Pubdate: Thu, 22 Apr 2010
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2010 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Joe Warmington
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)

PLAYING MUSIC TO GUNPLAY

The popular Certified Cash Corporation rap group went to the pot rally
at Dundas Square Tuesday to sell their special product.

But their's was legal - their latest CD entitled The
Bling.

"And we sold some too," teased CCC member Billy Burnz. "We didn't know
about the rally but are always in Dundas Square promoting our records."

They saw this ganja-smoking-sit-in as a great opportunity. Who knew
what was coming?

They were on the edge of the square when fellow CCC rapper Kidd Genius
noticed "this guy kept staring" at him before finally saying "I am a
G. I am a G. I am going to pop you. I am going to pop everybody."

Burnz, who said he himself has been incarcerated "in my youth,"
understands the gang code he no longer wants any part of and bragging
about being a gangster. "It's not cool."

The next thing they knew out came a gun, which police say was a .22
calibre semi-automatic handgun. "It's not right," said Burnz. "There
were so many innocent people. It could have been another Jane Creba
thing. It's stupid."

Turns out the popping sound people described was chairs being flipped
over as people started frantically fleeing. "It's was crazy," Genius
said Wednesday at the very spot where 24-hours earlier he was staring
down a pistol and was later allegedly whipped with it.

"I was sure I was going to get shot," he said. "I knew I had to go for
the gun. I thought I could grab it."

As pictures and video show from the legalize pot protest Tuesday he
bravely lunged toward the suspect. "When I think about it now, it's
scary."

Burnz quickly dove into help - as did another man. Seconds later Kidd
Genius was bleeding from his head and had cut his hand while the
suspect was subdued, and also bleeding, on the ground.

"We don't know what he was thinking. Maybe it was musical jealously?"
said Burnz who with CCC will play at the Mood Lounge in Yorkville
Thursday night. "We didn't recognize the guy."

Turns out Toronto Police know 33-year-old Donovan Wynn.

They have charged him with loads of "firearm" offences, "threatening
death" and four counts of possession "of firearm contrary to
prohibition order."

One of those firearm bans came in an incident in 2007. The files also
show Wynn was charged with "assault causing bodily harm and assault
with a weapon" in a 1995 incident in Regent Park with two others who
were alleged to have helped cause a riot in which eight police
officers were hurt while trying to make an arrest during an alleged
drug deal.

A lot of people explained to me Wednesday that kind of incident is
part of the thinking police consider when seeing a mass group
simultaneously breaking the law and that it made sense to not charge
the hundreds of potheads without medical marijuana licences for
flaunting their weed smoking. I still wonder how it would turn out if
people gathered there for a liquor love in?

Most of the e-mails I received from potheads on my column were
bullying but it's not going to intimidate me from saying most of the
people smoking weed in that public space were breaking the law while
everybody else in this city is subject to zero-tolerance, nanny-state
rules and licencing for everything from plastic bags, wedding
pictures, to cigarette smoking fines to environmental car lanes.

What's good for the goose should be good for all the geese. Nothing
wrong with a pot protest but there is plenty wrong with anarchy.

"The goal has to be public safety," TPS spokesman Mark Pugash said of
decisions to not lay hundreds of drug charges.

As for the overall concern of illegal marijuana use or trafficking, he
said "Chief (Bill) Blair has made it very clear that any discussions
on marijuana must keep in mind the central role played by organized
crime and the profits they generate from it."

Pugash added in future such protests, like the Global Marijuana March
planned for May 1, no one should feel entitled. "We are alert to any
behaviour that threatens public safety and will respond," he said.
"Police use discretion every day but nobody has blanket immunity."

Translation for the stoners: Things may not be quite as lenient for
you on May 1. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake