Posted at 7:00 a.m.
More than 3,200 assaults and 1,500 other offenses against the person were committed in the first three months of 2022, according to preliminary data from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) obtained by The Press.
This is one of the highest figures in recent years, even if there is no notable increase compared to 2021.
Indeed, in Montreal, assaults and other types of offenses against the person have been increasing for several years, with a particular jump in 2019.
Similar to 2021
Since the beginning of the year, 3,274 assaults and 1,510 offenses against the person have been committed in Montreal, according to preliminary data from the SPVM. These figures are similar to those observed in 2021, among the highest in the last eight years.
Assault includes physical assault, with or without a weapon. The other offenses against the person refer to extortion, criminal harassment, pimping and indecent communications, specifies Caroline Labelle, in charge of communications at the SPVM.
In the province, “since 2014, the rate of offenses against the person has steadily increased, peaking in 2019 with a rate of 1031.6 offenses reported per 100,000 inhabitants”, indicates the most recent report available. of the Ministry of Public Security (MSP), published in 2020.
“If you go on the internet, you will find a Saint Alexandre Bissonnette and Saint Marc Lépine”, warns the DD Cécile Rousseau, professor at McGill University, specializing in transcultural psychiatry. Remember that Alexandre Bissonnette is the murderer of the attack on the Quebec mosque and that Marc Lépine is responsible for the massacre at Polytechnique Montreal.
I can tell you that there is a phenomenon of change and glorification of violence.
The DD Cecile Rousseau
Attacked in broad daylight
On April 3, in broad daylight, a couple in their sixties were chatting at the corner of Cuvillier and Hochelaga streets when they were attacked by a stranger and beaten, apparently for no reason. Victim of a subconjunctival hemorrhage, the lady even almost lost her eye, she told The Press asking to remain anonymous, for fear of being found by her attacker.
Several such attacks have been aired in the media in recent weeks. A 10-year-old girl was notably assaulted in Pointe-aux-Trembles, east of Montreal, in mid-March. Two weeks later, Liberal MP Jean Rousselle was beaten in his riding office.
Ideology and sanity
The current lack of confidence in the future explains these statistics in particular, according to the DD Cecile Rousseau. “It’s a pretty apocalyptic vision of the world that brings a fascination with evil and violence,” she adds. As long as I’m nobody, have no power and have no future in this world, I’m going to have one by becoming an evil genius. This is the ideology of mass killers. »
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The DD Cecile Rousseau
Mental health problems, increased by the pandemic, are also to be taken into account, adds Vivek Venkatesh, co-holder of the Research Chair in the Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism, at Concordia University. “There is a mental health problem that hits members of racialized communities hard”, he underlines, without being able to comment specifically on the events of gratuitous violence.
Based on her research, the DD Rousseau observed a new discourse legitimizing force, particularly online.
There is a communicating vessels effect between what is happening on social media [et la violence dans les rues].
The DD Cecile Rousseau
The pandemic has added to this by confining young people to their screens during a period when, on the contrary, they had to emancipate themselves from their families and broaden their horizons, she adds.
“The pandemic has really added fuel to the fire, but the process was there before and it will be there after, believes the researcher. The wave [de violence] is not going to stop. »