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posted January 18, 2005
Near-riot at Dufferin Rink
An email to Park and Rec's Don Boyle, December 1, 2004, with copies to Adam Giambrone (City Councillor), and the friends of dufferin grove park email list server
Subject: Near-riot at Dufferin Rink
hello Don,
I need to report an very unfortunate incident tonight at Dufferin Rink.
One of the problems of most neighbouring rinks opening later than ours is that we're mobbed with eager youth at Dufferin Rink until the other rinks open. Tonight around 6 p.m. there were about 70-plus young guys taking turns trying to play hockey, plus more people on the pleasure-skating side. Because it was so crowded and it's the first week, the recreation staff had to cope with some very poor skater behavior. We can only have two recreation staff on at a time and they were struggling.
When the two Tuesday night rink operators arrived at the rink do the ice shortly after six p.m., some of the most troublesome youth went and played hockey on the pleasure-skating side, and they began smoking, cursing loudly, and wrestling on the ice. I happened to be passing by, and I joined the rec staff in telling these particular youth that it was time to get their skates off and leave for the night.
That's when the new (to this area) rink operator decided to get involved. This gentleman has been telling any staff who will listen, all week, that I am not the boss, he is, and that things will go as he says they will. Fair enough -- he is rarely on site. Unfortunately, he chose this evening to extend his message to the skaters, telling them not to listen to me because I am only a volunteer.
The troublesome youth took the rink operator's message to heart, became more bold in their abuse (toward the rec staff as well), and stayed on the ice. The situation escalated quickly until more joined in the smoking, cursing, skating under the raised lift gate, etc. Recreation staff repeated their instruction for the skaters to leave, were ignored, and were finally forced to call the police.
This did not produce any police. By then, three young men had emerged as the ring leaders. They were verbally supported by the new (to this area) rink operator. Our regular rink operator tried to repair the damage by supporting the recreation staff's and my instructions. But the situation had got so out of hand that I called the rink supervisor, who promptly ordered both his operators to leave the premises, perhaps also worried for their safety.
The only thing left for us to do was talk to all the skaters and tell them that we would have to close down the rink for the night if the three ring leaders didn't leave the premises. Then a lot of law-abiding skaters got involved, but the three ring-leaders were adamant about their right to stay, and very abusive. So we turned off the rink lights, and asked all skaters to leave the ice. The result was enough community pressure that the ring-leaders finally, reluctantly, left. We will follow up with letters of trespass.
After they were gone, peace broke out again in this normally pleasant rink, we turned the rink lights back on, and the shinny hockey resumed.
I think there are two lessons in this near-riot (there were enough weak "follower" types that it was a bit dicey for a while):
1. the new (to our area) rink operator is not a suitable worker for our rink (and indeed, perhaps not for any rink) and it would be good if he was reassigned to other work -- please do not let him return.
2. if so many youth in this part of town love to play hockey, perhaps next year it would make sense to open a few more rinks as soon as the weather gets cold? Overcrowding makes people behave badly.
I have also cc'd this letter to neighbourhood friends of the rink and the park, in case one or two of them would like to pass along their views on this situation.
Jutta
P.s. the police, by the way, never showed. If anyone would like to encourage Fourteen Division to help city staff enforce city by-laws (this was the rink staff's first call for assistance in two years), they might want to call Supt. Jim Dicks at 808-1400.
This follow-up email was sent to the same people: Park and Rec's Don Boyle, with copies to Adam Giambrone (City Councillor), and the friends of dufferin grove park email list server
Subject: My error re police
In last night's "near-riot at the rink" e-mail, I wrote that the police never came. It turns out they DID come later.
Our troubles began in earnest at about 6.40. The police were called around 7. The rink operators were ordered by their supervisor to leave the site about 7.15 (I think). We took the gamble of turning off the rink lights at about 7.20. (Crossing our fingers that this would not lead to a rampage). I was shoved by young non-skating fellow (not badly) at about 7.25. Peace was restored and hockey resumed at about 7.35.
The police came at 8.20.
I have an idea that maybe the best thing to encourage Fourteen Division's attention to public space would be if, whenever people from the neighborhood next encounter an officer, they might mention (in a very friendly way) that they heard that police DID respond to the call for assistance from Dufferin Rink, but that people in the neighborhood would appreciate it if future calls got a bit of a quicker response.
If possible.
Jutta