@johncook: Rob Ford is Jack Black in Bob Roberts
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/MinM/357
Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
by MinM » Wed May 29, 2013 3:50 pm
by Jeff » Thu May 30, 2013 7:40 am
Rob Ford video scandal: Mayor Ford said he knew where video was, sources say
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford told senior aides not to worry about a video appearing to show him smoking crack cocaine because he knew where it was, sources told the Star.
Ford then blurted out the address of two 17th-floor units — 1701 and 1703 — at a Dixon Rd. apartment complex, to the shock of staffers at a city hall meeting almost two weeks ago, the sources said.
The mayor cited “our contacts” as the source of his information, according to insiders familiar with the unusual May 17 session in his office.
Staffers were alarmed by the implication of hearing so precise a location, sources said.
This report is based on accounts given by those privy to what was discussed the day after the Star and the U.S. website Gawker published news of the crack-cocaine video shot on a cellphone.
Ford has called news of the video “false” and said: “I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine. As for a video, I cannot comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist.”
Around the table at city hall on May 17 were operations and logistics director David Price, then deputy chief of staff Earl Provost, press secretary George Christopoulos and others. Missing from the meeting was Mark Towhey, then Ford’s chief of staff. Also not in attendance was communications special assistant Isaac Ransom.
Towhey was fired last Thursday after counselling Ford to seek help for his health. Christopoulos and Ransom resigned “on principle” Monday, and Provost is now chief of staff.
...
New arrest in shooting of man tied to alleged Rob Ford drug video
Police have made a new arrest in connection with the killing of a man whose image has become linked with the Rob Ford drug video controversy.
A Toronto police source said a male suspect, who was arrested by RCMP officers last Friday in Fort McMurray, Alta., is being held in connection with the fatal shooting of Anthony Smith in downtown Toronto on March 28. Another man, Nisar Hashimi, 23, has already been charged with first-degree murder in the case.
Police have obtained a search warrant for the second suspect’s cellphone and homes, the source said, and are looking for at least one other suspect.
The suspect, who has not yet been identified, is expected to be transported to Toronto on Thursday in the custody of the Toronto Police Service. The sources who spoke to The Globe and Mail on condition of anonymity could not say what charges had been laid against the suspect.
Police are to hold a news conference to announce the arrest Thursday, two sources told The Globe.
...
by MinM » Thu May 30, 2013 10:38 am
@johnjcook: I don't know with confidence where the Rob Ford video was or is being stored. It could have been moved repeatedly. But...
…I do know that the entrance to a certain apt complex on Dixon Rd. in Toronto is monitored by security that logs each car entering...
…and requires either an access pass or an invitation from a residence to get in. I presume the entrances are monitored by video as well.
billmon1: Schrödinger’s crack pipe. RT @HeerJeet: The video didn’t exist but the mayor knew where it was. Not just Elmore Leonard but Philip K. Dick.
by seemslikeadream » Thu May 30, 2013 10:48 am
by Jeff » Thu May 30, 2013 5:42 pm
by Wombaticus Rex » Thu May 30, 2013 7:23 pm
by NaturalMystik » Fri May 31, 2013 1:19 am
by Jeff » Fri May 31, 2013 7:36 am
Rob Ford drama takes a surreal turn in the unit where drug dealers may have stashed alleged crack video
...
Back inside unit 1703, the man who answered the door on Wednesday afternoon speaks guardedly. He says he moved in several months ago, noting the unit was previously occupied by a local drug dealer. Asked why a number of young Somali men have keys, as his friend indicated, he responds with surprising nonchalance: “I think somebody may have duplicated my key,” he says casually. “That’s why I’m changing my locks.”
In quick succession, the man issues a number of claims: that, while he does not know its current whereabouts, he has viewed the alleged video and believes it to be authentic; that he has seen other more innocuous footage of Mayor Ford “hanging out” in the neighbourhood; that Somali gang members who support the mayor are angry at the video’s sellers; and that he and his friends briefly considered making a fraudulent crack video starring an acquaintance and Rob Ford lookalike nicknamed “Slurpy,” in an attempt to discredit the real thing. Slurpy, who was not available to be interviewed by the Post, apparently opted out of the phoney video plan, ultimately deciding he did not want to become embroiled in the simmering controversy.
“We don’t like Rob Ford getting screwed,” the man in unit 1703 says. “We wanted to help him… 85% of [young Somalis] are very upset about these guys with the video.”
...
The man offers few details of what he saw in the alleged video, but says it is just one of a number of clips of Mayor Ford he has viewed. In another, he says the mayor appears to be in the back of a limousine with his arms outstretched, possibly smoking a cigarette. He says he will try to arrange for the Post to view some of these clips, which are not in his possession. By press time, he has produced none, and is not answering his phone.
...
by seemslikeadream » Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:39 pm
Rob Ford knew men in photo, Toronto police sources say
Photo of Mayor Ford and homicide victim Anthony Smith taken at 15 Windsor Rd. residence
43 arrested in massive police raid
BY CHRIS DOUCETTE ,TORONTO SUN
FIRST POSTED: THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013 05:06 AM EDT | UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013 06:46 PM EDT
TORONTO - Hundreds of cops burst through dozens of doors and made 28 arrests in simultaneous pre-dawn raids Thursday, including at an Etobicoke apartment complex that has been linked to the Rob Ford crack cocaine scandal.
But whether or not the mayor is involved in any way with the year-long investigation, dubbed Project Traveller, remains a mystery.
Toronto Police say 42 tactical teams — hundreds of cops — from 17 police agencies fanned out across the city and in Windsor at 5 a.m. and executed 39 search warrants with much of their focus on the highrises in Kingsview Village at Dixon Rd. and Kipling Ave.
It’s believed the now infamous video of the mayor allegedly smoking crack was once stashed at 32 Dixon Rd., one of the buildings in the complex.
But Chief Bill Blair, who spoke at a press conference at headquarters following the raids, said the investigation was aimed at dismantling a dangerous street gang that was operating out of the complex.
“Project Traveller is a very complex investigation into the alleged criminal activities of a group known as the Dixon Bloods or the Dixon Goonies,” he said.
The chief fielded plenty of questions about Rob Ford during the press conference, but he refused to say if the Mayor or the notorious video were tied into the ongoing investigation.
“There is a appropriate place for that evidence to come out and that is in a court of law,” Blair said.
Ford has said no such video exists and that he does not use crack cocaine.
Deputy Chief Mark Saunders said 11 of the 39 search warrants executed were in Windsor.
“This gang has been networking with associates from Windsor to Edmonton since 2006,” he alleged.
He claims the gang’s member have been involved in shootings and robberies as well as possession and trafficking of drugs and firearms.
Thursday’s raids resulted in 19 arrests in Toronto and another nine in Windsor. But a total of 43 people have been arrested to date as part of Project Traveller, Saunders said, adding more arrests are expected.
Cops have also seized 40 firearms, over $3 million in narcotics — cocaine, heroin, hashish, marijuana, LSD, Chrystal meth — and $572,000 in cash.
The Kingsview Village complex has a history of gun violence.
On May 21, less than a week after American gossip website Gawker broke the story about the alleged video, there was a shooting outside a 17th-floor apartment, the same apartment where it’s thought the video was held at one point.
A man in his 20s suffered a gunshot wound to his leg.
Police refuse to talk about the video or the shooting, so it’s unclear if the two are connected.
The man who is believed to have shot the 90 seconds of footage with his cellphone, and may have been killed for it, also lived in Kingsview Village.
Anthony Smith, 21, was shot to death outside a King St. W. nightclub March 28 and his 19-year-old pal, who can’t be named because of a publication ban, was wounded.
The wounded friend’s home on Mercury Rd., in Rexdale, was among the residences that were raided Thursday.
Both men are also in a much-publicized photo where they and a third man appear to be socializing with the mayor.
That photo is believed to have been taken outside a house 15 Windsor Rd., a street that is connected by a pathway to the Dixon Rd. highrise complex.
*********
Project Traveller by the numbers:
1 year investigation
17 police agencies involved
42 tactical teams conducted Thursday’s pre-dawn raids
39 search warrants were executed
28 search warrants executed in the GTA
11 search warrants executed in Windsor
19 people arrested in the Toronto area
9 arrested in Windsor
43 arrests have been made throughout the operation
40 firearms have been seized
$3 million worth of drugs has been seized
$572,000 in cash has been seized
by Jerky » Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:10 pm
by NaturalMystik » Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:48 pm
by Fresno_Layshaft » Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:32 am
Jerky » Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:10 pm wrote:I cannot bring myself to accept the idea that this story is going to lead to a freaking blind alley dead end. I just can't. If Ford gets away with this, without repercussion, then the tiny little scraps of belief that I still had in the System will be forever stripped from my sad old bones.
Anybody else feel as depressed about this whole sordid mess as yer old pal Jerky does?
YOPJ
by Fresno_Layshaft » Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:50 am
by Jerky » Wed Jun 19, 2013 2:14 am
by DrVolin » Wed Jun 19, 2013 3:55 pm
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