Comments?
For the basics, see
- Website & Privacy Policies
- How To Get Involved
- The Role of the Park
Search options:
Department Site Map
Custodians:
Printer friendly version
March, 2002
A violent death in the neighbourhood
On February 1, an attempt to arrest a stolen-car suspect ended in the driver being fatally shot by police while still in the car, at the corner of Havelock St. and Bloor Street. A two-block area of our neighbourhood was sealed off for more than 12 hours by order of the Special Investigation Unit. The person who died is John Menga, a man in his twenties. It turned out he was known to many of the youth who use the park. They called him a "legend," in a negative way: he was known for "punking off" (extorting money from) young people regularly, a loner, not part of any gang, but scary. Older kids told younger ones, "watch out or John Menga will come and beat you up with a baseball bat."
It may be that an intuition about the driver's lack of sense or restraint made the police officers fearful enough that they shot him dead. And yet: John Menga had a wife and two small children. The hydro pole at the end of Havelock, where this sad drama was played out, was wrapped around with flowers for two weeks.
Then the rains came and most of the flowers fell down and were taken away, until only a small bunch of white roses remained wedged to the pole.
Being a bully and a small-time thief does not normally carry a death sentence, and neither does stealing cars. But there has been very little public reaction to this death. We asked many young people at the park: do you know anyone who regrets that John Menga is gone? So far, the answer was always - no. Such a sad answer, but there it is.
In the meantime, there are unanswered questions. Not the least of these is whether car chases or shooting at people for stealing cars is worth it if people die -- either non-involved people who are hit during a chase or by bullet crossfire, or police officers, or the car thieves themselves. Do we value our cars that much?