Thanks to Canadian immigration reforms that started in 1962, Toronto, formerly an almost entirely white city, now has a large black population consisting of immigrants and their descendants from the Caribbean and more recently, Africa. Toronto also has a serious black gang problem.

Last week, local Globe and Mail and the Star carried a particularly gruesome story involving a shoot-out between two gangs that led to kidnapping and torture. I only read the Globe online so I can't say how prominent it was in the paper edition, but the Star story was buried in the back pages. I've attached a picture of the suspects.

In the early-morning hours of April 19, the Young Buck Killers were partying at a room they rented for the night when a second gang, the Queens Drive Crips, came looking for them. Caught on camera by the elevators in the Toronto condominium at 300 Front St. W., a gunfight erupted on the 25th floor between the rival gangs. It quickly escalated into the kidnapping and torture of two 17-year-old boys. Now, Toronto police are searching for two suspects who are considered armed and dangerous. Four arrests have been made so far in connection to the shooting and kidnapping. ... Following the gunfight, the teens were held for ransom, beaten, forced to play Russian roulette and sexually assaulted over the next several days, police said. The party broke up after the shooting, with the Young Buck Killers and two teen boys ending up at 77 Swansea Mews, the public-housing project on The Queensway where police believe the two teenagers were first subjected to torture. Neighbours called police concerning a disturbance in the area, but they were too late. By the time officers arrived, the teens had been moved to a location in the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood, where the brutality continued. They suffered abuse until a ransom was paid two days after the incident, police said.

In a news conference Thursday, Staff Insp. Mike Earl said police believe the kidnapping was in retaliation for the condo ambush. “I wouldn’t call this an ‘innocent stranger’ kidnapping,” Earl said. “This is basically a gang-war kidnapping.”The two boys were tied to chairs and beaten, threatened with a gun and forced to play Russian roulette with a loaded handgun. At one point, a shot was fired on the property. Police were called to the area twice during this time on reports of suspicious activity but were unable to find anything. After police showed up, the kidnappers moved the boys to locations in the Flemingdon Park and Lawrence Heights neighbourhoods, the investigators allege. Earl said they were tied to chairs again and beaten throughout the day. It is also alleged they were forced to perform sexual acts. Ransom demands were made to the boys’ families. Police were notified and began investigating. A ransom was eventually paid, and the boys were released on April 21.

From the Globe story:The Star offers more detailsFlemingdon Park and Lawrence Heights are neighborhoods with a lot of public housing. And Flemingdon Park is notorious as the neighborhood where in 2006, 17-year old, Omar Wellington was beaten to death in broad daylight by a gang while neighbors watched without reporting anything to the police.

See previous letters from the same reader.