"Rob Ford scandal: Why haven't charges been laid?"

[applegrove]

Rob Ford scandal: Why haven't charges been laid?

CBC News

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/rob-ford-scandal-why-haven-t-charges-been-laid-1.2451838

"SNIP.........................................

Toronto police Chief Bill Blair was asked Wednesday why Ford was not facing charges. He said the case was reviewed by investigators and the Crown.

"Where reasonable probable grounds to lay a charge exist, charges have been laid," he said. "But that's up to the investigators in consultation with the Crown."

'2-tiered' policing?

Coun. Adam Vaughan, speaking Thursday on CBC's Metro Morning, said Blair's explanation needs to go further.

"There's a creeping sense that there's a two-tiered policing system in this city," he told host Matt Galloway. "That if you've got a famous name or if you hold an office or if like Rob Ford … you've got lots of money and lots of lawyers, that you get policed differently than an individual on the street facing exactly the same challenges that Rob Ford is facing.




.........................................SNIP"

[shockedcanadian]

1. Adam Vaughn is exactly right

Been this way since the dawn of time in Canada. It's grabbing at the low-hanging fruit for their own benefit. The police have always operated this way and people who aren't from the wrong side of the tracks don't care as long as their life is unblemished. Best to just leave the cops alone to do their work, hey, they aren't bothering me right? Now that there is a guy they can't get rid of they are screaming bloody murder. It will only get worse before it gets better, the undercover police have become the best paying racket in town, I am sure even the honest, hard working police in uniform despise them.

In all reality Blair shouldn't even be the Chief of police after G20, there is an argument to be made that he deserves his job even less than Ford does, but there was not enough pressure applied to him when it mattered. Imagine these same reporters stalked Blair everyday outside Blair's office and asked him everyday him why he lied to the city about the "five foot rule"? Imagine them caring about real issues such as, I don't know the democratic right for people to protest instead of their interest in a crack video since this mayor won't play ball with them? If they had shown the same interest, Chief Blair probably wouldn't be chief today and Ford probably wouldn't still be mayor. Regardless, Ford was elected, this wasn't an appointment. Ford defies his detractors and keeps his title. Blair does what he wants, this is evident by the fact he didn't step down after the G20 abuses and he told Ford to go fly a kite when it was suggested there would be 10%+ cuts to his budget. "Cut my budget? haha, yeah like hell!"

In no manner is the abuse of police power more prevalent than in the undercover operations they engage in. There is not one ounce of accountability or requirement for the police to justify their activities, as far as they are concerned the poor, less affluent and less educated are great "targets" for their operations, they help to fill their pipelines and use their budgets up (and of course ask for more the next year to handle the demand). It is simply not possible for there to be enough crimes around for them to justify their paycheques, so what is not going on, they manufacture when needed (Entrapment 101, illegal in America and England, quite legal here). I found out the hard way in my own personal interactions with the police and CSIS just how much they lie, manipulate and misrepresent. I have tried many avenues, take my word for it, these guys care much less about your rights than they do their powers and budgets.

How is it that Blair suggests that whether officers lay charges or not is based on their own "judgement" call? Isn't the law supposed to be the law? Isn't a court supposed to decide what sticks and what doesn't?

They wasted millions. Nothing to show for it. The joke is on you though, they do this all the time, what do you think a $1 billion poloce is spent on, donuts and coffee? Just open up your wallet and get back in line will ya.

I will go back to sleep now.

[applegrove]

2. I wonder if the Toronto police are not just waiting for Ford to make many statements...

so they can then arrest him and show him to be the hypocrite he is....which will help their case. I simply don't believe they would not arrest him if they had evidence. Unlike you, I trust the system to work with everyday criminals like Ford.

[shockedcanadian]

3. Work with criminals?

Last edited Fri Dec 6, 2013, 07:13 PM - Edit history (1)

I was raised to respect police and authority, I do not have a problem with those in uniform who are putting themselves in harms way to protect citizens rights. The undercover apparatus however, is an entirely different beast altogether, one that has free reign to ruin and destroy as they please. They are the vehicle to the police budget. Undercovers are paid well for their efforts, the more they "generate" the more they are paid, the higher the trumped up charges cost in court and the more in debt society falls. I often tell people who complain that judges don't punish the latest punk who is in court that this is often because the judges have seen this story many times before, they are fully aware of the tactics that are used by undercover cops and they use this experience to try and decipher fact from fiction, truth from exaggeration.

I am not sure what other city in the Western world would allow what happened during the G20 to go unpunished, but I do know that Blair shouldn't have been asked to step down, he should have been fired. In the globalized world, the best and brightest nations will succeed, it's a competition for the best workers, the security apparatus in Canada doesn't face those same problems, they are insulated from competition, accountability and job loss. So you tell me, just what is the impetus that will force the police to lay charges against Ford? Who is the easier target, some poor kid living in government housing or a wealthy mayor? What is the "safer" direction to take?

I'm like you in that I trust the system as far as dealing with a guy in uniform patrolling the neighbourhood, I sure as hell don't trust the hierarchy or their willingness to put justice ahead of politics.