
Yo, we represent! We represent! Yo, see us, the LGC clip. All the men ain’t even here right now. You know what I’m saying? Niggas like us, yo, we represent the turf. You see, what’s your turf? Can’t even really tell you too much. You know what I’m saying? Listen, give me a little something-something. You know, we handle beef and shit.
Go to school. Got kicked out of school. Why? Because man stabbed the kid in his throat. That’s what we do. Yo, that’s LGC! LGC! Make sure we show you the sign. Seeing… seeing… represent, represent, yo, yo, yo! This thing wants to know about LGC. She wants to know what the niggas is repping.
A gang offers nothing more than what the normal social structure of family and society offers: bonding, friendship, purpose, protection. The kids that are being targeted are the kids that don’t have that. So they’re ripe for the picking.
What do you guys do?
G-bang on the block. Dang! Yo, represent LGC niggas. Yo, we don’t… yo, we don’t take shit from nobody. You know what I’m saying? All the niggas is down on the real tip.
Is that true?
Yeah, that’s true.
Yo, does your mom know?
My mom don’t really give a fuck.
Is that what you guys do?
No, no, no. We play ball and stuff.
But why do you go to school?
Yeah, yeah, I go to school man.
So why is it important to be cool like that?
Like yo, it’s all about respect. Respect.
And if you ain’t hard, you’re not getting no respect, right?
Whatever happens, happens. You know what I’m saying? Shit. We all go when we got to go, right? There’s no set date when we’re going to die. See, yo, why not represent until you see it?
So don’t you have any hope for yourself?
No, I mean who cares about hope? Who gives a fuck about all that shit, man? You know what I’m saying? We’re just living. We’re just living. We all know we’re going to have to eventually die.
The reality is levita loca. It’s like it’s now… it’s power, it’s money, it’s drugs, it’s women, it’s the thrill. It’s cultural. That’s the problem that we have in the streets of Toronto right now.
The problem is now front and center in the community. Even Junior Carnival, a yearly Caribbean street festival for children, ends in violence. Police apprehend two youths when a woman is struck by a beer bottle. A 20-year-old male is arrested.
Back up! Back up! Don’t touch my camera! Back up! Don’t touch my camera!
He has a gun right now! Would you like to get shot?
Police keep stopping me, as she…
Right now in the hood, it’s bad. Cat is going to keep getting plugged. So it’s just, it’s a never-ending cycle. The kids are coming up, they start doing it. How many funerals have I been to? You know what I mean? And it’s like man, “Green Eyes” just got it. Who knows who I’m going to… I’m just, you know, I mean, phone could ring any second and they could be like, “Yo, this person got it.” You know what I mean?
Are there gangs in that area?
A lot of gangs. The Crips, Bloods, everywhere.
How you feel about that?
That’s how life is.
Are you part of the gang?
I can’t answer that question.
3 hours later, 200 meters away, 19-year-old Amomar Young of Rexdale is shot to death in front of horrified revelers.
We have gun and/or gang enforcement on the street 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. But can I just look at somebody and say that person fits the profile of somebody that has a gun? No.
Doesn’t look like I have any guns. You know it’s how easy it is. Now, all of a sudden, I’ve got a lot more power than you. Now, you’re respecting me because I’ve got a gun. It’s just one gun. Not a big deal. Now we got a bigger gun. Now I got more respect. Now I got two guns. One’s big.
This gun came from the United States. Somebody’s tried to take the serial number off it. Brand new. You can buy this for next to nothing in the US. They’re everywhere. Now, I really don’t like what’s happening. I’ve got a machine gun. Now I’m… now I’m going to have tons of respect. Now everybody’s going to respect me.
Oh God, our creator, our light in darkness, our courage in adversity, our strength in weakness and our comfort in sorrow. Keep us safe from the dangers of violence. Banish it from our midst and wipe away our tears. Let us always feel the presence of your love and be secure in your protection. Bless and pour out your peace and love on us, on our community and our victims of violence. Amen.
And it’s just another… another killing again, and again and again. These guys are walking around with guns like they’re in the army. These guys need not to go to jail. They need to be sent to the army. You send them to the Middle East or send them to where there needs to be peacekeeping. Send them there so they can work along with, you know, alongside soldier for them to keep peace. So they can see what is peace and what is war. If they want war, send them there. Make them see what peace and war is.
We know the economic situation. No jobs, no training. Young people need counseling. We know all of that. The black community does not have the resources to deal with some of these problems. But we must get the resources, and it has to begin within our community.
You talk to the typical young person in our community, he’s angry all the time. He’s angry and impatient all the time. Why? Not because he’s just angry because he’s black for no reason. Everything about his reality makes him angry. And we need to understand why that happens. So we can understand why they would so easily take another black life. Because living has a meaninglessness to it for them and a kind of depravity that says, “I am so removed from what the society says is the ‘Canadian dream’ that I have to do whatever I can to get what I can now in the ways that I can. And the future, really, I’ll deal with it if I get there, because in my reality, I’ll probably be shot and killed.”
Late summer, Julia’s son Kaddafi is still waiting to hear about college. He’s drawn to a “U.M.O.V.E.” three-on-three basketball tournament co-sponsored by the police who have uneasy relations with the residents of this housing project. As always, Julia uses the opportunity to take her message directly to young people.
What does that represent? That this is my son, Shagun, that was murdered last year, May the 18th.
Where do you live?
11th Place.
11th Place. So in the region park area?
Okay.
It’s not all that bad though, just as sometimes, you know, people makes it worse than it seems, right? But you just have to stay out of trouble, right? When you see trouble, you don’t run to it. You run away from it, right?
I have some friends from school that smoke weed. I’m trying to encourage them to stop, but I don’t know if it’s working or not.
Well, just keep telling them and you don’t try it. You mustn’t try it. You must have your own mind to say, “Well, that’s not what I want to do, and I’m not going to do it.” All right? So you take care. Okay.
Go!
Although the mother’s support group sees this as an opportunity to raise awareness, the police don’t give them an opportunity to speak. They seem to want this to be a feel-good event, and the subject of violence is never raised.
We have with us here today on center court, Jamal McClou with the Charlotte, or the New Orleans Hornets.
Even their star guest, who grew up in Toronto, does not mention that his stepbrother was gunned down nearby the year before.
Everybody’s out here together and then having a good time. And I think, uh, just work hard for you young ones. Set goals. Uh, be hungry. And the sky’s the limit. It wasn’t too long ago that, you know, I was here playing at the community center across the way there.
I think that events like these in the different neighborhoods have… I think that they have a lot more meaning to the organizers than the actual participants. Not that it’s a waste of time or anything, but it still won’t give like a clear imprint of how is it that an individual, a basketball player here, is going to be able to get involved. He’s not going to build anything ’cause there’s still going to be violence around the world, you know? You can’t help… you can’t stop violence. It’s just going to… you know, it’s just, ’cause you know this is a one-day thing. Violence is every day. You know, if this was every day then it could help. But it’s not every day. So after this is done, there could be violence. You can’t help that.
14 months after Shagun’s murder and 30 more black youths have been killed on the streets of Toronto, including Shem Pascal, a 16-year-old male who was repeatedly stabbed after struggling to fend off another black youth in a robbery attempt.
Oh God!
You guys…
Our children are dying. Parents have to educate their children about violence in Canada. Canada, the violence is getting out of hand with our black children. We don’t come here for this. We are hungry. I’m a hungry mother. I’m hungry.
But sometimes we don’t understand, but he understood everything.
Julia and members of her support group comfort newly bereaved mothers. Shem Pascal’s mother recounts how she got a call from his friends and managed to flag down their car as they rushed her dying son to hospital.
I said, “Don’t move him, just keep them.” And they said, he said he can’t do it because the other guy’s going to shoot him. They have gun.
Oh boy. That’s all I hear. He said to me, and when he said that I hear him balling, “Mommy, mommy, mommy.” Like he’s still balling. So he said there… here he say, “I’m on your area, we coming around your area.” I said, “Please, call him quick around your area.” And I hear when he say, “Call him quick,” I hear he say, “He dead.” And I hear balling and I just… my eyes open and I get super… I run outside. I run, I run down that way. Because he died very hard for you. I know you watch… yes, yes, I watch him die. I don’t think I could stand when I watch him die. I watch everything and I keep… more keep wiping blood. I wipe, I wipe. I play with blood. I rub him, I kiss him up with blood, because he wasn’t stiff and he was just singing. And all what I do.
So did he have last words?
Like he didn’t talk to you?
He couldn’t talk. Since they pick him up he couldn’t talk. He was dying.
Really? I’ve never had someone who died like that. That’s a real nightmare. That’s… I don’t know what that is.
It’s over a year now. It’s over a year now and nothing has been done. Maria, we can’t continue with these kind of things. You know, it’s too many. Is it because I’m black? Is it because I’m poor?
When was the last time you’ve been in touch with it?
The last time I spoke to the detective was back in… um, February, I think. The first one, um, Ken Taylor, he was gone from the case a long while ago. It’s only Mark Saunders that was on it. And the last time I spoke to him, he says, “Right now it’s cold.”
And so you haven’t… you haven’t contacted and they didn’t contact you either?
No. Nothing. I mean, the whole thing is shabby. I never get the death certificate, I never get nothing. No, nothing. Absolute nothing.
I think it’s important that we know maybe some… some closure there. Okay, and I’ll write the… the minister and I’ll write Julian Fantino, our police chief, and see if we can get some up-to-date information.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
The police invite Julia’s mother’s group to the launch of Toronto’s annual Caribbean Street Festival, but once again they are not given an opportunity to speak.
Hi. What’s up? I’m running around. What’s happening? What happened? I… I called me and said to come here. Do you know what we’re doing… supposed to be doing here?
No, we just invited members of U.M.O.V.E. to come to watch if they wanted to.
I wish I was told what exactly we were…
No, I said come down.
Okay. No, we just… we called her and said you can invite members of U.M.O.V.E. to attend.
Well, we want to be invited.
Yes.
But we want to be recognized. We don’t just want to be singing, because the point is my son died and I want… I want everybody to know this.
Okay, and that’s probably not…
She can always said to me, “Mom, why don’t you go to your bed?” And I said, “‘Cause I want to see when you’re coming. I want to see what’s going on.” “Mom, you’re like a spy. You’re a spy. You should be an FBI.” You always joke with me like that. You know, I’m not over-protective, but I’m not under-protective over my children. I lost one and I don’t intend to lose anymore.
Wash it. Wash. I’m going to wash tonight.
Nigas Tafari has been out of high school for 18 months with no plans to return. He writes stacks of rhymes about his life, referring to gangs, enemies, and codes of conduct on his turf.
Morning.
Yeah, I live in natural housing and I’m proud of it. Like how a rich man’s rich and he proud of it. It’s GP repping both sides of the bridge. You crab motherfuckers know about all sides of the bridge. I paid a fifth for a bill worth of food. Niggas prop to jar, and I ain’t the best rapper but I’m better than you. I’m a young bastard and I’m getting to you. That’s why we the type to bust guns for funs. Always stepping man’s chest till they crush the lung. I’m a citizen and I chop the canari, ex ain’t got no name. Are you jealous? Envious? Girl, motherfucking spiteful with hatred. Fuck you motherfucker, I’m the asp and see you die.
Straight.
Is that the future for you?
Yep, that’s the future for me. Yeah, that’s what you got. That’s right. Yeah.
Come on. Yeah. I seen money for the money for the money. Still die for money. What you do for money? You trust your cash? I see people lie for money, try for the money, cry for the money, losers still die for money. What you do for money?
The community’s frustration with the rising death toll boils over in a live radio town hall meeting with police and community representatives.
“Making peace, ending the violence is your chance to be heard and to speak out about the violence that has killed more than 100 young black men in this city in the last 5 years.”
Hi, my name is Yvonne Beasley. I’m the mother of Sydney Hamons that was killed July 5th, 2001. My question to you is, how exactly do the youth of Regent Park trust the police in the neighborhood when all it is to them is “niggers are killing niggers?”
First of all, I understand the pain behind that statement. Uh, but at the same time, the police have a very difficult job to do. We have to prosecute these homicides. Therefore, we need witnesses. And so, therefore, we do require not only people to share information with us, which can be kept confidential, and usually is, but we need witnesses who can come forward and testify and give evidence in court, for in order for us to convict gunmen. And that requires people to actually come forward and be identified.
That’s our criminal justice system overall as a… on a whole. I think that, you know, the police is the biggest factor, um, as far as addressing this. Because if there actually was trust between young people and the police, then you would see a lot more cooperation at this point. And I just don’t think that that’s something that exists, even to this day.
I lose my son to another black child. Okay? And as far as I’m concerned, nothing is being done about it. But I’m not going to blame the police alone. I’m going to blame my culture also and the community that I’m in because they know what’s going on and they’re not saying anything.
After the meeting, Julia speaks with Detective Saunders about Shagun’s case. He tells her no one will talk and no arrest is imminent.
To me, I find it ironic that a person would be sitting in a car with my son and doesn’t know what kind of car he was sitting in, doesn’t know anything about the car, doesn’t know anything about the other two people that was in the car. You know, it’s ridiculous.
It’s frustrating because we don’t have the evidence to go the final… the final 10 yards. A lot of people don’t understand that just because we knock on the door, the person who opens the door is compelled to talk to us. Um, this is Canada and if a person does not want to talk, they have that right. Um, cases get solved with community involvement.
I don’t think we’re doing enough as a society to respond to this. I mean, on the one hand, we say members of the community aren’t cooperating in terms of giving us names and so on. That doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in an environment of distrust and fear of the police that a lot of people have because of past experiences and relationships that we have had. It’s not because people don’t want to catch criminals. Of course we all want to catch criminals and we want to see justice done.
It’s frustrating where your measurement is solved or unsolved. Uh, if “solved” included that, “Yeah, do you know who did it?” Then the unsolved rate would be very, very low.
After 15 months without any movement in Shagun’s murder investigation, Julia has written to the authorities asking them to close the case.
I want to move on. And I mean if they’re not working on the case, I feel they should close the case and go to something else where they think they can solve or they feel they want to solve. You know, just forget it. Let me do whatever I have to do. You know what I mean? My son is already dead and solving the murder is not going to bring him back.
I feel that there is something else can be done, but the people who I think that can help to bring about this change, to prevent all these kind of things, they’re not willing to do it. I guess they probably don’t see a need for it. But…
Wherever Kaddafi may be in 10 years, I give thanks and I give praise. Kaddafi will be fine. He’ll be okay. I can’t bring Shagun back but I know I’ll see him again. So that’s hope. And if you have hope, you have everything. You have faith to endure which I keep building my faith. This makes me stronger. It makes me stronger.
Give it up for my… chilling on the venue.
Give it up for my…
Mama always told me that money adds up. So y’all, when money adds up, ’cause y’all ain’t shit. When money adds up with GP and be a bagged up. When I rap, I don’t rap for fun. And y’all, I don’t stay strapped for fun. I’m trying to make money now here to start shit, fat. I rock my money bandana and my army flag, and I got an army and they here right now, and I’m still independent like Destiny’s Child. What they got to offer us? I know officer, he won’t throw you in jail. He’ll smash you and jack you. I know that for real. So if you think they your friend somewhere and somehow, then he’s playing stupid and looking for a gun down.
I was born. I was born.
I was born.
I was born.
I was…
Tell…
Many, many years ago, ancient Egypt’s world be…
I was born, the godson of Horus, the child of Isis, through the demon descending on my father’s torture. Mercy.
