City Council meets Monday to consider cutting the $1.22 billion police budget by 10% next year, or $122 million, at a time when shootings in Toronto are up by 20% over last year.
Gun violence this year is also on pace to surpass 2019’s record number of occurrences since police street checks (aka carding) were abandoned in 2015.
According to police crime data, as of June 21 there were 204 shootings and firearm discharge incidents in Toronto so far this year, compared to 170 at this time last year.
That means gun violence in Toronto this year is on pace to surpass the record 492 incidents that occurred in 2019, the highest level recorded since 2004.
Deaths and injuries from gun violence so far this year total 90, the highest level in the past six years, except for 2019 when there were 98.
The number of people killed by gunfire so far this year, at 21, is at the highest level it’s been over the past six years, except for 2016, when there were 22.
The number injured by gunfire so far the year, at 69, is at the highest level it’s been in six years, except for 2019 when there were 84 and 2018 when there were 71.
These grim statistics, fuelled by gang violence, underscore the recklessness of cutting the police budget by 10% next year, based on an absurd “Defund the Police” slogan popularized by the brutal death of George Floyd while in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers.
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