Storm's a Brewin'

Thursday night saw our city host to a shooting. Since we aren't Toronto, we aren't used to this sort of thing. A 22 year old man from Niagara Falls, N.Y., had been at a club in town and was about 200 meters away from it when he was shot about 3 a.m.

This club brings in DJ's from all over the place on Thursday nights for its Hip Hop, RnB, Reggae, Soca, and Old School themed nights. The owner of the club is aware of all the problems that have been occurring in the Toronto clubs and beefs up security to deal with the problems that may occur. Everyone is checked for weapons, and drug users are instantly ejected. The locals have a problem with the crowds when they leave. This is when the shooting took place, and when the locals say all the trouble usually takes place.

They say that once last call happens a tide of fans swarm into the neighborhood and bring fights, drug deals, noise and sex with them. Neighbors say they don't even bother calling the cops any more. One woman is going so far as to fight to close down the club's patio via a licensing hearing in a few weeks. The cops say the club attracts pot pushers and rowdies. They send cruisers out to watch over the crowd.

The owner of the club feels that the hip-hop night are being unfairly targeted because he has had the club for seven years, but only started getting complaints when he started with the hip-hop nights. The evidence is pretty compelling though. On Monday another club in town had six shots fired off in it during its hip-hop night. Several shootings in Toronto clubs occurred during similar events. Would this have happened on country night? Probably not, but that doesn't mean that the music is the source of the problem.

What the hell is wrong with people these days? Why is it that a specific style of music become the focal point for violence? Why do they feel the need to be violent in the first place? I'm not a big hip-hop fan but to say that it is the root of street violence is a pretty narrow minded approach to solving the problem. The genre itself doesn't seem to help the situation any though. You don't seem to do well unless you're a badass. A style of music marred by gang style executions of the more outspoken people in it. The popular acts are usually fronted by someone with bullet scars and a criminal record. If you don't have these things then you are simply a fake. Why worship these people in the first place? Of course, if the fans themselves didn't support the violent acts, they would vanish as well, so it is we, the consumers who are to blame as well.

I would think that if you wanted to solve the problem you would have to have the industry take on the problem itself. Force them to acknowledge the fallout from their blatant worship of thugs and take corrective action. If the industry refuses to back acts whose claim to fame is that they have been shot a bunch of times, or that they are a gangsta, then maybe we would be left with no home for the thugs of the world to hang their hats. If we can force the hooligans out then maybe we can have a better world.

Of course if we displace them, then we may run into a whole new problem. Once these thugs are without music they will simply migrate to a whole new genre. One would expect them to grab on to a style where nobody would be watching, giving them time to rebuild their empire. We would then have to live in fear of their newly formed gangs. We would have to look out for rogue polka gangs. With their inherent love for leather pants, beer drinking and heavy beat oom-pah bands, it would seem the next logical step. Drive by oom-pah bands and slap dancers would begin to rule the day.

Which would be better I wonder??