TORONTO'S RATS ARE RUNNING

With A Determined Police Chief Leading The Way, Thugs Won't Know
Where To Go Or Who To Talk To

They are not going to intimidate this police chief.

And they are not going to stop him. In fact it is the other way
around. He is going to stop them.

Chief Bill Blair made that very clear yesterday with the highly
skilled execution of Project Kryptic and the arrest of up to 90
alleged gang members who I also allege are nothing more than punks
and a scourge on our city.

Crips?

Try creeps. This isn't south central Los Angeles. And this "we are
poor" excuse is nonsense, too. They seem to be able to afford guns.
There is plenty of opportunity for those who want it in this city.

Yes, I know these people are entitled to their day in court. Long overdue.

And get ready for the Legal Aid bill, folks.

Meanwhile, Blair has got their number. He's a tough son of a gun and
when he's after you, head for the hills. He's after gangs. And they know it.

'More Work'

He's the boss. He's done one hell of a job as chief of police in
Canada's largest and most complex city.

In three years he's headed at least five major operations to nail
these hoods with dozens of criminal charges in the areas of guns and
drugs and gang activity. A lot of them are still before the courts.

"And we have more work to do," said Blair.

Translation for the criminal gangs? You do not know when he's coming for you.

He won't let them sleep without thinking about it. You don't get to
make one contact without worrying about it. You can no longer take
one step without hearing footsteps. You don't know who you are
talking with. Could it be an informant or an undercover cop?

You bet it could be.

Sleep well. Especially at about 5 a.m.

In other words, without their ability of forcing the community to
keep its mouth shut, the criminal gangs are not quite as effective of
keeping themselves out of jail.

"The real heroes are in the community," said Blair. "They are the
true role models!"

He's talking about people who live up in the Jane and Finch area or
in other zones were gangs rule. He talked of how they offered
intelligence that helped police yesterday. It's that information, he
says, will help them "get their neighbourhoods back" and will put
some of these violent idiots away.

"Some of these individuals in these gangs have been quite brazen in
their activities and emboldened by the silence and intimidation we so
often hear about in neighbourhoods.

"But I am hoping today they are feeling a little less bold and a
little less brazen. I hope they realize the neighbourhoods they
terrorize are fed up and they have had enough and they are going to
work with police."

"The police have the means and the absolute willingness to get them
off the streets."

Hammer them. It's the only thing these kinds of people understand. "I
believe our city is safer as a result of the work done here today," said Blair.

Now it's the courts' turn to do its job.

Nobody is holding their breath. But Blair made the point that this
thorough and lengthy investigation will offer a lot of evidence to
allow the court system to prevent the bad guys from getting early
bail. If we want to clean up our city this is the kind of tactic that
needs to happen. The chief's actions, and that of all law enforcement
on this, have been right on. We have had enough of the murder.

Good for the good chief.

'Protect Ourselves'

Of course there will be push back. We saw that in the news conference
at headquarters (check out my video on torontosun.com) when a
protester tried to heckle the chief and threw a bunch of obscenities
at him and the police.

"Let me know when you are finished your speech, sir," said the chief,
who after tremendous patience then asked his officers to "escort" him out.

Blair wasn't fazed at all by this jerk. He knows the work he and his
officers have been doing is effective. The rats are running. As they
squeal in frustration he's rounding them up.

You also know you'll have some leftist defence lawyers mouthing off
about police brutality but Blair addressed that ahead of time, too.
"We took special steps to photograph and video the arrests," he said.

"To protect ourselves."

You can try but no gang member is going to beat this guy.