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The Serpico syndrome

by Judi Mcleod

January 26, 2004

Does it really take a conspiracy theorist to recognize that there’s a well-organized political agenda at work against Toronto’s blueline?

Shades of Serpico seem evident in RCMP allegations hinting at rot running rampant throughout the Toronto Police Force. Serpico, played by al Pacino on the silverscreen, was real life New York City Police Detective Frank Serpico, who in the 1970s testified against police corruption in the Big apple.

Serpico’s allegations were proven and the guilty officer colleagues he testified against were put out of commission.

RCMP allegations against Toronto police, shocking as the mainline media portray them, have been untested by trial in a court of law. Media hype notwithstanding, this is a story about a handful of officers who allegedly abused their positions.

But for Toronto police, the Serpico syndrome is only the latest salvo.

The local blueline has been under serious attack since November 2002, when the Toronto Star published its controversial series on the so-called incidence of racial profiling by Toronto police. Star writers picked up a "public service" award for their research work on the stories in the series. While the reporters were smiling for the camera with Canadian Governor General adrienne Clarkson, The Toronto Police association was mounting a $2 billion libel lawsuit against Canada’s largest circulated daily.

Kudos from other mainline media not forthcoming, the racial profiling issue as a newspaper story was just beginning to wither on the vine.

One year later, a report from the Keith Norton-led Ontario Human Rights Commission, which, in effect, repeated the Star’s racial profiling charges against the 6,000-member Toronto police force, was tabled.

Based on anecdotal information, lacking scientific statistics, and naming no individuals, cities, corporations, police services, or for that matter, any other public authorities, the Commission report, called, Paying the Price: The Human Cost of Racial Profiling was about as scientific in basis as the Star series the year before.

The Commission report was released just shy of one month after Ontario Municipal Elections, which saw socialist Toronto Mayor David Miller, replace Mel Lastman. The Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty was already in power at Queen’s Park, and just two days later Paul Martin was to succeed John Chretien as Prime Minister.

How long was it going to be before McGuinty and company began to extol the virtues of the Commission’s recommendation to empower the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services to investigate public complaints against police?

The police fleet of cruisers described as being "held together with bubblegum", the constant talk of cuts come budget time and the ongoing politically-fired controversy about the procurement of police helicopters notwithstanding, the Commission report recommends the installation of cameras in police cruisers across the province.

In Ontario, the focus seems to be shifting from spying on the crime community to spying on racial profiling-police.

The mainline media, by and large, have been anti-police in their coverage; Chief Julian Fantino the main subject of their persecution.

It’s not as if the police get a break from the criminal element while having to defend themselves against political enemies. In Toronto five people were killed in a single week in November, three as a result of shootings. The beleaguered Fantino called for a public inquiry into the effectiveness of the criminal justice system.

The media pounced as soon as his idea was articulated.

"…as the city’s overall crime rate dropped, he continued to shout dire warnings of streets deteriorating into anarchy," said Star columnist Jim Coyle. "In any event, it had better be a considerable time before Fantino again asks for more officers to keep Toronto streets safe. His first order of business would seem to be ensuring that those he already has are working for him. and that the rest of the force remember who it is they swore to serve and protect."

It seems that the police are even blamed for the bloopers of their enemies. They got the blame for leaking an 18-month-old memo in which then week-old police services board chairman alan Heisey allegedly said he could understand "how one could be attracted to the beautiful body of an 8-year-old but not children in diapers."

To date there has been more attention paid to the leak than to what Heisey meant by his comments, causing Star columnist Rosie DiManno to ask: "Is alan Heisey a creep or a victim?"

It sometimes seem that the police, as far as the lib-left media, certain politicians, minority activists, university criminologists and cop-hating malcontents are concerned, can do nothing right.

Yet no matter how demoralized, they are the ones charged with protecting the public at large from criminals.

Meanwhile, my pondering whether it takes a conspiracy theorist to perceive that there is a well-organized political agenda at work against the blueline does not come from chaotic current events. It came from my days as a Toronto Sun columnist when front page coverage of daily newspapers reported scenes of overnight police brutality against black youth in the cities of Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax.

Was it only coincidence that police brutality against youth broke out the same night in four, separate Canadian cities, or an anti-police agenda at work?

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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