Gardening in a light, slow rain at my church in Rexdale on Sunday — an hour before wedding guests arrived — the cops interrupted our weeding and planting to strike up a little chat.

Nothing to worry about, the three cops said. Just dropping by to introduce themselves and let parishioners know they are part of the TAVIS police initiative in Division 23 and will be available all summer to chat, meet with youths, provide a police presence, answer questions — whatever members need.

Don’t know if the officers knew it, but they were talking and standing on the concrete landing at the front door of the church where teenager Amon Beckles was gunned down November 2005 as he attended the funeral of his friend, also a gun victim.

Torontonians recall that year as the summer of the gun. By this time in 2005, Toronto had 27 murders. This year, including Saturday’s tragic Eaton Centre killing, there have been 21 murders. By at least one measure — fatalities — we are better off seven years later.

When the cops stopped by to chat, I had been listening to G98.7 FM and their Grapevine phone-in show. Not surprisingly, the majority of the callers assumed the killer was black, likely Jamaican. They blamed the violence on a far too lenient justice system; absent fathers and poor parenting. And they advocated police lock up the criminals and throw away the key.

I imagine members at my church — innocent bystanders in the Rexdale violence — would draw the same conclusions.

Just last year, the church hosted another funeral of a youth killed by gunfire, five or six doors from the church.

Occasionally, cop cars roar into the church’s parking lot. Sometimes, they roll silently in. Always, they are scouting and scoping for area youths — none of them members of the church.

After the 2005 shooting, members had to decide if they wanted to flee the area and its gang-related feuds. Or engage in a community-focused ministry that views the violence for what it is — the public manifestation of private hell among members of our city whose reality is obviously different from those enraptured in the church in holy ecstasy.

They decided to stay. So police visits are cause for comfort, not concern.

The Toronto West Seventh-day Adventist Church just happens to be in a part of the city where gunfire is not a rare event; and where too many youths solve disputes at the barrel of a gun.

Still, there is no great angst, just awareness; and a resolve to be a part of the solution.

That may be a proper response to the Eaton Centre debacle — not the two main reflex actions that mark the aftermath of the Saturday shooting at the food court in which a lone gunman targeted one or two persons in some kind of personal feud and ended up injuring bystanders and killing one of his targets.

People either under react by saying, “This is just an isolated incident; ignore it and go about your lives.” Those are the people who are insulated from the event. Meanwhile, those directly impacted tend to overreact with: “Toronto is a dangerous place. Do something now before we sink into oblivion.”

Toronto is not a dangerous place — even if I’m hit by a stray bullet. Bad things happen downtown and uptown. There are gangs out there. Their members don’t live by our codes. Heavy sentences, video surveillance and the like seem to have little or no impact on these brazen butchers.

Another approach, understandable, maybe even defensible, hasn’t helped. It says, “As long as bad guys are killing bad guys, knock yourselves out.”

Problem with that approach is, bad guys don’t live on an island.

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Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Email: rjames@thestar.ca