Who leaked the contents of Mayor Rob Ford’s 911 emergency call Monday and what does it say about the relationship between the mayor and the police?
The fact that some 911 dispatchers are disgruntled with the mayor’s conduct during an emergency call — and groused about it in a manner that came to the attention of CBC reporters — is just that. It may not reflect a schism between Chief Bill Blair and Mayor Ford.
However, the fact that the mayor’s administration is busy looking over its shoulders and is anxious about the relationship speaks volumes.
While the story deteriorated into a “he-said, she-said” political drama Thursday, the bright minds in the mayor’s office were left to wonder if the police weren’t out to get the mayor for daring to challenge police spending.
Ford backed down and gave police almost everything they wanted, but the capitulation came after the mayor unleashed Councillor Michael Thompson as a budget pitbull intent on clawing out some savings.
Star sources say the Ford administration was scrambling Thursday, concerned whether police brass were being vengeful over the public budget spat.
“We gave them what they wanted. But they don’t want to win. They want to annihilate you,” said a source within the mayor’s administration.
Such is the paranoia around policing.
Opinions are mixed regarding the actions of a CBC television comedy crew that surprised Ford — he calls it “ambushed” — in his driveway Monday morning. Maybe he wanted no part of the gag, and was even taken aback at the sight of the flamboyantly dressed reporter-comedian and her camera person shouting out questions.
Someone else may have managed the encounter differently. The mayor aggravated the situation by calling a 911 dispatcher. Such a call for help must be reserved, we are frequently reminded, for life-threatening situations.
Who is to judge what makes a 350-pound football-loving mayor fearful of a menacingly playful Mary Walsh and her alter ego, Marg Delahunty, on the comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
What happened next is open to conjecture, except the mayor has admitted he was “concerned, frustrated and upset” when emergency personnel didn’t immediately storm his Etobicoke property, and that he dropped the F-bomb — though he didn’t call dispatchers “bitches” as reported.
CBC sources claim Ford unleashed a string of curses. Ford’s councillor brother, Doug, says it was just one cuss, during three calls. CBC says their sources have reconfirmed the veracity of the story.
Depending on whom you believe, this was just another left-wing media plot gone awry. First they violate Ford’s private space, scaring the living daylights out of the burly mayor and his little girl. And when the mayor calls 911 on them, they retaliate by making up a story that he cursed at the dispatchers and called them names for not sending a cop immediately to this dangerous occurrence.
Ford’s backers would rather ask: Why did it take so long to dispatch personnel following the 911 call?
You almost expected the rallying cry, “Privatize that service!”
And several are calling for an apology from the CBC.
The mayor insists his sole indiscretion was “once” using the F-word, reflecting his frustration at the slowness of the response. Do you believe him?
He showed up drunk at a Maple Leafs game and berated a fan. When she complained, he denied being there, only to admit it the next day.
When confronted by a reporter over his drunk driving charge in Florida, he denied it strenuously — only to admit that and more afterwards.
This pattern of “deny until found out” suggests we won’t know until the unlikely release of the transcript of the 911 call.
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