Toronto councillor suggests calling in army to deal with violent ‘turf war’

TORONTO – Toronto city councillor Giorgio Mammoliti believes a turf war is behind the recent rash of violent shootings in the city and suggests it is time to call in the army for help.

“We have a well established federal reserve, an army perhaps, that can come in and help the police in these circumstances,” Mammoliti told reporters Tuesday evening at the scene of a fatal shooting in west-end Toronto.

“They have the tools. They have more tools than the police department has to be able to track people down and treat them as the terrorists that they are.”

The councillor’s comments come after a man was shot to death around 5 p.m. Tuesday evening in the city’s Rexdale neighbourhood.

No arrests have been made, but police are searching for a black car they say was spotted leaving the area northbound.

Although police have not indicated the crime is gang related, Mammoliti believes it is linked to a turf war that has taken over the city.

“A few weeks ago there was sporadic shots being heard in this area. After discussion with our 31 Division, we did get briefed that things could be bad and that they were anticipating that these kinds of events would take place,” Mammoliti told reporters.

“We have our own terrorists. They are homegrown terrorists and they’re here and they’re called drug dealers. And they’re on our streets.”

Mike McCormack, president of  Toronto Police Association says Toronto is in crisis when it comes to violent crimes, adding police aren’t able to work proactively because of restrictions around street checks.

“We haven’t an understanding on how to engage the public in a proactive way since we have gotten rid of the ability to go and investigate people and what we call street checks,” McCormack said.

“I think it’s a crisis because we have seen a steady increase in violence and we’ve seen an increase in shootings and victims … We have heard this anecdotally from officers on our street that they’re stressed and they are going from call to call. There isn’t enough police officers to deal with the amount of volume of calls we have.”

McCormack said Mammoliti’s suggestion to bring in the army to help deal with growing incidents of violent crimes isn’t realistic.

“We aren’t going to declare a military state. That’s not what we are talking about here,” he said.

“What we are talking about is having appropriate amount of police officers on the ground to do the job and do it properly.”

McCormack’s comments come less than A week after a KPMG report outlining cost-cutting was released publicly.

READ MORE: Toronto police union president cites inaccuracies in KPMG report

Since Friday, there have been at least six shootings in the city, including a fatal drive–by in the downtown core on Friday afternoon.

Three people were also hospitalized after a shooting near a baby shower on Eglinton Avenue West on Saturday night.

Mayor John Tory spoke with media on Wednesday and remains firm in his position that Toronto “is a safe city.”

“Any incident of violence, any incident of violence causing death is unacceptable and it’s of grave concern to me as the mayor,” Tory said.

“I will reiterate though …  this is still a safe city. There is a small group of people … who are engaged in gang-related activities – much of it related to drugs and guns – and they are involved in violence largely with each other – not exclusively so – and that is a real problem.”

Tory also added that he doesn’t believe the violence is a crisis and doesn’t support bringing in the armed forces, as suggested by Mammoliti.

“I have spoken with the police chief this morning and I continue to be confident that he is doing everything he can. He is the expert in policing. Not me.”

READ MORE: Rash of shootings, stabbings ‘a blip’ says Toronto police chief

Police Chief Mark Saunders remarked last weekend the violence is an outlier in an otherwise safe city.

“Toronto is one of the, if not the safest city in North America, so it’s a blip. We have these blips. We have these weekends,” Saunders said on Sunday.

VIDEO: Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders reacts to recent crime wave

Still, Mammoliti believes the violence is part of a larger problem the city and federal officials need to address.

“Not sure if people remember this but a number of years ago there was roundup, so to speak, of drug dealers. They were put in jail,” he said.

“They are out now and it’s a turf war going on in the City of Toronto.”

Mammoliti maintains the police department is doing all it can to stem the violence but more resources are needed.

“Let’s figure out what the federal government has in the way of tools to be able to help us,” he said.

“It may or may not be the army, I don’t know. But certainly, our particular police force is doing what they can under the circumstances.”

With a file from Steve Morales