A couple of weeks ago I was walking through this railway underpass on Symington Avenue in Toronto’s west end, north of Dupont Street, when I happened to notice a blue spray-painted word on the concrete retaining wall at the side of the road. The word was “CRIPS”. Now I’m no expert on gang tags, but I do know there are Crips affiliate gangs in Toronto, and I know that their traditional colour is in fact blue. Given the concern in the city of late over a dramatic increase in gun violence, it’s not the most reassuring thing in the world to find a possible declaration of gang territory so close to home (read just around the corner).

The curious part is that the tag had appeared to have disappeared. I went through the underpass several times on my bicycle since first noticing the word and couldn’t find it again. I only rediscovered it about the third time I had walked through the underpass. The reason appeared to be that the blue paint was a little faded (whether because of an attempt to remove it or weathering, I don’t know), and that the difference in lighting underneath the underpass and the slowness of the eye to adapt had rendered it almost invisible to anyone not walking through the underpass on its opposite side.

I honestly don’t know what to think. I would like to tell myself that it’s just some wannabe kids acting up and playing cool. But I’m not sure if that reflects the reality of the gang situation in Toronto. At any rate, the initial almost irrational reaction of fear is I believe unjustified.

I can only think of poor old Tookie (Stanley Williams), co-founder of the original Crips gang in L.A. Tookie was executed by lethal injection in December after being in prison since 1979. Starting in the 1990’s Tookie became one of America’s best known crusaders against gangs and gang-culture, writing many well-respected children’s books on the subject and brokering a peace agreement called the Tookie Protocol for Peace. Sources indicate he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times and once for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Unfortunately for Tookie and the rest of us, the first part of his life may have had the more lasting effect on the world, and kids are still being drawn in to the web of violence and the gang life. And we are all the lesser for it. Perhaps one day soon I’ll once again walk up Symington and see nothing more than a benign railway underpass, having managed to keep my faith in this city.