Article content

Until Toronto Police discontinued the controversial practice of street checks, Black Lives Matter pressed and protested to end “carding,” along with anti-gang TAVIS units and cops in schools.

But the activist group has fallen silent as gun violence spirals out of control and young black men die at an alarming rate.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Where's Black Lives Matter when it matters? Back to video

Of 52 homicides in this city so far this year, 23 victims were black (44.2%). That number jumps to 55% when the 10 victims of the Yonge St. van attack is excluded.

And alarmingly, of the 25 victims killed by guns in the first half of this year, 17 were black — 16 men and one woman accounting for 68% of all victims murdered by a gun. Those are frightening statistics from a community that represents just 9% of Toronto residents, according to Statistics Canada.

Too many young black men are dying and too often gang violence is a factor.

“I don’t blame Black Lives Matter, I blame the idiots who listened to them,” retired Toronto police Staff-Insp. Mike Earl, who headed up the Holdup Squad until 2017, told The Toronto Sun.