How to cut millions out of police budgets without really trying

Police department budgets have been much in the news of late. In fact, if you believe the bullshit, the Toronto Police Budget is so wildly out of control it threatens to bankrupt the city. Most of this budget hysteria is of course carefully crafted propaganda designed to soften up the citizenry to the desirability of turning well-paid unionized police jobs into poverty level bylaw enforcement officer jobs.

It's in that context that the revelations about the Nuttall-Korody case in Vancouver caught my eye. According to the CBC, Vancouver PD  paid out almost a million in overtime to officers working on the Nuttall-Korody entrapment project.

But that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg! The CBC story reveals that there were over 240 officers working on this file at peak entrapment moments! While there's no detailed breakdown, it's obvious that just the "investigation" phase of this project ran into the tens of millions of dollars.

Then of course there was the lengthy trial itself, which ran into further millions, and assuming our "terrorists" are now sent to the big house for lengthy sentences, we can spend multiple further millions providing their room and board.

If you've read anything at all about these two sad-sack "terrorists" you'll realize that they were a couple of losers at the end of their string, easily strung along in this great terror conspiracy they were unwittingly being woven into. "Unwittingly" would be the key term here - what a pair of dimwits!

These were desperate down-on-their-luck people; easy prey for the grandiose scheme they were entrapped in. Had but a small fraction of the resources devoted to their entrapment been made available for their upliftment, Korody and Nuttall might have been able to make their lives manageable.

But then we wouldn't have this politically expedient terrorist threat!

In Toronto, no one knows how many millions were spent out of the police budget to frame up the "Toronto 18." A couple of professional Muslim informants made out like bandits in that case, netting millions for their undercover (ie frame-up) work reprogramming a gang of paintballers into wannabe terrorists. Presumably that case sucked up even more police budget than the Nuttall - Korody case.

Then you have your VIA RAIL terrorists, wherein multiple further millions of police budget were squandered in nailing a mentally ill guy and his opportunistic sidekick, all for the sake of convincing the public that we have oh so much to fear!

So here's the essence of my plan to save police departments many millions of dollars; if your terror "sting" investigations require dozens or even hundreds of officers working months or possibly years to coax along some gullible marks to commit some indictable offence, they're probably no threat to the public to begin with.

Take a deep whiff of Marco Mendicino

Smells a lot like the guy who saved us from the Toronto 18, don't it?

Ya, you remember the "Toronto 18."

Bunch of Muslim kids who were hustled into an imaginary "terrorist conspiracy" by Muslim informants who were paid millions... by Marco and his CSIS/RCMP homies.

That will forever be a stain on Canada's reputation,

So go ahead and vote for him.

Mounties bust major al-Qaeda conspiracy in Canada!

Have to say I tried to keep an open mind on this story.

Yes, maybe for the first time the RCMP and CSIS have uncovered a Canadian terror plot that didn't originate with the RCMP or CSIS.

Maybe we've got a REAL terror plot here, one that doesn't involve sketchy informants being paid millions of dollars to coax the "terrorists" along, as was the case with the Toronto 18.

Maybe this is the real deal?

Then I ran headlong into this; "the suspects were getting guidance and direction from al Qaeda elements in Iran."

Al-Qaeda elements in Iran? The only al-Qaeda elements in Iran are locked in secret prisons having their fingernails plucked with pliers.

Al-Qaeda is a Saudi franchise, not an Iranian one.

This doesn't pass the sniff test from a hundred miles.

It does however neatly fold into the Harper gang's agenda of demonizing  Iran.