Toronto Police should take lesson from NYPD on how to handle mobs

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NEW YORK — This is a tale of two police forces.

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One police force knows how to deal swiftly and effectively with pro-Hamas thugs breaking the law.

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The other is a Police Farce.

Here in New York City on the weekend, we witnessed a police force that is competent. Toronto Police — whose budget just got a big boost — should watch and learn.

But they won’t.

Every Saturday, New York City’s Washington Square Park is the weekend gathering place for musicians, dog-walkers and produce vendors. This past Saturday, the park was filled with what can only be described as a mob.

They called it a “Millions March for Palestine.” There weren’t a million of them, but they certainly started to march. They headed towards Times Square.

Police watched them every step of the way, forcing them onto the sidewalk. By the time they reached Times Square, near 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, they were angry and ugly.

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Right around then, my partner and I were a couple blocks away, heading to see a play at the Samuel Friedman Theater called A Prayer for French Republic — which, ironically enough, is about generations of a Jewish family facing violence and persecution — for being Jews.

Also happening right around then: An Uber driver somehow got close enough to drop off a passenger in Times Square. Who had left a hand grenade in the back seat of the Nissan Ultima.

It wasn’t a real hand grenade, thank God. But it certainly looked real. The Uber driver called the police. The cops immediately deployed the bomb squad — a unit of the New York Police Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, located pretty close to Times Square.

The bomb squad couldn’t get to the Uber because the Israel-haters were actually and actively blocking them. Chaos ensued. The mob was chanting and surrounding police cars.

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So, New York’s finest did what police are supposed to do: They took action. They promptly shut down access to the area, and they pushed up against the mob to create a perimeter around the Uber. And then — pay attention, Toronto “Police” — they started to make arrests.

You know, using their legal authority to take persons into custody. NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry tweeted what happened next: “Happy Saturday to all! Except the people who thought it was a good idea to block an NYPD ESU vehicle on the way to a bomb threat call. They will be spending their Saturday where they belong — in jail.”

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Eleven of the thugs were dropped into a jail cell that night. In the meantime, the hand grenade was found to be “inert,” police said.

Now, Times Square is always a circus, jammed with people and vehicles and noise and lights. That’s certainly what my partner and I observed on Saturday, right near the spot where police were dealing with a real riot and an unreal bomb. We saw and heard the sirens and the cops, but Times Square was never, ever shut down.

But in Toronto, the meeting place of two G7 leaders was. By a similar mob of Israel-haters — and a totally ineffective police force.

On the very same day, right around the same time as the Times Square melee, there was supposed to be a meeting of the prime ministers of Italy and Canada at the Art Gallery of Ontario. You know, the elected leaders of two G7 countries.

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As in New York, an Israel-hating mob descended on the AGO building. As in New York, they chanted calls for violent revolution and blocked access. As in New York, they screamed and attacked people.

Unlike New York, the Toronto Police effectively did nothing. They essentially let the bad guys win.

One of Justin Trudeau’s caucus members, pro-Israel MP Francesco Sorbara, tweeted what happened. Wrote Sorbara:

“Last night members of the Italian-Canadian community from across Canada came together in anticipation to greet PM Meloni & PM Trudeau but instead were spat on, physically assaulted, and verbally abused. It was absolutely disgusting and unacceptable.”

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Now – full disclosure – Francesco is an old friend of mine. As such, I can tell you that he is a moderate and sensible guy, not given to overstatement. When he says that was what happened, you can rest assured: That is what happened.

So, in a bit of karma or kismet, Toronto was experiencing the same sort of thing the New York was experiencing, on the very same day, at the very same time: Israel-hating mob, violence, intimidation, abuse.

The difference: New York cops dealt with it. Toronto cops didn’t.

The usual dance ensued: The Prime Minister’s Office quietly suggested that the cops were to blame for shutting down the meeting. Toronto Police subtly suggested the PMO was to blame.

For once, I believe Trudeau’s PMO. I’ve worked for a prime minister. When it comes to matters of security, we always listened to what the police say. We did what they told us to do. Period.

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Since Oct. 7, for months, the Toronto Police Service has distinguished itself with one thing: Total incompetence. In dealing with the Israel hating-thugs that have threatened Jewish neighbourhoods, attacked Jews and Jewish businesses, firebombed Jewish delis, they have been an abject failure. They have been a joke.

Jews won’t say that, because they’re scared and don’t want to lose what little police protection they’ve received. But I’m a pro-police Irish Catholic, and that’s what I think: The Toronto Police Service has become a joke.

Want proof? Take a look at what happened in New York City on Saturday. Then take a look at what happened in the city of Toronto on Saturday.

Here in New York, the cops did and do their job.

In Toronto, they don’t.

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