It was not the justice system that failed Ephraim Brown, an 11-year-old gunfire victim in Toronto whose two alleged killers were acquitted of second-degree murder on Monday. It was his community that failed him.
Sixty people were at the outdoor birthday party where he was killed in July, 2007; only one, a teenage cousin, Kishauna Thomas, now 21, came forward as a witness. "I just can't wrap my brain around how an 11-year-old, an innocent boy, can be deprived of life, the result of gang violence, and nobody, or only one young woman, wants to say, enough is enough, " his sister, Amiga Taylor, told CBC Radio yesterday.
When a community cannot speak up for a child murdered in its midst, the gangsters are in charge. It is no comfort that Toronto has a relatively low crime rate compared with other Canadian cities. It should terrify and anger people that pockets exist in which children can be gunned down with impunity.
What are the answers to such impunity? One is police protection for witnesses; a police spokesman said on Tuesday that such protection is available, and could include help moving to a new neighbourhood if need be. A second is greater engagement by the police in high-risk neighbourhoods, which Toronto police say they have been working at, with some success. A third is for community groups to make it a priority to attack any signs of a no-snitch culture for what they are: a sop to the gangs.
No doubt in a world in which men pull guns at birthday parties, exceptional bravery is needed for witnesses to step forward. But by turning a blind eye, potential witnesses perpetuate the impunity that may cost them their own child one day. Ordinary people, like the justice system itself, may fairly be called to account.
Children being caught in a crossfire or shot as bystanders is not rare in Toronto. Three other examples: 15-year-old Jane Creba, shot dead on Yonge Street in 2005 while shopping; Shaquan Cadougan, age 4, shot in the knee while outside his home, also in 2005; and 11-year-old Tamara Carter, shot in one eye, on a city bus in 2004. Impunity endangers everyone.
The justice system is not something that, like an appliance, can be taken to a repair shop to be fixed. It depends on people looking out for one another and willing to do the right thing. When too few people are engaged enough or brave enough, inevitably, the gangsters feel empowered, and more innocent people are shot. Who will be the next Ephraim Brown, at whose birthday party?