Share your personal experiences of violence on the streets of Halifax – where and when, who and how. We all know friends who have been been jumped downtown, or we’ve been through it ourselves. Help The Coast give the city an accurate picture of what’s actually going on.
And while we’re on the subject, check out our new Halifax violence map.
Email your stories to mikef@thecoast.ca or post them here, by logging in to comment, below.
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2007.
I was jumped in Halifax about 4 years ago. This was right on the waterfront during the Buskers in the middle of the afternoon. I was with 3 people and a couple girls started following us and yelling at us. We ignored them and soon after we noticed we were being followed by a group which outnumbered us. I believe at this point we were going to try running back into the crowd, but they ran up to us, punched me in the jaw and I was out immediately. One of my friends went face first into a brick wall and another was surrounded by this group and moderately beaten. I apparently woke up in the ambulance, but I don’t really remember that at all. I’ve had a number of concussions in my life, but this was the worst by far. This was in mid August and when I woke up I was asking my friends if I had passed the 8th grade since I almost failed math that yearI still have very limited memory of the incident. Most of what I wrote was told to me by the two friends who did not sustain a severe concussion
Hey, Mike. Thanks for starting this. My outrage still knows no bounds regarding the attack on Jill and her friends two months ago. This was unprovoked, gratuitous violence from female youth who, it turns out, were well-known to the police and the Youth Criminal Justice (!) Act and its parameters.Were it not for Jill having called 911 from her cell phone, and a couple of witnesses who did the same, the attackers may not have stopped the beating, kicking and punching until much more grievous injury had been inflicted.No one is supervising the charged youth who are released to the community until their court date comes up. Parent supervision? What a joke!
on August 29th 2007, two friends and i were jumped by six young females.the story has been covered a couple times in the paper. bla bla bla it sucked a whole bunch
a year ago, outside of KOD on pizza corner, after a show at the attic. standing outside enjoying a slice with three pals when I notice three guys across the street walking quickly. They suddenly jumped a guy walking by himself right in front of the Black Market. They had him on the ground in a second and were stomping on him… hard. I was in shock; couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They stopped as quickly as they began and ran directly into KOD. SECONDS afterward a police cruiser shows up and stops at the fellow on the ground. I run over to notify the officer that the three guys that did this are in KOD. The officer wont even listen to me. He only wants to question the guy who got jumped, who was in shock and barely able to talk. I yelled at the officer that “the three guys are right over there! I can identify them to you right now!!” He turns to me and says “mind your own business and let me do my job! Get out of here or spend a night in the tank. It’s your choice” I, again, was shocked.
I’ve been lucky insofar that nothing has happened to me directly, but my friends not so much. Last year, three of my friends walking together by the Pavilion after a night at the bar got a knife pulled on them, but managed to run away. Also last year, in two separate occasions, people I know (one my roommate at the time, actually) had guns pulled on them while working; one, a male, in a convenience store, and the other, female, at a children’s clothing store . Longer ago, another friend was clocked in the head so hard while walking in the North End one night that he was knocked out and lost his memory. One was swarmed by a group of teenagers outside of the bank on Quinpool in broad daylight, and had his last 20$ stolen. Oh, and a different friend was hassled on Beech Street one night, and when it became clear he didn’t have any money, they took his slice of pizza. Happily, none
I was sucker punched in a bar for bumping into someone and when I came to my senses the guy came at me again so I grabbed onto him and we sort of wrestled for a minute ’till the bouncers came. When I was outside I told the two cops what had happened and they said “Do you want to go to the drunk tank or do you want to go home?” I told them I wanted them to do their job and got into a cab and left. I missed work because my mouth was bleeding for three days and I couldn’t eat. There was a bar full of witnesses, bouncers, video cameras and two police officers outside and nothing was done. Typical night in Halifax.
agree that crime and violence are much, much worse in other major cities. The problem is that Halifax is very far from being a major city. We have the highest violent crime rate per capita, meaning that for the size of Halifax as a city (which is very small), our crime rate is high. However, you can’t even begin to compare Halifax to, say, Detroit, when talking about actual crime rate.
a few years ago i was walking home around 10pm on a wednesday (the corner of gerish and creighton, aka sketch central) and heard foot steps running behind me, before i really knew what was going on 6+ guys where grabbing onto me and punching me in the head over and over again. they knocked me down, kicked me in the head a few times, punched me in the face allot more (15-20 solid hits) and smashed a few chucks of ice over my head. i couldn’t think strait for a week and when i called some friends to come over, they said they hardly recognized me when i answered the door because my face/head was so swollen. i had $20 in my wallet, but they never even tried to steal it, my last clear memory is of hysteric laughter as i was being punched in the face over and over again. i called the police to file a report, the conversation when like this… me: hey, i got beat pretty bad last night by a bunch of guys outside my house. dispatch person: did you go to the hospital? me: no, but i guess i should have. dispatch person: yeah, you should have, where they black? me: uhh.. dispatch person: just tell me me: yeah, they where, i think they where around 18-19 years old dispatch person: you can lay charges, but there probably not going to find them, and even if they do, it won’t be a serious charge. i’ll send a car by to take a statement from you right now me: uh, ok (no police ever showed up to take a statement and it was never listed on the police website that supposedly reports “incidents”
I see a very disturbing pattern here, the Police are refusing to even make the attempt to enforce the rule of law in Halifax. I think it is time we call for a complete review of the HRMPD and demand that Justice is returned to the province. I for one, am refusing to be a victim…I carry a knife and will not hesitate to seriously violate any teenage loser that tries this shit on me…everybody should start to as well. A few dead teenagers might make the next loser think twice..Yeah yeah I know what you will all say…Violence is not the answer…so tell me…has any other answer worked so far?!?!?!
OK….To the officer that assaulted me on pizza corner…saturday thanx giving wknd…you have created a mess for yourself as i have a lawyer and witness’s and you and the police force are being sued…and I am charging you in criminal court as well ..because you are one in my opinion and in the courts as well when they see the video evidence of you choking Three times last one with your forearm and uttering death threats to me when i was not resisting your tyranny and was in hand cuff….To anyone who saw a black police officer (race is not the issue here…luv all nations..im canadian) assualt me infront of the pizza shop at pizza corner…i would love you to come forward….we need to get the bad ones off the street …we pay for police enforcement and protection with our taxs and …policy and proceedure must be followed …not thug like displays of illegal behviour..So if at 2:00 in the morning saturday night…. was a witness to this unlawful exertion of force against me …pls email me at tonytekk@gmail.comWe need to be safe from violence…especially the police…they should be stopping not inciting it.OH YA To all the other Officers on the NSPD that do there jobs diligently …I thank you and Respect what you do …its not easy.Thanx for the rant….Tony
Some of my friends now carry weapons when out at night. I agree that violence for violence is not the answer but, for the individual, it is a solution. With the increase in vicious and unprovoked beatings what is a person supposed to do?So far I have been lucky but I also try to limit walking alone at night. Unfortunately that also means I don’t go out and support local bars and restaurants because I do not want to be walking alone at night. It’s frustrating that I’m somewhat of a prisoner in my own community.
I was driving in Dartmouth one (my first msitake) and was driving over Magazine Hill when a small motor scooter with two thugs on board – their faces hiddden with the helmets and face covers – scooted by my moving car and the thug on te baxck began pounding on the passenger window of my car trying to break it. I guess this was their idea of sport. I just kept on driving and eventually, when the window wouldn’t break, they drove away. I truly wish an eighteen wheeler had crushed them at that moment.
My first experience with violence in Halifax happened just two weeks ago, on Bayers Road. My fiance and I were waiting for a bus, when two guys walked by us. They ran and hid, and then started to walk back toward where we were. What we didn’t know is that when they hid, they put bandanas over their faces and stuck a fire extinguisher in their coat sleeves. Before we knew it, we were getting a face-full of the nasty junk inside. The obviously immature brats ran away laughing, while we were left coughing, sputtering and trying to breathe. When we got home we called the police, and soon learned that these losers also sprayed into the open window of a bus.I’m still coughing from this junk…. Is there anywhere in Halifax that doesn’t have jerks pulling stunts like this, just for fun?
We don’t have a crime problem, we have loser problem! Most of the losers come from uniacke square. Stay away from uniacke square and its perimeter streets. I know because I spent decades dealing with those characters because I grew up close to it.These so called kids grow up like animals, the parents don’t give a dam. Just like that whore kim campbell who gave us the young offenders act.Having Morons in Ottawa and Jellyfish in Halifax City hall doesn’t help..Defend yourselves people, better to be tried by 12 then carried by 6
well, looks like we do need the Guardian Angels in Halifax. They can probably do more then city hall which is why city hall is very cool to them. Crime is town councils bread & butter!
When we weed out the HRMP then we will make this city automatically safer…police are required to take a MMPI, having completed one myself I finally know how all the sociopaths are passing it …I could not figure out why we have a over-representation of sociopaths in the HRM police …now I know…….sociopaths who have legislated power to carry weapons ( guns, tasers, batons, pepper spray) are the most dangerous people in any given city.