HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html Scared Senior Hid In Closet 
Pubdate: Fri, 14 May 2004
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.com/NewsStand/TorontoSun/home.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Jonathan Kingstone, and Gretchen Drummie
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/project+impact

SCARED SENIOR HID IN CLOSET

Cops Stormed Home, Arrested Pair

An elderly woman cowered in fear inside a closet as cops stormed her
home during the Project Impact pre-dawn raids, a family member said
yesterday. "She was in the closet because she thought someone was
breaking into her house," Eunicka Samuels said of her mother-in-law.
"They just beat the door down. They didn't ring, call, anything. She's
an old lady, she would have let them in."

Samuels said her brother and his wife were led away. She said he has
been involved in "stuff" before but has since "changed his life."

"They cut holes in our walls and broke down our door. It's horrible. I
understand why they're doing it, I just wish it was done properly
because a lot of people they're taking are not involved in anything,"
she said outside Scarborough court.

RESOURCES NEEDED

Samuels said she's glad some weapons have been taken off the streets
but believes some of the arrests were based on "the community they
live in and who they choose to say 'hi' to. Being friends with someone
doesn't make you guilty of a crime.

"(The police) need to understand they need to work with the young kids
- -- invest resources into the community. They just want a quick Band-aid."

Another woman at the courthouse said the first she heard about her son
being involved in a gang was when he was picked up Wednesday.

COUNSELLING OFFERED

"My son is a working person. I don't know where police are getting
their story," said the woman, who wouldn't give her name.

She said her son has worked for the past two years at a company that
makes doors.

"He doesn't even live in Malvern. He just comes there because I live
there," she said.

Rev. Don Meredith, who heads the GTA Christian Alliance, met with
several of the accuseds' families to offer counselling, job placements
and schooling.

"They can be turned around," Meredith said of many of the alleged gangsters.
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