Weapons offences a priority for city in 2017
By Rupert Nuttle
In light of last year’s spike in homicides, Crime Prevention Ottawa is making weapons offences a priority for 2017.
The city-funded organization, which targets domestic violence and helps keep youth out of crime, will work to determine if the spike in murders was a statistical anomaly — or an indicator of the city’s new normal.
Though the final numbers aren’t in, CPO executive director Nancy Worsfold says crime overall wasn’t up in the city. “What there was, was a spike in murders and weapons offences.”
There were 24 homicides in Ottawa last year — the highest number in more than a decade. Half were stabbings, half were shootings, and the majority of victims were men under 30. Historically, violent crime prevention has focused on gang activity, but Worsfold said most of last year’s murders weren’t gang-related.
“A lot of them seem to be odd disputes between young men which resulted in a murder,” she said. “We need to understand better why it is that these disputes escalated to deadly violence.”
She believes the presence of weapons is largely to blame. What would have been a fist fight in previous years becomes deadly if a knife or a gun is involved.
Another factor is location. Some businesses, such as the Vibe Lounge & Bistro on Somerset Street West, have a history of violence.
Since it opened four years ago, loud arguments and fighting have been common at the shisha bar, said Cheryl Parrott, the security chair of the Hintonburg Community Association. Many nearby residents have complained of being woken up by the noise.
“One night there was a number of women who got into a fight and they were throwing dishes —plates — on the ground, breaking plates in the parking lot,” Parrott recalled.
Passersby were often verbally assaulted by bar patrons. Women “had very unwelcome comments made to them,” and some residents had their lives threatened. “I mean saying, ‘I’m going to come over and kill you,’ ” Parrott said, “not just saying f— you; more than that.”
“The impact that this was having in the neighbourhood was unacceptable,” said Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper. “It’s always been this low-level volume of complaints around noise, harassment, fighting, violence.”
Early on Oct. 21, shots were fired half a block down the street (no one was injured) and two weeks later a man was stabbed at the corner of Somerset Street West and Bayswater Avenue.
But the last straw came on Dec. 7, when a 17-year-old boy named Leslie Mwakio was found with a shot to the head, in an SUV parked one block south of the bar. He died after being taken to hospital.
While police are not linking Mwakio’s death to Vibe Lounge & Bistro, Leiper says the incident intensified community concern about the business. Residents began to voice their concerns more publicly and planned a neighborhood watch.
In response to the public pressure, the owners of Vibe Lounge & Bistro struck an agreement with the city’s licensing board on Jan. 10, agreeing to vacate Somerset Street West when their licence expires on March 31. They also agreed never to use the “Vibe” name again.
“They read the writing on the wall and realized that this wasn’t going to be a welcome community for that establishment anymore,” Leiper said of the agreement.
Displacing businesses where “seemingly spontaneous disputes” are common can be an effective way to reduce crime, says Worsfold.
But “prevention is a long-term investment,” meaning that community-oriented activities – such as reaching out to younger siblings of gang members, and raising awareness of violence against women – can go a long way in making the city safer.