In the spring of 1999. Ron Robertson and Ken Montgomery claimed the Edmonton police force had been infiltrated by the Hells Angels and other elements of organized crime. They also claimed the chief at the time, John Lindsay, was ignoring their concerns.
After weeks of research and confidential meetings the first break came. Sources revealed a police detective was strongly suspected of selling inside information to the Hells Angels for $20,000. Meanwhile Police Chief John Lindsay also asked that any investigation into his conduct be stopped.
As a result of the first stories, more confidential sources came forward with information about a secret medical report on Robertson, a report the detective himself had never been allowed to see. Chief Lindsay had used the secret document to demote Robertson on the grounds of mental incapacity. The 19-year veteran was no longer able to investigate biker gangs in the department`s Integrated Intelligence Unit. In his new position, the restrictions were so severe that Robertson was even prohibited from leaving police headquarters during his shifts. But curiously, what CBC learned was that the doctor`s report actually gave Robertson a clean bill of health; he suffered from no discernible mental disability. The report suggested the force`s problems with Robertson were not medical at all; but rather an internal, administrative issue.
CBC also claimed that Calgary's chief had written a letter to his Edmonton counterpart warning that one of his officers had been observed associating with criminals in a Calgary bar and had talked about police surveillance techniques.
There were also RCMP investigations from the past that looked at a host of allegations: that several police investigations were destroyed after officers leaked confidential police information of a sexual assault committed by an Edmonton police officer and of another officer dating a stripper, who at the time was living in the Hells Angel's clubhouse in Quebec. CBC reported that none of these allegations had been investigated; mysteriously the probes seemed to just stop when they were passed on to the Edmonton Police Service. These new allegations showed that suspicions of corruption within the Edmonton police department were far broader than Detectives Montgomery and Robertson had revealed in their complaints.
Twenty-six weeks into 2011, Edmonton leads the nation with 26 confirmed homicides, closing in on annual totals of 27 from 2009 and 2010, and on pace to surpass the 2005 record of 39. Cities of comparable size lag far behind: Winnipeg has 16, Ottawa, five, while Calgary has four. Edmonton outstrips far greater populations. Toronto, with a core population of 2.5 million, has had 24 homicides. Montreal, with around two million, has had 18. There have been six homicides in Vancouver.
winnipeg has 30 or 31 murders this year , man newspapers sure arent good on their stats now a days !!!!
ReplyDeleteYeah it was an old article from June 30 2011. They said they were getting one a week for a while. That really is horrible. A lot of it is tied to the trade run by the guess who.
ReplyDeleteIf you read a lot of the stats on the Edmonton homicide rate you'd be alarmed to find not all of them have happened in 2011... some the bodies were found in 2011, when the death took place years earlier. Some of the deaths were at first deemed a homicide... then later confirmed not a homicide.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the murders are tied to the drug trade with is directly tied to the Red and White. How about that girl who went missing that they were pimping? I do agree it has been going on for years and didn’t just start happening in 2011.
ReplyDeleteActually, a lot of the murders are because of drunken fights and husbands killing wives. Very few are tied to the drug trade.
ReplyDeleteCalgary on the other hand... they can't say the same... while they have significantly less murders (I believe they are at 5), has more to do with the drug trade.
I don’t think that’s anywhere close to being statistically accurate. I’ll have to look into the numbers. Every media source is quoting the mayor and police chief in Edmonton discussing the huge homicide rate.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.edmontonsun.com/news/edmonton/2011/03/06/17516451.html
ReplyDeleteThere is a little flip through thing that details all the homicides of 2011... most of them aren't tied into the drug trade at all. Edmonton is a dirty city with a lot of drinking and violence. It's the way of life in Edmonton... another interesting thing, is only 2 of the 38 murders have occurred in South Edmonton. The homicides are taking place in the poor parts of Edmonton
I’m running a bit behind but will have a look. I didn’t mean tied to the drug trade like when Jonathon Bacon and Larry Amero were shot in Kelowna. I meant more of people under the influence of or lower level traffickers. That is an absolutely outrageous number to all be domestic disputes.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I was trying to say is most of them aren't gang related... like you see in Calgary and Vancouver. The people doing the killing may very well be under the influence of drugs... we'll never know until they are caught.
ReplyDeleteMost of them are tragically nothing more than a really bad decision when drunk or high. A couple years ago there was also the case of Giselle Valdez... she was murdered by her own boyfriend (she was like 16 or 17) for being in the wrong place at the wrong time... and he was tied into the drug world, but by all accounts she wasn't.
I think I’d totally agree the surge in homicides in Edmonton isn’t the result of a drug turf war like in Vancouver or Winnipeg. The Hells Angels control all of it. I just think that drugs have been a factor. It is a huge number of homicides per capita that has been progressively increasing. Tragic.
ReplyDelete