In a study several years ago, Statistics Canada said crime did not occur randomly in cities, but instead was "associated with demographic, socio-economic and land-use factors." Poverty, unemployment and loss of hope create conditions that foster crime, resentment and despair. Police, as a rule, don't go into these neighbourhoods to harass residents. They go there because that's where the calls for assistance are coming from, because that's where bad things are happening, because that's where they are needed the most.

The greater the contact between police and the residents of these districts, the greater the risk of the kind of violence that occurred in Montreal on the weekend. It's understandable that the residents of such neighbourhoods will grow to distrust and resent the police, and to feel they are being targeted. It's also normal, however, that some police officers, even if they are members of the minority group themselves, will come to fear the underclass groups, or regard them as dangerous and untrustworthy.