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posted September 26, 2004
Police catch families toasting marshmallows at a park campfire
Dear Councillor Giambrone,
Since this year is the tenth anniversary of the Friends of Dufferin Grove Park community campfire permit, I'm wondering whether you might arrange for Fourteen Division to be informed about these campfires.
The best thing would be if you could call the superintendent himself, and let him know that there is a pretty nice neighbourhood here and that we've had these campfires a lot. It seems that Fourteen Division may be unaware of this, even after ten years. Here's what makes me think this:
On Saturday evening, September 25, at 10 p.m. two officers from Fourteen Division found several families at the park fire circle having a park campfire. They wrote them a ticket for $55 and summoned a fire truck to put the fire out. I'm sure the superintendent and you as our City Councillor would both agree that the police have better things to do than catch families having marshmallow roasts, and that those big firetrucks have better things to do than throw cold water on family campfires in the middle of the park. Beyond that, now we have to charge the next 11 campfire groups $5 extra to cover the $55 ticket. (We don't want the families who got the ticket to be unfairly penalized.)
If you could tell the superintendent that the groups who come to do campfires are aboriginal groups (like the ones that had the pow wow yesterday), church groups (like the African church youth group last Friday night), boy scouts and girl guides, birthday parties, school groups, family reunions, storytellers, and on and on, maybe the superintendent would find that interesting.
Our hope is that, if you could give this description to the superintendent, he could then acquaint his officers a little bit with the community they're working in. I'm sure it must be quite disorienting for them if their homes are outside of Toronto, to see that we do campfires here. Hopefully they will soon see that this is nothing they need to stamp out.
Jutta
posted October 5, 2004
By the time the October newsletter went to print, Councillor Giambrone - sadly - had not found the time to make the personal call we asked for. This is disappointing. But perhaps he will follow up at some point.
Here are some excerpts of e-mails we've received on this subject:
From a city staff person who does not want to be named: posted October 2, 2004
I find it remarkable that Jutta isn't demanding that the Councillor have the ticket cancelled if indeed the existing fire permit is valid. Why would future groups be funding this error ?
From Jutta: posted October 2, 2004
As for why I didn't ask to get the ticket cancelled, the fact is, our experience with Fourteen Division has not given us much hope that a reasonable request would succeed. Police frequently drive through the park well above the 5 m.p.h. park speed limit, police frequently conduct illegal searches of male teenagers especially if they're black, police are often hard to get hold of if there is a threat by a park user without a weapon (even with a pit bull threat we've had an hour or more delays). We have had to work out most of our problems without their co-operation, so picking up the phone and asking them to cancel a ticket does not come readily to mind.
I have heard that almost 70 per cent of the Toronto Police Service officers do not live in Toronto (i.e. they live in Brampton, Peel, etc.). I don't know if I heard right, but it seems that many of the police officers we see are pretty unfamiliar with the neighbourhood outside of the obvious troublemakers, and so a campfire in the city would seem strange to them.
However we have a new city councillor and Fourteen Division has a new superintendent (the fourth since I've been involved with the park). So if Councillor Giambrone can convey to Supt.Dicks the general sense that he ought to help his officers become more familiar with the community they work in, that would be worth every penny of the collective payment of a $55 ticket -- to my mind. And it would be a great accomplishment in our tenth year of campfires/ cooking fires/ baking fires at the park.
From David Yee: posted October 2, 2004
I just want to make a comment about the ancedotal statement that 70 percent of Toronto police officers don't even live in Toronto. I bet that is true. Chief Fantino lives in Woodbridge (maybe he can become their new chief there!)
You can't force people to work where they live but the least, the City of Toronto should consider an oath and residency requirement clause in their contracts. How else are the denizens ever going to get their needs met without some sensitivity and representation to their local concerns especially when the people who make the decisions and/ or are supposed to enforce the local laws don't even live in the same area code. That is probably the complaint of city staff, be it police officers or park staff who don't take the time to get to know their communities or at least get out of their trucks and cars and make the time to get to know their community. Does anyone have any thoughts about this ... residency requirements for at least top civil servants and city workers?
From John Sewell: posted October 2, 2004
Jutta:
The rule in Toronto used to be that police were required to live in Toronto so that they were easily available to be called out in case of crisis. I'm not sure when this requirement was dropped - probably sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s when the suburban boom started.
I understand today that more than 90 per cent of officers live outside of Toronto (there is no hard data that the police have ever released), so they only come in to the city to police it. This can't be a healthy situation - if they don't think the place is good enough to live in, how can they police it in a sympathetic manner?
From Erella Ganon: posted October 2, 2004
I really think the police should live in the neighbourhood where they work. I saw a cop giving a jaywalking ticket to a woman. Surely there could be better uses for the police time. Really, what harm was she doing? He seemed like he just wanted to amuse himself in this way.
A family having a park campfire? Getting the firemen to come to put out the "blaze"?
I really do think the police should endeavour to be a part of the community rather than the confrontational stance they seem to have adopted in general.
I hate it when I see a police car driving though the parks. They would likely do better to build bridges to look at the people they are talking to at eye level rather from the driver's seat.
These days, the only times we ever see a cop standing up is when they are giving out parking tickets.
I like thinking that the police are a welcome part of the community. Wouldn't that be a nice change?
From David Anderson: posted October 4, 2004
I just wanted to say that I stopped by the corn roast over by the wading pool last week (Wednesday night I believe) that was sponsored by Councillor Giambrone. He wasn't there when I was there but his assistant Kevin was. The fire was managed by folks from the parks department (with a steel fence ringing the fire), corn was being served, and the usual DGP good humour and conversation was flowing. Two firemen in full regalia showed up and, in a manner that seemed a tad aggressive to me, asked Kevin if there was a permit for the fire. Yes, he replied, but he did not have it with him. They asserted that the permit should have been displayed. Of course the issue was resolved in a friendly manner, but it seemed rather curious to me that they would have shown up in the first place, and having shown up to a scene that was clearly well supervised, that they were not a little curious themselves as to what led them to this point.
One of the great things about the neighbourhood is the sense of care that people show. New people to the community are always surprised and pleased when I tell that that campfire permits are available from F of DGP. So I too hope that the local officials will become aware of this long-standing practice.
And I look forward to enthusiastic neighbourhood participation when everyone will have a chance to burn the names of their private and collective fears in the bonfire during the upcoming 5th annual Night of Dread.
David Anderson Clay and Paper Theatre