Glad to hear that the chief's contract has been extended to 2015. I think that he takes a very pragmatic, practical approach to policing. His first, second and third priorities are SAFETY (not individual morality). I think he could care less whether the adult woman you are engaged in wambo minki behind closed doors is your spouse or not.
Chief Bill Blair
- Thread starter Rockslinger
- Start date
Not being a resident of Toronto, it's really not my call. However, Mr. Blair seems like many of us to have both his strengths and weaknesses.Rockslinger said:
When Julian Fantino and Craig Bromell were policing the city I feared that we were headed toward a police state. Just look at the way the Tamil protests have been handled as opposed to the runaway brutality used against the Coalition Against Poverty.
The differerence between Fantino and Blair is night and day. One (Blair) is a real solid cop. The other Fantino is a wanabe politician. If Miller did one thing right it was running Fantino out of Toronto.
Insidious Von said:
Puh-leeze.
There was no love whatsoever between Fantino and Bromell. None.
Bromell was a thug, no arguement there, but Fantino was a plain talking guy with a street sense to him that Blair will never have. Blair reminds me of Miller Lite.
If anything, the Tamil protests illustrated that Blair was indecisive and unable to properly control the situation. Blair got lucky that the Tamils decided to clear off the Gardiner on their own accord (Phew says Bill). It would have been interesting to see what Miller and his bum boy Blair would have done if the Tamils decided to stay on the Gardiner. My bet is that they would have behaved just like McGuinty and the OPP did in Caledonia - i.e. do nothing and let a bunch of criminals have their way because they are an ethnic minority.
As far as OCAP was concerned, I shed no tears for a bunch of leftists who were intent on storming the Provincial Legislature because they didn't like the fact that Mike Harris was cutting their Welfare Payments (read my tax dollars being wasted on lazy good for nothing morons). They OCAP and the rest of the welfare state in this province seriously need to get off their asses and stop expecting the rest of us to pay the freight over and over and over. You storm the building, you get a whack on the head - as far as I'm concerned - Good. Calling it "run away brutality" is a joke as far as I'm concerned.
This is what OCAP is all about.....
http://www.ocap.ca/node/220
ogibowt said:
The poor don't get welfare cheques. The lazy get welfare cheques.
I have no problem helping a guy who's down on his luck and out of work. But there's a limit. How long should the gov't be cutting welfare cheques to people - 2 years, 3 years, 5 years? Forever? How long does it take to get back on your feet?
I'd be all for increasing welfare payments to guys in year one, but gradually cutting it back in time to those who are able bodied but choose not to work, but expect the tax payers to pay for it.
Yes, the Canadian Gov't has cut welfare cheques to:
General Motors
Chrysler
But these guys DO employ tens of thousands of people.
Other than that, they underwrote some questionable loans that the big banks had on their books, but compared to the US of A, it was nothing.
99 percent of the companies out there in business today are not looking for any kind of government hand-out.
jimmy, dont forget all those tax loopholes that people use , then receive "their welfare cheques" in the mail a few weeks after they file...that "lazy " thing...People with physical and mental disabilities, receive govt assistance in one form or another..are they lazy..hhhmmm?
I continue to be astonished that Bill Blair is considered an impressive police chief. But maybe after Fantino you can only go up. Blair is a terrible public speaker. A pompous windbag who sounds not very bright, but who has taken a couple sociology courses.
I heard his press conference during the Tamil standoff on the Gardiner, and he prattled on and on saying nothing.
I admire the Tamils for getting up on the Gardiner - it was a media moment- but for the life of me I can't understand why they were allowed to march all the way from the US Consulate to the Gardiner in the first place.
And I fault the Toronto media for not pressing Bill Blair hard to ask how this freeway takeover by a few hundred pedestrians happened. Because it should not have happened, and the fault lies with the police department. In a US city the chief might resign over such a screw-up. Or at least make the offer.
I heard his press conference during the Tamil standoff on the Gardiner, and he prattled on and on saying nothing.
I admire the Tamils for getting up on the Gardiner - it was a media moment- but for the life of me I can't understand why they were allowed to march all the way from the US Consulate to the Gardiner in the first place.
And I fault the Toronto media for not pressing Bill Blair hard to ask how this freeway takeover by a few hundred pedestrians happened. Because it should not have happened, and the fault lies with the police department. In a US city the chief might resign over such a screw-up. Or at least make the offer.
einar said:
Speaking of that incident, its funny how the media focused on children safety, LOL when there was a picnic on the gardiner.
I think that toronto police has shown backbone in this tamil protest. They allowed free speech, and i think its an important part of any democracy. Sure i got stuck in traffic for 4 hours that night, and cursed the living hell out of the situation, but the reality is that it is nice to see free speech being allowed. After all thats why our forefathers fought for 65 years ago.
We just keep on forgeting!
Again I say that Chief Blair takes a PRAGMATIC and PRACTICAL approach to policing with SAFETY as his force's major concern. With 100,000 Tamils blocking the Gardiner, the situation could have easily spun out of control. Yes, some laws were broken but nobody's bones got broken.
BTW Chief Blairs public speaking is fine as far as I am concerned. He is a police chief and not an orator.
BTW Chief Blairs public speaking is fine as far as I am concerned. He is a police chief and not an orator.
You've got to be kidding. The OCAP are an extremist group that have a complete disregard for the law. They use violent tactics to further their cause. The police had no choice but to crack down strictly out of fear of their own safety.Insidious Von said:
The Tamil protests were poorly handled by the police. Citizens safety was put at risk by allowing them to storm the Gardiner Express. I give the police force an F for its handling of these.
That said Bill Blair can be a good police chief but he's not strong enough. He takes his orders from Chairman Miller who has stacked the TPS with the likes of clueless misfits like Alok Mukerjee and Pam MacConnell. He won't come out and criticize the courts for lenient parole conditions, lenient sentencing and the revolving door justice system. I believe that it is this that has contributed to the spike in our homicide rate - an average of 76 murders per year under Blair's reign as opposed to 62 under Fantino's charge.
great bear said:
Fantino wasn't run out, he's actually the commissioner of the OPP now.
einar said:
Blair's also got a law degree and an MBA on top of that. He's come into a few of my classes to guest-lecture (I'm in Criminology) and ya, he does talk a lot. He's more of a politician than a policeman.
unihorse said:
He makes 300 grand a year. Not bad, even more than Chairman Miller at 163. That seems out of whack to me.
http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/english/publications/salarydisclosure/2009/munic09.html
unihorse said:
The Toronto Police Services Board did not renew Fantino's contract. What does that tell you?
Tiffany_69 said:
Absolutely, although some people (Stephen Harper?) might find it morally repugnant, private consensual adult sex should not be criminal. Same argument that former Justice Ministers Pierre Trudeau and John Turner made when they made homo sex legal back in the 1970's.
Personally, I think he has done a decent job, and has bought the unions under control. But I WOULD like more focus on property crime, and our moron mayor needs to start cutting policing budgets, we just have far too many police in our city. Fantino was a moron, and I greatly prefer Blair to Fantino. I hope Blair will go further in improving the culture of the Metro police.
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