The weekend brought a number of issues immediately to the table for our program to start with on Monday.
On a lighter note, we took on the role of Associate Producer for Alex Perez' Slurpee documentary and began by lining up the Winnipeg's famous rock bar, the Zoo, as a filming venue and arranged for the concert by Kiss tribute band, The Paul Stanleys to be captured for the film.
But the big story was the Jubilee shooting and the trickle of rumours and information which came together into more TGCTS exclusives.
Monday: The weekend papers were full of stories about the accused shooter Daniel Anderson, his family, the raid and the aftermath, much of it focused on criticism of Chief Ewatski and his insistance that the operation had followed protocol. And oh yes, our exclusive from Friday was confirmed - that one of the officers injured was shot not by Anderson but by a fellow officer.
On his Free Press blog, sports scribe Paul Wiecek, a former cop beat reporter, echoed many of our concerns about how the Chief had fumbled the support of the public for his force, into immediate distrust for anything he had to say about the shooting or whatever the investigation would uncover. His comments bear repeating:
"Only the Winnipeg Police Department could have three of its members shot in a cowardly ambush and still come away smelling as though it was them who did something wrong.
Because only the Winnipeg Police Department would have an executive so paranoid as to attempt to cover up the apparent heroic actions — and remarkable restraint — of its officers in their handling of the drug-raid-turned-wild-west-shootout on Jubilee Thursday night.
It’s as though a police department so often accused in the past of covering up misconduct no longer even knows what to do when its officers do good. And so they revert to what they know best — man the barricades and damn the media.
Well, way to go Jack — now everyone’s trying to figure out what you’re trying to cover up."
Although the MSM had repeatedly refered to the accused police shooter as being a victim of a violent swarming outside a Winnipeg nightclub a few years ago (as a possible explanation for why he kept a shotgun in the house), no one had looked into that particular incident.
We did the research, and learned that only a week before the police stormed into the house, Anderson had filed a lawsuit against the bar for among other things, failing to protect him or come to his assistance.
This gave us the opportunity to break the news not only of his lawsuit, but to break the story of the bouncer who led the charge into the parking lot, fended off the knife-wielding attacker and his gang, and used his own shirt in -20 December chill, to stem the blood pouring from the stab wounds until the ambulance arrived 20 minutes later.
Andrew Shallcross of the Astoria Holiday Inn refuted the allegations (not yet heard or proven in a court of law- ed.), starting with the claim the fight started outside their door and the staff stood by and watched the assault unfold.
Andrew maintained it began off their property and Anderson ran back onto their parking lot, where he was swarmed and stabbed. He spoke about backing off the assailants and helping the bleeding victim in the freezing cold until authorities arrived, of the nature of keeping bar customers safe, and of improved security measures undertaken by management afterwards -- including aiming their security cameras at an area off their property, to better watch over their patrons.
Andrew was not impressed that a lawsuit was filed which, he says, completely misrepresented the role of the Lid in the incident and tried to place blame on him and the rest of his staff when he believes that his actions that night saved Anderson's life.
Tuesday: Media reports about more robberies near HSC (as we predicted), we break news about a suburban crime wave, and the police trying to turn the PR tide -- and we were all over the stories and the coverage.
Having seen the Chief lose the confidence of the public, the police service trotted out a spokesman to say, sorry, we can't give out the details about what happened, this case will be tried in the courts not in the media, but ... the shooter is responsible for seriously injuring at least two of our officers, move along, nothing to see here, yadayadayada.
We called that for what it was, with the police trying to have it both ways, effectively convicting the accused before the trial while refusing to give any evidence or details.
The Winnipeg Free Press ran a story claiming experts had supported the police service secrecy about the details of Thursday's raid gone wrong. However when we looked at the details, we found that the experts consisted of a Simon Fraser University criminologist who was not an expert on policing, but rather a 'restorative justice' specialist; the other expert, from the U of Winnipeg, was also not an expert on policing- but he was a former student of the first professor. Some qualifications.
And the reporter didn't bother looking for a criminologist who was either a recognized expert on policing or at least a critic of the police handling of the Jubilee affair. Nope, the Free Press packaged an opinion piece as news and said, here you go readers, the police did nothing wrong, after all we asked the "experts".
Meanwhile remember that caller from last week who said North Kildonan was full of crime? Well we were contacted by another victim of crime, whose house was one of 6 broken into and robbed in the middle of the day in the middle of suburbia. Last Thursday around 3 Pm to be precise.
Across the Chief Peguis Bridge in West Kildonan, another homeowner had emailed us and said, he has had enough and was going to do something about it. He moved out of the West End to what he thought was a better neighbourhood, but in the past year West K has become yet another destination for the criminal element.
In an exclusive interview, Curt Webb told our audience all about his plan to make taggers, vandals and thieves accountable by starting a new website, www.winnipegtheft.com.
Curt said he wasn't interested in prosecutions because he shares our belief that the police may catch them, but the justice system just lets them out again.
No, he said, he will publish their pictures, and any information he can get, their names, addresses, schools, etc, and force taggers and vandals to be accountable. Curt was sure that without a criminal complaint, the usual prohibitions against publication or identifying the perps wouldn't apply. So he had handed out 200 flyers, started the website, and was going to wire properties with infra-red cameras to capture images of the taggers and thieves caught in the act for publication on the internet.
Just another example of how far homeowners in Winnipeg feel they have been pushed by kids who have no respect and no fear of consequences.
Wednesday: Yet another segment with Kelly Dehn of CTV was dominated by - what else?- HSC and this day, a shooting about 4 blocks from the hospital. Kelly offered a bit of a defence for Chief Ewatski's seeming evasive, and the kind of situation he is put in when there is an ongoing investigation into not only the Jubilee shooting but also inside the house pursuant to the search warrant.
With Kelly on the air with us, we broke the news that we had found a report online from the Free Press quoting a police spokeman (by name), that a second officer was shot with a bullet, meaning that two cops had been hit with 'friendly fire' last Thursday and not just one.
Kelly had not seen the story and said he would look into it, but we thought it may help explain why the Chief had been so reluctant to divulge details of what went down inside the house.
Also on the show, we took note of the vicious in-fighting which marked the Progressive Conservative nomination battle in Portage La Prairie won by incumbant David Faurschou; discussed the obvious manly physical characteristics of the former East German Olympic women's swim team in the 1970's and the newly-approved settlement of their claim for having been systemically steroided up by their trainers; and discussed the fascinating life and career of actor Peter Boyle ( TV's Something About Raymond, won an Emmy for the X-Files in 1996), who passed away after a lengthy illness.
Boyle passed up the Popeye Doyle role in The French Connection (which made Gene Hackman's career), and met his future wife on the set of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein 3 years later. He was in in full Frankenstein make-up and asked her on a date. She was a Rolling Stone reporter who was friends with Yoko Ono, and the best man at their wedding was John Lennon.
Thursday: Yoram East of our sponsor CanadaSheli.com came onto the airwaves for the first time on our new location at Kick-FM and gave the rundown of the Holocaust deny-ers conference in Iran, focusing on a "Dr." Dossa who was discovered to be a political science professor from a Canadian university. Yoram dismissed the frantic denials of St. Francis Xavier officials who claimed they had no idea such a character was in their midst - for 18 years mind you - and reminded listeners that those who deny the Holocaust are not only anti-Semites, but also smear the memory of innocent Russians, Poles, homosexuals, intellectuals and all other groups who faced death in the Nazi concentration camps.
The roving reporter for City-TV's Breakfast Television, Jimmy Mac came into the studio for a wild and wide-ranging interview about his career as an aspiring hockey player with the Notre Dame Hounds, on the road as a stand-up comic, his CBC-TV specials and the fun of meeting Winnipeggers from all walks of life in his job, even if he does have to get up everyday at 4 AM. Jimmy wasa very engaging guest and will be returning to our studio on January 9th to preview his headlining a fundraiser for Winnipeg Harvest on January 11th.
Friday: Breaking news from Victoria topped the show with a live report from "Dirty Money" Shaun Myall, a former Winnipegger who works in the BC capitol as a business consultant. The third storm in less than a month left thousands without power and heat as winds up to 125 Kph whipped the island. Shaun decribed the scene and how islanders just aren't used to such havoc. He will become a regularly featured part of TGCTS in January, with his tips about service, marketing and branding for small businesses and start-ups.
The Winnipeg Police Service announced that charges had been laid against not only Daniel Anderson (weapons offences and attempt murder), but trafficking charges against his parents and girlfriend as well based on their claimed discovery of 3.1 kilos of pot, some paraphenalia and pills as well as cash. Normally the police are quick to parade such evidence before the press the day after they find it, but in this case it took a week.
A sitation somewhat parallel to the Jubilee shooting showed why some question how Chief Ewatski handled the press inquiries.
Yesterday in New Westminster, B.C. a task force made up of officers from numerous police forces in the Greater Vancouver District (GRD) raided a crack house. During the raid a cop was shot by, you guessed it, another cop. Yet even with multiple police forces to co-ordinate with, a clear announcement about what happened was issued a mere 8 hours later. No claims that the ongoing investigation would be jeopardized by giving the public the information, no fudging on what went down.
We also looked at an incident last night which started in St. Boniface and ended in the Wolseley neighborhood. A man serving a sentence only on weekends, was driving suspiciously and was pursued, drove into a snowbank, then hit the gas and dragged the cops apprehending him. He rammed two police cars before finally being found near the Misericordia Hospital.
By our count that makes about a dozen cruiser cars put out of service in 2006 by suspects ramming the vehicles, which is costing Winnipeg taxpayers a pretty penny in replacement vehicles, lost police manhours, and injuries sustained by officers trying to do their duty.
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