‘Appalling spectacle’

Re: Police investigate Mount Sinai protest — Feb. 14, and Defending the indefensible — Jesse Kline, Feb. 16

On what planet is it considered civilized behaviour to bang drums and shout hate outside a hospital filled with sick and dying people?

Week after week we see these so-called “pro-palestinian protests” roaming the city, paralyzing traffic and vandalizing businesses and other institutions, like Mount Sinai Hospital, that are associated with Israelis or Jews.

And week after week, we see an inadequate police presence, reluctant to disperse the mobs or to make arrests unless prodded by public outrage. If the city does not have enough police to manage the mobs, then let’s take a page from the Ottawa police who brought in police from elsewhere to help deal with the invasion of guitar-playing truckers and their bouncy castles: get support from neighbouring communities.

The Mount Sinai Hospital “protest” was an appalling and disgusting spectacle that should never have been allowed to happen. Dr. Raghu Venugopal is my personal hero. Too bad there aren’t more like him! E. Joan O’callaghan, Toronto

The inaction of the Toronto Police Services should sound an alarm for anyone committed to the rule of law and the fundamental values that underpin Canadian society.

Standing by, failing to intervene as security is compromised, serves as nothing less than an open invitation and tacit endorsement of the spreading of anti-jewish hate. An arrest, even if made a day later, is too late; the harm has been done. The insult to our institutions and the Jewish community cannot be undone.

It is time for politicians to move beyond words of condemnation. Declarations of support are empty without accompanying actions. Robert Foster, Toronto