Apathy then Atrophy…and then…………..

Who knew that the most dangerous place in Toronto is a store owned by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario?! Remarkably neither the Mayor nor members of his 25 member City Council were aware. But while the story is more representative of Baltimore or Chicago’s South Side, this narrative in fact resides in Toronto. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) has been keeping a secret. Over the past four and a half years their stores have been robbed 9-thousand times. Let me repeat that there have been some 9000 thefts at LCBO outlets in Toronto since mid 2014. The information comes from the Toronto Police Service (an oxymoron if there ever was one–will explain that too.) And in every case LCBO staff has been required to stand and watch the thefts as they happen! The liquor agency’s policy is this: LCBO staff are not encouraged to confront shoplifters. We didn’t know that and neither did the City’s incredibly inept news media until a Toronto Star staff member happened to be at an LCBO outlet somewhere in the City’s east-end with about 40 other customers when two members of the Liquor Heisting squad arrived.

Quoting from the Star story, “the thieves, faces shrouded beneath hoodies, hats, sunglasses and zero worries about apprehension pushed their way through a crowd of customers to the aisle holding premium vodka and loaded up their four oversized backpacks.”

Customers are stunned by this grand theft larceny occurring right there in their space. Understandable. Incomprehensible is the Star’s description of the reaction of the five staff…they are not watching. Seen this so many times before, maybe? Who watches the same bad movie twice?

The thieves make off with an estimated two thousand dollars of liquor in an operation that takes barely three minutes (reporter’s estimate.)

Were the Police called? Apparently not. Police in Toronto rarely attend to a low-priority theft and never, once the thieves have ” left the building”. So if that’s a fact, then why call them? Think of that next time somebody breaks into your home and steals 2-thousand dollars. It may mean a lot to you but to the Toronto Police Service it doesn’t mean a thing! Obviously the ‘Service’ part means different things to different people in this city of close to three million.

The plain stupidity of the LCBO policy on thievery and the frightening absence of logic at the higher levels of policing in Toronto is disturbing. Let’s crunch the numbers. Averaging the more than nine-thousand liquor store thefts divided among 220 LCBO stores in Toronto we see an average of 41 thefts per store over 4 years, some 10 thefts per year. Obviously the LCBO brass finds comfort in these figures, the losses as part of doing business and the plus of not having to pay protection for the thousands of men and women who work at risk everyday in LCBO stores because thieves do not signal intent. And of course no LCBO regard for the customer!

The LCBO by concealment, aided and abetted by the Police Department and the Union (Ontario Provincial Service Employees Union-OPSEU) has committed fraud on taxpayers of Ontario.

Among the responsibilities of the LCBO is: ensuring that the LCBO provides high-quality service to the public! Obviously both staff and customer are not provided with that high-quality service when at anytime a customer and staff member can be confronted by thieves who could physically harm, discharge a firearm, seize a hostage, and worse, because there is no deterrent.

The evidence of these possible outcomes is found in the story in the Toronto Star. Read it on the front page of the Saturday Star, December 29, 2018….”the bottles go clink, clink, clink as they swell the loot bags and then….smash! A 75 dollar bottle of Grey Goose vodka slips and shatters on the floor and one of the bandits shouts a warning. Stay the f—away from us.” Welcome to the twilight zone in Toronto Ontario Canada.

You are now a witness to a daylight robbery to which not one person dares to intervene, and where the call to the cavalry will be met by laughter. Each on its own can be explained. Sometimes an intervention is impossible, but there’s always help from the police.

Here’s the nightmare, “I cannot intervene and I cannot expect help”.

The Twilight scenario is DOOM. When you read through the entire Star story you quickly come to realize we are at the mercy of some of the most incredibly inept individuals as they thrash about looking for solutions to a problem of their own making. The reaction from Liquor Control Board of Ontario is laughable. Look at this, “the LCBO has taken appropriate steps to prevent shop theft through security investments and theft protection tactics.! Made a big difference to the thieves on the Danforth. I’m sure they wanted to surrender right there but the vodka was tempting and who could turn down larceny without penalty!

The rest of the LCBO stuff is just as silly. And then when you turn to the Police Service group you see the erosion of honest police work in a city that has for decades been patrolled by esteemed guardians of Law and Order.

You have to reflect with disgust to this portion of a memo sent from the Police to the LCBO security: “unless there is a safety risk, certain crimes could now be reported online.”

To wit: if you see two thugs dressed in hoodies, and wearing hats and dark glasses carrying over-sized backpacks going into a liquor store being patronized by 40 shoppers report same to the police on line! I mean where’s the risk? In Toronto, we encourage thieves, LCBO staff and patrons to hang out! Is that difficult to understand in a Sanctuary City?

I’ve been in this city since 1966 and without fear of contradiction this city’s Police Department has never been more emasculated than it is today. The current Chief of Police is a joke. Unfortunately the LCBO story is a reflection of the kind of nonsense we knew was happening but didn’t understand why. Now we know. Apathy begets Atrophy and Atrophy invites the Apocalypse. 

Don’t take my word or it. Look it up. Start with Gibbons on Rome.

We gather that two thugs dressed in hoodies, and wearing hats and dark glasses carrying four bags into a liquor store patronized by 40 innocent shoppers must be reported on the police services line. I mean where’s the safety risk? In Toronto thieves, LCBO staff and patrons love to hang out. So what’s your problem???

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figures