Entrapment by Local Vice Cops

Book guy, thanks for sharing. I had no idea cops were still doing that in Canada or that Canadians have been treating others like second class citizens as standard procedure.

Casual:

Yeah, true story. From about 1999 or so ...

Late at night/early morning, doing an errand to go to the "big" church in a major metro area. Of course, since it was built at the turn of the century, its neighborhood has changed hands a zillion times, sliding slowly down the socio-eco scale. Now it's near the prostitute stroll. I have orchestral instruments in the back of my SUV for choir-with-symphany rehearsal; but the cop is not interested in reality. He needs his bust to make up numbers.

So he "beat me up" in the following way: First he elbowed me (firmly) in the jaw through the driver's window. Then he demanded that I get out of the car. (This was before cell phones, or I would have simply rolled up the window and called for help.) I got out and he took his truncheon and slapped it hard across the back of my knees. I told him (and any passers-by that could hear) that really hurt. He poked me firmly (hard enough to break an old lady's bones, but luckily not mine) in the chest with his truncheon's tip, and told me I would pay like hell for making a fool of him. He sent me on my way.

After my errand, I called the main cop office and complained and was told that the officer I mentioned was out of town all month. Riiight. I pursued it with (their version of) internal affairs, to a limited extent, but received three threatening phone calls. I contacted journalist friends and the civilian-to-police ombudsperson in that city, but then my car was broken into and a threatening note was left on my dashboard.

So I moved out of Toronto, Canada, and back to a free country.

We complain like heck about the "nazi" police in the USA, but really, we have it sweet here relative to that fucked-up land of fascists.

Book Guy, are you serious saying the cops beat you up while you doing an errand for your church? I wouldn't have left that one alone.

I think the subject line is redundant. Vice ... entrapment ... they go hand-in-glove for any victimless crime.

I've experienced similar stings, in which an undercover female cop walks up to you when you're stopped at a stoplight. You reject her, keep your window rolled up, and when the light changes, you are disappointed to find that the cars in front of and behind you don't move and arresting officers are instead disgorged to abandon due process, force you to the curb, and tell you they'll tell your wife you were driving the "stroll" at midnight.

In my episode, I was delivering tympanies to a local symphony concert at a church, and didn't have a wife. So when I told them, "Whatever, tell everyone anything you want, it's a lie," they just beat me up instead of trying to take my money.

Yeah, isn't self-serve prostitution an oxymoron?

Yah, it's a funny thing. Canada has this total reputation as "America without the crime" but that's generally false. Per capita, there are comparable numbers of murders in Toronto and Minneapolis, for example. And since the Canadians are generally very BAD at admitting they're doing ANYTHING that resembles the USA, they have actually been rather lethargic about cracking down on police violence, inner-city drugs, crime, etc.

In some ways, they're just 50 years behind the USA -- the popular opinion is, that since all the little white Anglo-Saxon boys received Lionel train sets for Christmas, their society must be perfect. Or, rather, the popularly ENFORCED opinion up there is, that since in the USA all the little boys DIDN'T, Canada must be BETTER.

Now, that having been said, I'm referring to Anglophone Canada. Montreal is different. In fact, it's not really Canada, it's more like part of Portugal.

Frankly, I hated my time up north. Made a patriot out of me. Before I went there, in the early 1990s, I was one of those "typical liberal" Americans that Rush Limbaugh complains about -- voted left-wing; agreed with most of what Jane Fonda said; thought Toronto was the ideal to which New York and Chicago and Philadelphia ought to aspire, what with its evident crime-free streets and free health care. But then I got there and found out, well, the crime wasn't at Wash.D.C. levels (yet) but the inner-city racism was just as bad, PLUS they were busy hating Americans, PLUS there were no libertarians anywhere to be heard or seen (left- or right-wing), PLUS you could get beat up by the cops just like in 1955 with no recourse, PLUS I didn't get any of that free health care because, as a foreign national, I had to pay for it. Bad deal for me.

They really bad-mouth the USA constantly up there. And there's this weird system, by which they PRETEND that American immigrants are "just like" everyone else, but really there's a three-tier system -- Canadians; then, Somalis and other underprivileged immigrants from third-world countries; then people from Europe, particularly the British Isles. That's the system. Americans don't GET promotions, jobs, the right to housing, because it's "OK" to be a bigot about Americans in Toronto in the same way it was "OK" to be a bigot about Blacks in Birmingham in 1955. After many many false career starts, I eventually just left, realizing that no matter how stellar my performance, I would consistently be the nigger in their caste system.

OK OK I got started. Sorry. But I won't speak kindly of the "perfect" society up there ever, because I've experienced it. And I think most Americans of THIS generation who've moved there, experienced something similar. It was a great boon to us, when draft dodgers could escape Vietnam (if they were so inclined) but since then, they've just gotten bitchy about us and I wouldn't recommend that you visit. Except Montreal. And the fuck-strip-clubs out in southern Quebec province, they're awesome. :)

Book Guy:

Thanks for sharing. We always thought Toronto and Windsor were much safer than Detroit area venues. Risky Business.