Back when Neophyte was about 4 years old... and we lived in the Heart of Darkness that is downtown Toronto... Mrs Neo had occasion to take him along to a dental appointment in North York.
While Mrs N was lying in the chair, she happened to mention that we were looking to find a home out in the country. It was at that point that Neophyte cheerfully piped up and announced to all and sundry... "My daddy says Toronto is full of idiots."
Well... apparently it's not only Toronto.
Pelham's fire chief is fuming mad about a recent court decision in a case that involved a town firefighter being injured and a half-million-dollar home destroyed after it was set ablaze last year.And we're not talking a shaky case that had to be knocked down for evidentiary reasons... they had these assholes dead-bang...
In a letter to Rick Bartolucci, Ontario minister of community safety and correctional services, Chief Scott McLeod outlined his frustration over an arson charge that ended up as a conviction for public mischief causing property damage, instead.
He said it sends a wrong message - arson is not a serious crime endangering lives but instead a simple property offence.
Firefighters found three sources for the blaze -construction paper at one site and a mix of paint thinners and wood stain at the other two on separate floors. Niagara Regional Police arrested two men on May 19 whom the fire chief was told admitted to setting the fires.Read it all... I dare you.
"As you can imagine, we had a sense of accomplishment regarding the day's work," said McLeod in his letter to the minister "and we felt that the case against the suspects left little room for legal manoeuvring."
McLeod said it's often difficult to prove arson because evidence such as fingerprints are lost as firefighters suppress flames.
"However, this was not the case in this incident."
Part of the evidence was paint on a finger of one man. A message was left in spilt paint at the site. With strong evidence, an injured firefighter, an apparent confession and timely charges, the fire chief thought it was "a bullet-proof case for the courts."
**********
RELATED: Must... have... "more... social... workers"
A man who suffered multiple gunshot wounds leaving him in critical condition early this morning has stabilized following emergency surgery.**********
Police are not releasing any details until later this morning, but earlier, they were searching for a dark, four-door Cadillac with multiple occupants, considered armed and dangerous.
LAST WORD: Hit me baby, one more time
"The victims are not being very cooperative right now," Const. Nabih Mansour, of 12 Division, said after the triple shooting.*
Just 12 hours earlier and a few blocks north of the triple shooting, another man was gunned down.