Toronto's gangsta mayor caught peeing "red handed" in public!

Exhibit 'A'

Good Day Readers:

You really have to wonder if Lady Justice is deaf, dumb, blind and stupid. Rob Ford under police surveillance (above) is photographed having a pee after going for a walk along a park pathway with reported drug dealer Alexandro Lisi caught "red handed" presumably celebrating Mr. Lisi placing a package on the passenger's seat of the Mayor's car. Police later found an empty vodka bottle and juice box where the two had been. He didn't even wash his hands!

The penalty for urinating in public in Toronto is $365.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk

Does Toronto have 'two-tier' policing? Why Rob Ford hasn't been arrested despite disturbing allegations

Peter Kuitenbrouwer
Thursday, December 5, 2013

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford laughs during an executive committee meeting at City Hall in Toronto December 5, 2013. (Tyler Anderson/National Post)

Beginning on Halloween, an avalanche of allegations have been pried loose involving Mayor Rob Ford, everything from crack use to mysterious exchanges of packages to suggestions of heroin. None of the allegations have been tested in court, but that hasn’t stopped people from demanding explanations from police.

Nefarious local gangsters knew Toronto’s crude, crack-smoking mayor far better than rest of city

It was one of the enduring images from the June 13 Toronto Police raids that were the culmination of the force’s lengthy guns-and-gangs investigation now widely known as Project Traveller.

While heavily armed police made arrests early that morning at a number of addresses across the city, one was the six-tower complex on Dixon Road in north Etobicoke.

A building there, 320 Dixon, was by then well known as ground zero for the notorious video documenting the Toronto mayor’s alleged crack cocaine adventure.

The cameras captured at least one woman, being led away in handcuffs, who was bellowing that all of this was Rob Ford’s fault.

And that — nothing else — speaks to the real damage done by Toronto’s crude, crack-smoking, binge-drinking problem child mayor.

Read more from Christie Blatchford …

Why have they not charged the mayor? Is there, as Councillor Adam Vaughan suggests, “two-tier policing,” where “a kid like Rob Ford, with a trust fund, gets policed differently?” Have the police, in defence lawyer Clayton Ruby’s words, “time and again watched the trafficking take place, and decided not to arrest the mayor?”

Simply put, the police have not charged Mayor Ford because they lack evidence of criminal wrongdoing that would stand up in court.

“The only way you can charge someone is with physical evidence of a crime,” said Chris Mathers, a crime and risk consultant and former RCMP undercover officer. “I’m sure the police would love to charge the mayor with something, but they are restricted by the rules of common law.”

Why wait for police? Under section 504 of the Criminal Code, writes Toronto criminal lawyer Aaron Harnett on the web site Advocate Daily, any private citizen could have a criminal charge laid against the mayor.

“In the case of Mayor Ford, you don’t need to have the drug to secure the conviction in light of a reliable confession,” Mr. Harnett writes.

But to what end? Even if a court convicted the mayor over his crack use, he would get, at most, a $300 fine, said Daniel Stein, a criminal defence lawyer turned writer.

“He wouldn’t be removed from office,” said Mr. Stein. “He would get a slap on the wrist.
“The police have done an amazing job. They were following all the leads.” While Mr. Stein is sharply critical of the mayor’s behaviour, he points out that “being a victim of blackmail is not a criminal offence.”

Mayor Ford has refused to speak to police. That looks bad. Still, police have no power to compel him or anyone to talk, Mr. Stein said.

Why did the police not swoop in when they saw the mayor and Alexander Lisi exchanging envelopes that they suspected contained drugs? Likely, they sought evidence of something more serious.

Police have charged Lisi with trafficking marijuana and extortion, in an alleged attempt to get back the so-called crack video.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford uses a security guard as a shield as he makes his way back to an executive committee meeting at Toronto's City Hall on Thursday, December 5, 2013. (The Canadian Press/Chris Young)

Tapped phone calls suggest he told gang members the mayor would “bring the heat on Dixon,” if they didn’t return a missing cellphone.

“That could constitute extortion,” said criminal defence lawyer John Rosen. “You’re not allowed to threaten people. But the problem is that you have other people saying it. You don’t have admissable evidence.”

At city hall Thursday, Councillor Michael Thompson, vice-chair of the Police Services Board, defended the police and Chief Bill Blair.

“There are no special rules for one and not all,” the councillor said. “There is the application of law, and I certainly believe the chief of police will apply the law and the rules … and I think he’s very good at that.”
Mark Pugash, a spokesman for the Toronto Police Service, said Mayor Ford has not been charged because the evidence is simply not there.

“If someone says I have used drugs in the past, that is not the basis for an investigation or a charge,” he said.

 “Because we know that this case has incredibly high public profile, we need to make sure we are doing everything by the book. We also know you’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t.”

National Post, with files from Natalie Alcoba

Email: pkuitenbrouwer@nationalpost.com