Crime in Ontario so rampant premier's friends sleep with 'baseball bats'

spaminator

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Crime in Ontario so rampant premier's friends sleep with 'baseball bats'
The criminals must be laughing their heads off at the rest of us

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Author of the article:Joe Warmington
Published Feb 01, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s warning to criminals that he’s “coming after” them didn’t stop a group of thugs from smashing and grabbing their way through a North York mall Wednesday night.


Criminals don’t care what politicians say because they know who is in charge of the streets – it’s them.


Toronto Police say four masked men, described as about 5-foot-8, stormed a jewelry store in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre – near Dufferin St. – around 8:45 p.m.



One of the bandits “produced a handgun and pointed it at employees” while the others “began smashing the glass of display cases with hammers,” stealing jewelry and cash, before they all drove off in a newer-model, grey SUV.

But don’t worry, the Premier has strong words for such criminals.

“We’re going to catch you and you’re going to jail,” Ford said Wednesday. “We’re going to keep you in jail as long as we possibly can.”


He knows there are not enough jail cells to incarcerate every criminal and the courts are backlogged for years.

That means the boss is not Ford or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It’s these gangs who are in charge.


They will carjack you or steal your car from your driveway, or kick down the front door of your home without fear of getting caught. And even if they are nabbed, they know they will be released from custody within a few days.

The Premier knows how bad it is out there.



“I’ve talked to friends that are sleeping with baseball bats beside their bed because someone’s going to kick the door in and put a gun to their head and say, hand over your keys,” Ford said.

What kind of province have we become when the Premier’s friends sleep with bats? Just imagine those without such powerful friends. What are they supposed to do?



The public has become sitting ducks while leaders oversee the destruction caused by drugs, poverty, gambling debts, mental health and a focus on progressive wokeism.


While Ford recommended victims of crime wait for police instead of using on a bat, he didn’t mention the average emergency response time is 22 minutes.



The idea of people defending themselves with a baseball bat is an interesting debate since just last month a 22-year-old international student working at a Peterborough corner store was slugged with one by a crook during hold up.

In that case, the clerk managed to snatch the bat away from the robber and deliver a retaliatory blow of his own.

The innocent kid, who is not friends with the Premier, ended up charged with aggravated assault for defending himself. He has no money, no job, he’s under house arrest with strict bail conditions and may have to wait two years to try to clear his name.

The criminals must be laughing their heads off.

jwarmington@postmedia.com
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
Honestly, I thought, keeping a bat behind your door was normal? I do (nice tight, compact aluminum), & my father, kept a five iron behind his. It was the only golf club he owned, and I have no idea where it came from.
What kind of province have we become when the Premier’s friends sleep with bats?
Yeah, seriously, have they even thought things through? Until you’re on your feet, a bat is a liability and potentially a tripping hazard. Behind the door works just fine.
The idea of people defending themselves with a baseball bat is an interesting debate since just last month a 22-year-old international student working at a Peterborough corner store was slugged with one by a crook during hold up.
They’re effect if you have the room to use one. Keep them short, & use overhead blows in tight confines until you’re in an open area.
In that case, the clerk managed to snatch the bat away from the robber and deliver a retaliatory blow of his own.
Ahhh…Canada with its proportional force of equal or lessor force in self-defence unless you can prove that you have a legitimate concern for your own loss of life, etc…

Once the clerk gained control of the bat, he became the aggressor (retaliatory blow) in the eyes of Canadian law…removing the threat of the bat being used against himself.
The innocent kid, who is not friends with the Premier, ended up charged with aggravated assault for defending himself. He has no money, no job, he’s under house arrest with strict bail conditions and may have to wait two years to try to clear his name.
Yep. In Canada you need to keep a golf bag of select improvised weaponry handy, so that, you can match proportionately the threat against you with a similar weapon proportionately…or you become the oppressor in the confrontation.

When the Clerk had control of the bat, & the thief didn’t (assumably) still have a comparably useful weapon…well, that’s assault…even though the clerk had already been assaulted. Retaliatory strikes (regardless of circumstances or adrenaline) are not permitted, unless under the Gladeau (read the background on that one) factor perhaps, & being an international student, I doubt he would qualify for this defence.
 

bob the dog

Council Member
Aug 14, 2020
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What they need to publicize is the cost of so called law enforcement. OPP cost Ontario tax payers $1.4 B annually.

You would think that given an actual awareness there would be interest in cooperating with others to reduce the expense by simply obeying laws. Of course they need to be prepared for a terrorist attack so it all falls under the big umbrella.

My most recent police encounter a few years back involved a cyclist out for a ride who decided they had a right to occupy the left lane of the Trans Canada Hwy at a speed of 15 kph. After 3 blocks he comes to a light with 6 vehicles behind him but instead of pulling to the right and letting others go by stands his ground. I took advantage of the light turning green to scoot around rather than follow for another block to my destination. Do my thing and come out of the store to see the cyclist in the parking lot but never said anything. 10 minutes after getting home a city cop shows up. I tell him the story and we spend the next 15 minutes talking about fishing because I live on a lake. As we are chatting a call comes on his radio saying that someone was walking their dog and gave a home owner the finger so off he went. $150,000 per year and walking around in $2500 of protective equipment with related expenses.

It's not quite the business that public education is but still a great place to earn a pension.
 
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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
What they need to publicize is the cost of so called law enforcement. OPP cost Ontario tax payers $1.4 B annually.
So, roughly, $88/annum/person in Ontario, regardless of age to taxpayer status.
You would think that given an actual awareness there would be interest in cooperating with others to reduce the expense by simply obeying laws. Of course they need to be prepared for a terrorist attack so it all falls under the big umbrella.

My most recent police encounter a few years back involved a cyclist out for a ride who decided they had a right to occupy the left lane of the Trans Canada Hwy at a speed of 15 kph. After 3 blocks he comes to a light with 6 vehicles behind him but instead of pulling to the right and letting others go by stands his ground. I took advantage of the light turning green to scoot around rather than follow for another block to my destination. Do my thing and come out of the store to see the cyclist in the parking lot but never said anything. 10 minutes after getting home a city cop shows up. I tell him the story and we spend the next 15 minutes talking about fishing because I live on a lake. As we are chatting a call comes on his radio saying that someone was walking their dog and gave a home owner the finger so off he went. $150,000 per year and walking around in $2500 of protective equipment with related expenses.

It's not quite the business that public education is but still a great place to earn a pension.
 

Tecumsehsbones

Hall of Fame Member
Mar 18, 2013
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You would think that given an actual awareness there would be interest in cooperating with others to reduce the expense by simply obeying laws. Of course they need to be prepared for a terrorist attack so it all falls under the big umbrella.
Nope. People who commit crimes, from traffic violations to felonies, do so on the assumption they won't be caught. Insofar as they think at all.
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
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Chow eyes police budget cuts while crime rises
Author of the article:Matthew Lau
Published Feb 05, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 2 minute read

Olivia Chow just delivered her first budget as Toronto’s mayor, to be voted on by city council on Feb. 14, but it’s clear her priorities aren’t straight.


Her budget calls for a 9.5% residential property tax hike. Mercifully, it’s slightly less expensive than the 10.5% recommended by city staff, but still a severe burden on taxpayers that compounds the 7% increase last year. And it’s something Torontonians suffering an affordability crisis can ill afford.


The big tax hike is the result both of shoddy financial planning at City Hall that tends to exaggerate financial needs, triggering an annual tax grab panic, and the refusal to reduce spending where there’s clear excess. Case in point, restricting infrastructure construction bids to certain unionized companies instead of allowing for competition means taxpayers overpay for construction by an estimated $347 million annually with zero compensating benefit.


But Chow does want to restrain spending in one area — police services. City staff’s proposed police budget of $1.174 billion was $12.6-million short of what was unanimously approved by the Toronto Police Services Board, which is composed of Deputy Mayor Amber Morley, two other city councillors, and several others appointed by the city or province.

This shortage was confirmed by Chow in her budget release on Feb. 1, but her decision to restrain police spending may well have been influenced by her inaccurate perception about the need for police services in Toronto. At the end of December, she proclaimed that over the past year Toronto had become “a safer city.” If there is indeed less crime in Toronto today, that would be some justification for reducing police spending — fewer criminals mean fewer police needed to catch them.


The problem is, Toronto isn’t safer. According to crime statistics published by the Toronto Police Service, major crime increased 17.6% in 2023. Assaults, which comprise nearly half of the major crime count, rose by 15.1% while auto thefts and breaking and entering, the next two biggest categories, were up 24.6% and 25.4%, respectively. In 2022, there were 71 homicides in Toronto, in 2023 there were 73.

Where is the evidence of a safer city?



The longer-term trends, too, show Toronto is less safe than it once was. In 2023, major crime was up 32.2% versus 2018, including 23.7% more assaults and a staggering 152.5% increase in auto thefts. Looking back further, compared to 2014, assaults in 2023 rose 46.6%, auto thefts 235.4% and major crime overall 52.2%.

Finally, crime in Toronto shows no signs of slowing down. On the contrary, through the first four weeks of 2024, the major crime index is up 8% versus the first four weeks of 2023, including 13.4% more assaults. Auto thefts so far are down versus a year ago, but offset by a larger increase in breaking and entering.

Evidence for Chow’s claim of “a safer city” just isn’t there. Therefore, of the many areas Toronto city council should look to restrain spending, perhaps the police are not the best place to start.

— Matthew Lau is an adjunct scholar with the Fraser Institute
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
25,361
9,138
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Regina, Saskatchewan
Statistically, crime is up in big cities such as Toronto and Montreal, and there are more signs of disorder visible to those going about their business in those downtown cores. It has become normal, for example, to see open drug use or acts of violence on public transit.

Auto thefts have skyrocketed; according to police, home invasions and auto theft rose 400 per cent last year. Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw recently said that carjackings in the city have more than doubled in 2024. And – not unexpectedly, considering the war in Gaza – reported hate crimes in Toronto have surged since Oct. 7.

The solution routinely proposed by police is a bigger budget to hire more officers since, in Toronto, the number of officers on the streets has not kept up with population growth. The Toronto police union has even released ads depicting scenes of rather frightening crimes, paired with the caption “ … an officer will be arriving in 22 minutes” – a reference to the current average response time for priority police calls…

…But the police budget has kept up with inflation, meaning all of that money is going somewhere other than getting more boots on the ground.

In terms of public perception, though, none of that really matters. If the police aren’t seen to be doing their jobs – controlling crowds, maintaining access to public spaces, apprehending car thieves instead of telling people where to leave their keys – our collective faith in one of our most important institutions crumbles…

…And when citizens can’t trust that police will keep them safe, they can start to take measures into their own hands.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Low Earth Orbit
Statistically, crime is up in big cities such as Toronto and Montreal, and there are more signs of disorder visible to those going about their business in those downtown cores. It has become normal, for example, to see open drug use or acts of violence on public transit.

Auto thefts have skyrocketed; according to police, home invasions and auto theft rose 400 per cent last year. Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw recently said that carjackings in the city have more than doubled in 2024. And – not unexpectedly, considering the war in Gaza – reported hate crimes in Toronto have surged since Oct. 7.

The solution routinely proposed by police is a bigger budget to hire more officers since, in Toronto, the number of officers on the streets has not kept up with population growth. The Toronto police union has even released ads depicting scenes of rather frightening crimes, paired with the caption “ … an officer will be arriving in 22 minutes” – a reference to the current average response time for priority police calls…

…But the police budget has kept up with inflation, meaning all of that money is going somewhere other than getting more boots on the ground.

In terms of public perception, though, none of that really matters. If the police aren’t seen to be doing their jobs – controlling crowds, maintaining access to public spaces, apprehending car thieves instead of telling people where to leave their keys – our collective faith in one of our most important institutions crumbles…

…And when citizens can’t trust that police will keep them safe, they can start to take measures into their own hands.
Electric cop cars and reusable coffee cups will solve this problem.
 

Taxslave2

House Member
Aug 13, 2022
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The solution is to not jail the victim for fighting back. Your best defence is to either own an excavator, or know someone that does, and bury the evidence. Also eliminates the chance of repeat offenders running around.