Follow-Up to ‘Apprehended Insurrection in the North Ward?’

The media and several elected officials (including the Mayor) have had the opportunity to respond to Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti’s call to bring in the military to deal with gang crime in his Toronto ward, which I talked about yesterday.

Today’s reports include additional comments from Mr. Mammoliit as well. I thought that it would be worth compiling his statements, just in case I need some discourse samples for a study of proto-fascism down the road.

From CTV.ca:

"I'm not talking about tanks, I'm not talking about armed guards on corners, I'm not talking about any of that,"

"I'm talking about bringing the resources and the tools that the army has at their fingertips to be able to resolve the problem immediately, so the army is a good way to do that."

From the Toronto Star:

"Gang members will retaliate and hurt people who talk," […] "The gangs are at war in our wards, and innocent people are being caught in the crossfire. If the feds can justify that (designation), perhaps there could be some law that could take them off the streets."

From the National Post:

"If we can call in the army to remove snow as a crisis, we need to be dealing with other crises that exist in the city," […] "This, in my opinion, is a crisis and we should be asking for some help."

"I want [the federal government and the military] to consider these individuals as terrorists, because that's what they are. Why does a terrorist have to be someone who doesn't live in this country? Why does it have to be someone who's planning to plant a bomb somewhere?"

"This community, they would like to see these gang members taken off the streets and held indefinitely, if possible," […] "The only people that have that authority are the federal government and the army, quite frankly."

From City TV:

“We know who the gang members are and it's time that we deal with them the same way we'd deal with anyone else that comes in with arms and takes over communities."