Violence and Indifference in N.Y.

by Mike Keenan

It was a perplexing attitude for Canadians, casual, as if attempted murder was a banal experience in New York City, even in the best hotels. Despite countless hours of shoot-em-up movies and TV, we were not ready for that official mind-set. Our country was excited, coast to coast over a drive-by shooting in Ottawa. And Just Desserts debate has been raging since the incident in Toronto. In New York City, mayor Guiliani promised safety. (Florida killings had caused enough bad snowbird press.) We had noticed a visible police presence, but on that very day, in the Stage Delicatessen, down the street from our hotel, the Hilton, the lady sifting beside us had had her purse stolen as she ate. "I love New York", she angrily spat out, "but I'm never coming back!

The first sign of trouble for us was the sudden appearance of burly Detective James Heaphy in running shoes, jeans, black leather coat and holstered gun at our hotel door. It had been an exciting morning for our group of nineteen at the United Nations building. Canadian students from four Niagara high schools had teamed up to compete in the National High School Model U.N. For four grueling days, they had debated and idealistically endeavoured to solve all of the problems of the world. That had been abstract. Reality dramatically seized power. Their earlier poses in front of the sculpture of the twisted gun barrel at the U.N. entrance seemed as futile as the debate.

A hotel guest and British tourist named Cooper, returning to his room in late afternoon, just as we had returned in cabs from the closing ceremonies in the General Assembly, had been shot on our floor. The students were questioned by the police who filled the corridor, taking statements, dusting the door, examining the room. We were shocked into disbelief. We had been so close to the actual event. Several had returned to open rooms, the maids occupied out in the halls. Unchallenged, they had entered their room. Dark humour emerged that the mess probably appalled the would-be gunman. We had been spared narrowly. One student group was adjacent to the victim in room 2646.

Real irritation soon commenced. Chaperoning 17 high school students, we wanted to know what was going on. The bulk of the conference involving 2,000 students from all across North America, had transpired from Wednesday, March 23 to Friday March 26 at the New York Hilton and Towers on the glitzy Avenue of the Americas, close to the renowned Lincoln Centre, supposedly insulated by wealth. We had flinched at the room rates. The lounge offered drinks at $10.50 U.S. a shot? Foreign business and tourist affluence was omnipresent We were safe, immune, isolated from street trouble in this expensive oasis, we thought. We had one more night before catching a plane home. We got the run-around from hotel staff until Channel 7 Eyewitness News, from outside the Hilton (they were not allowed inside to interview) broke the story, mentioning that there was a group of Canadians on the 26th floor, deeply disturbed by the event. It took us chaperones two hours of non- stop argument and phone calls to finally just meet with the manager, Mr. Stephen Opdyke. He brusquely stated it was "business as usual". No security would be placed on our floor to alleviate the fears of our students. We persisted.

Our students had begun calling home. We needed some assurance, however token, for the evening. We supposed to fall asleep like quiet, complacent consumers, content to spend $5,000.00 at the Hilton, no questions asked. Mr. Opdyke said he would let in on a secret, that the shooting didn't happen in the hotel (right!) and that Cooper had probably been shot by an acquaintance. (fabrications to divert us?) Why did we need security on our floor? It was adequate as it was. (Sure!) At about 2:15 a.m., there was a knock on our door. We were introduced to "Mike", the uniformed guard who would sit in the hall for the rest of the night We phoned the students. Not surprisingly, they were still up. We mentioned the guard. They seemed genuinely relieved.

On the way home at the Newark Airport, we decided to check how the story was reported in the press. We couldn't find it in Sunday's New York Times, but it was back on page 20 in the Daily News, occupying a scant few inches: New York Hilton guest shot outside his room (headline) The last two paragraphs are appropriate: "The hotel management refused to release any information about the incident. Other guests at the Hilton, which is on Sixth Avenue at 53rd Street were unaware of it. The gunman fled. By late yesterday no one had been arrested and the investigation was continuing."

In the same paper, there were juicier stories of shootings, one concerning an affluent pair of parents shopping with their daughter for her wedding. In this case, the well-dressed gunmen followed the trio into an expensive New York salon, shot both the wife and husband and made off with jewelry and money. Apparently, Mayor Guiliani has some work to do.

Earlier, we had taken a 2-hour boat cruise around Manhattan. The highlight of the cruise was not the view but rather the sardonic commentary from the cynical gentleman who described the "sights" via a microphone. We could easily perceive that this man was angry with what Denys Arcand, in his memorable 1986 movie, had called the Decline and Fall of the American Empire. After a constant stream of sarcasm concerning the obvious deterioration on shore witnessed from the waterfront, we came upon a notoriously rough area where we could actually witness a car being stripped. The crowd, mostly foreign-speaking, sat quietly, embarrassed, amused, and the boat continued its slow circle around the island.

No one really seemed to care. In Times Square, there is an electric sign perched high atop a building to help those to occupy their time in queue waiting for half-price tickets for Broadway shows. It's called the Gun Fighter Death Clock. The photo taken by my camera reads: "Guns in America: 221, 910,628. Gun Killings in 1994: 9,069. " (3 months). I watched incredulously as the gun figures escalated by one digit every three seconds. Below the grisly statistics, there was a brief electronic description of each death. The death notice that I captured on my film was that of Martha Pertot. She was sixteen, like many of the Canadian students who accompanied us.

We bought tickets for comedian Jackie Mason's, one-man show, Politically Incorrect. It's a wonder that he has not been shot. He is a remarkably courageous man who is not afraid to publicly decry the apparent deceit of the U.S. system of "democracy" that trickles down from the very top. Without constraint, he exposed U.S. leaders that deliberately deceive so that others remain distant, unable to realize their basic needs. President Clinton was awarded the distinction of being the best liar the U.S. has ever had in the White House. (Who would win in the senate?)

In North America, there is an obvious widening gulf between the minority who have and the majority who have not. Some, not content to beg with Styrofoam cups, have learned well how to breach this gulf with random violence that penetrates the inadequate buffers of the wealthy. In New York City, the rotting apple, we vividly learned that children like Martha Pertot can be killed anywhere, even in the best hotel on the most expensive island in the world. And guess what? For people like our hotel manager, life goes on, and it's business as usual and Central Park is safe in the daytime, says the armed guard, and no one really seems to care about the ugliness until it suddenly gets personal.

The frightening aspect has been the randomness of violence. In Long Island, six are killed, seventeen wounded on a commuter train. My own daughter had been in Toronto's Just Desserts on the Davenport with some Osgoode students, weeks before the murder. Isabella Kates, a Toronto writer, says: "Now that it's grounded, it can happen anywhere." Excuses for violence include a lax justice system, plea-bargaining, racism, drugs, media, and lack of values and respect for authority and of course, access to guns.

On CBC phone-in shows, debate has centered on gun control. The NRA-type lobby simplistically retort that it?s people that kill people, not guns. The reverse argument is that society can deal with people but not when guns are pointed in its direction. Priscilla DeVilliers, whose daughter was killed in 1991, stated: "We're sorry if society has brought you pain, but don't you dare inflict that pain on someone else." The Rev. Jesse Jackson maintains, "The premier civil rights issue of this day is youth violence in general and black-on-black violence in particular." He advocates social programs and educational opportunities.

Some Canadians are becoming polarized enough to believe that Singapore's solution to crime is a good one. Drug trafficking for two Australians brought death. An American youth, no doubt used to North American leniency, was sentenced for vandalism with not only a fine and detention but also caning by a martial arts expert. An argument advanced against this treatment is the fact the caning may leave permanent scars. But that's probably the reason for the caning, to leave permanent scars, the kind that former White House press secretary, James Brady, acquired as an innocent shooting victim. (And so we get into the biblical eye-for-an-eye conundrum.)

The Brady Bill and President Clinton's reforms may be instructive for Canadians. However, the Canadian psyche has not yet been directly exposed to the kind of violent madness of Los Angeles and New York and Florida. Clearly, Prime Minister Chretien and fellow politicians at all levels must demonstrate immediate corrective measures or the socially disintegrative scenarios fictionalized so aptly in Timothy Findley's macabre novel, Headhunter, will rapidly ensue.

If families and schools cannot soon work together to firmly and fairly establish effective discipline and values, Canada will soon have a major capital works program, not for roads and other infrastructure but geared solely to expand correctional institutions. Former Watergate figure, Charles Colson, an inside expert on those facilities, implored: "To stop crimes requires us as a culture to once again learn how to inculcate character in young people ? to build conscience.

Obviously, present Canadian legislation must be better enforced and toughened up. There is no need for guns in a city. Another review must be made of the Young Offender's Act. It is being abused. Niagara has been traumatized enough with the sadistic killings of two young women, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffey.

One night, prior to the shooting in the Hilton, my companion (a 6'3", robust male) and I got on the elevator with an obviously affluent Mexican family. We all got off at the same floor, the 26th. We started walking down the hall in the same direction, the two of us right behind the man, woman and daughter. Halfway down we could sense apprehension from the group in front. The husband slowed down markedly, deliberately fell behind and waited behind us. Coincidentally, our rooms were opposite each other, at the very end of the long hallway.

The two women were quite nervous, constantly glancing behind. I was starting to get anxious myself. Going into our respective rooms, I paused and looked back down the hall. The husband was there with his right hand on his hip, just under his jacket in Wild West fashion. I smiled and quickly closed the door. That was almost a lethal dose of the mind-set that we are acquiring from random social violence.

Unfortunately, the Hilton didn't have one of those cursory guest evaluation forms. By conservative calculations, they took in over $500,000.00 for the National High School Model U.N. Conference. That's a mighty large incentive to protect your guests! Years from now when the Hilton Hotel Empire has collapsed and McDonald's Hamburgers have acquired their facilities, we will remind Conrad Hilton's heirs that we warned them. But it will be in writing. Like the ladies in the restaurant, we don't soon intend to return to the scene of the crime!


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