Laval is not spared by the increase in crimes against the person and episodes of shooting, reveal new data, at a time when the Montreal police say they want to invest social networks where some “exhibit weapons just for the pleasure “.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
The annual report of the Service de police de Laval (SPL), published on Wednesday, reports a “peak” of this type of crime last year, an increase of 30% compared to the average of the previous four years.
The police force reports significant increases in the number of assaults perpetrated on its territory last year (2,711), up 20% compared to the average from 2015 to 2019, and “acts of threats or violence” , up 27%, when compared to the same period.
Blame it on COVID-19?
Ile Jésus is also experiencing an increase in armed violence. Earlier this week, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) indicated in its annual report that the number of events where a firearm had been discharged had more than doubled in the metropolis in 2021 compared to last year.
In Laval, these events were also on the rise in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2019. That year, the SPL had recorded 18 firearm discharge episodes, while this number climbed to 40 in 2020, then to 42 last year.
The SPL specifies that the shots mainly occurred in public places, and mostly in the Chomedey district, a red-light district where several shootings have still occurred in recent weeks.
The president of the Professional Order of Criminologists of Quebec, Josée Rioux, is not surprised by this news. “It’s sure, it’s just glued by bridges, it’s walking around, criminals,” she says, recalling that we find the same social factors conducive to crime in these two bordering cities.
The expert detects in this trend of increasing crimes against the person the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the health measures associated with it. “People’s isolation has created a mental health problem,” she points out. The arrival of social networks also has something to do with it, according to her, as many criminals challenge themselves or seek to promote themselves, especially young people.
Social networks, a “hot ground”
Precisely, the SPVM sends a message to criminal groups: their actions online will have consequences.
“The hottest ground right now seems to be social media. We will have to start investing more in it, to be present with young people, ”explained its director of communications, Anne Chamandy, on Wednesday at the end of a meeting of the Commission on Public Security.
According to Mme Chamandy, “the future [de la criminalité] is really in virtual space”. The spokesperson at the same time sent a message to young people who would use social networks to promote criminal activities. “They must not think that because they are behind their screens and anonymous, they are immune to justice. We arrest young people who might make threats or who think it’s cool to deploy or display a weapon just for fun, ”she said.
Be careful, be alert to what you are doing. And talk to adults before you think what you’re doing is a good idea to influence or try to get likes.
Anne Chamandy, SPVM communications director
It invites the population to “take its share of responsibility in its own security”. “Talk to the police, even if it’s the most trivial detail. Participate with us in the return of security, and the feeling of security in Montreal. »
Plante wants to “review the methods”
On Wednesday morning, Mayor Valérie Plante argued that the fight against organized crime calls for a review of methods of repression.
“These are really groups that have changed, organized crime has changed, and that’s why we have to review our methods, that we have to go deeper,” said Ms.me Plant Wednesday by calling for reflection on the “Montreal model”. “We have to find solutions to target this transformation of groups which, among other things, seek out young people. »
She argues that we must avoid “falling into the trap of finding a one-size-fits-all solution”. “Rather, you have to identify a set of tools and elements,” she says, citing access to green spaces, quality jobs, affordable housing and public transit.