With concerns over guns proliferating and shootings on the rise, the subtext of the collective discussion subtly touches the color of crime.
That is, to the color of the skin of criminals.
Some of the shootings in the Montreal region are attributable to individuals linked to street gangs. Several of these street gangs bring together members of ethnic minorities.
From there, it is easy to succumb to a temptation to say that certain communities are more likely to commit crimes.
It is misleading.
It is like looking at the stake of the crime with a magnifying glass: what we look at with said magnifying glass is always magnified. And what is outside the glass circle is ignored, in a blind spot.
Illegal weapons end up in all kinds of hands. They commit the damage we know. They kill. That’s what a gun, to kill.
We focus a lot on the color of the hands that hold them, these guns, these days. The blind spot of the discussion: who brings these weapons into Canada?
A highly publicized case made the headlines in 2021. That of William Rainville, 24: the University of Sherbrooke graduate was arrested for illegally importing 249 handguns from the United States. Rainville is white, like me.
What does that prove?
Basically nothing. It does not prove that “whites” are more predisposed to attempt to bring illegal guns into Canada in exchange for large sums of money.
It proves that crime, crime in the broad sense, is not a matter of skin color. Unless you’re more concerned with the color of the skin than the crime itself …
A young black man shoots gun in the streets of Montreal-North: is he more guilty than the white graduate of the University of Sherbrooke who imported the illegal Glock which ended up in the hand of the young person of Montreal-North?
If you have an absolutely clear answer to this question, I think you are going round the corner. And I envy your moral certainty. I don’t have this moral certainty.
The problem is that the young black man is intensely scrutinized by the magnifying glass I told you about above and he is. as a young black. The social, media magnifying glass. What is wrong with him is analyzed from every angle: the influence of American hip-hop, the absent father, the taste for bragging on social networks …
I’m not saying these questions are totally irrelevant. I say that the said magnifying glass is never placed on the young university graduate full of ambition who imported a shipment of Glock …
Finally, yes, the magnifying glass is placed on him, but the magnifying glass is not placed on him as a young white. Have you ever wondered what music William Rainville was listening to in his car when the RCMP pinned him down?
The same can be said of pimps who enlist teenage girls in prostitution. Yes, we have seen many cases where the pimps were not white-Tremblay-baptized. Have you noticed that often the customers are?
A young non-White enlists a teenager in the hell of prostitution: is he more or less guilty than the white-Tremblay-baptized accountant from Blainville who comes to rape her at the motel where she is held captive?
The Hells Angels are good white-Tremblay-baptized. They know where to find guns, they know how to use it. From 1994 to 2001, the “biker war” between the Hells and rival gangs killed 160 people, including 29 innocent victims. Their leader, Maurice Boucher, wanted to destabilize the justice system, nothing less. I don’t remember anyone trying to find out what kind of music this criminal was listening to, to explain his psychopathy.
The color of her skin has never been at the center of discussions either. Nor the color of the skin of his brothers in arms, or of his enemies. He was considered a bandit, period. Not like a white bandit.
Twenty-six people were arrested by the Sûreté du Québec in early November, twenty-six men suspected of various crimes of pedophilia. In the lot, there is a janitor, a teacher, a municipal councilor. All the suspects whose photos have been published by the media have one thing in common: they are white.
What does that prove? Basically nothing. It proves, to see the profile of the suspects, that the pedophiles can be janitors or politicians. It is a defect that affects all spheres of society. When I look at this bunch of defendants, I don’t say to myself: “What’s wrong with white people?” “, No, I say to myself:” I hope the police have all the tools to track them down, until the last one. ”
It’s the same thing I tell myself when I think of those who trade – and use – illegal handguns. I hope the police have all the tools to hunt them down, until the last one.
If you mainly focus on the skin color of those who commit crimes, that says one thing: you care more about the color of the skin than the crimes in question.