September 2025
In the wake of the senseless murder of Abdul Aleem Farooqi, who died protecting his family from a violent home invasion, York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween is being heavily criticized for his comments that essentially amount to a surrender to the thugs terrorizing our cities.
While I certainly understand that Chief MacSween can’t condone vigilante justice, nor can he endorse citizens putting themselves in harm’s way, his tone-deafness is appalling.
The only thing that I believe will realistically have an impact is to keep criminals in prison for longer sentences, up to and including life without parole, some of the most egregious and violent repeat offenders to life in prison. I don’t mean just for murders, but for those irredeemable criminals who will never be law-abiding and contributing members of society. It won’t solve all violent crimes, as America has proven, but at least we won’t have criminals out committing crimes within hours of being released on bail with impunity.
Perhaps this would be a good time for the GTA police forces to bring back initiatives like school resource officers, TAVIS units and carding, while telling those who call those practices “racist,” to pound sand.
On a related topic, Chief MacSeeen’s officers recently arrested a 12-year-old repeat offender for attempted murder. This would also be a good time to toughen up the Youth Criminal Justice Act to include adult sentences for violent crimes, including for 12-year-old offenders charged with murder/attempted murder.
The problem for Chief MacSween is that he is more of a politician than a cop. I don’t mean that pejoratively, but it is a reality. Their job is at the mercy of their political masters, so if you want to become a chief and remain a chief, you need to “play ball.” What we really need are police chiefs to stand up and publicly state that they will no longer treat these violent criminals with kid gloves.
Sources: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/yrp-update-violent-crimes-1.7623825, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/youth-charged-with-attempted-murder-after-markham-shooting-1.7624112, https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/chief-tells-public-to-comply-as-crime-soars-in-york-region?itm_source=opinion.
