Toronto Mayor Ford Admits He Smoked Crack

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

TORONTO MAYOR ADMITS HE SMOKED CRACK

By ROB GILLIES
— Nov. 5, 2013 12:35 PM EST

TORONTO (AP) — The mayor of Toronto is saying he smoked crack "probably a year ago" when he was in a "drunken stupor."

Rob Ford's admission to reporters Tuesday follows months of accusations during which the embattled mayor refused to step down. The allegations that he had been caught on video smoking crack surfaced in May.

"Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine," Ford told reporters Tuesday outside his office. "There have been times when I've been in a drunken stupor. That's why I want to see the tape. I want everyone in the city to see this tape. I don't even recall there being a tape or video. I want to see the state that I was in."

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/toronto-mayor-admits-he-smoked-crack

[Poll_Blind]

1. Bam!

Would love to have said I saw that coming, but I didn't. Well, maybe a little. When an earlier news article said police reviewing the found footage would only describe that they were "disappointed" in what they say, I started to believe that maybe that crazy sunovobitch had actually smoked crack on camera.

Who smokes crack for shitsake?



PB

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Seriously?

That's the excuse you are going with? I smoked crack because I was drunk?

So your abuse of alcohol has reached the point that you use hard, dangerous narcotics while under the influence?

[polly7]

3. What a damned liar he is. I guess being in a drunken stupor is supposed to be an excuse.

"Police said last week it had obtained a copy of the video."

[AAO]

12. Unless you've ever been in a drunken stupor, you should probably defer to us that have been.

And at times I've done really fucked up things when drunk, but when I awoke, remembered nothing about it. Being in a drunken stupor is not an excuse for most things, but when you get to a state where you don't even know what the fuck you're doing - bad things can happen. And you have an excuse ONLY if you then decide to make some major changes in your life to combat it. Otherwise, you're just a typical drunk, living on borrowed time.

[Psephos]

18. Anyone who chooses to drink to stupor accepts in advance the consequences.

It's unreal what the concept of personal responsibility has decayed into.

[AAO]

28. Absolutely, so no tears for the drunk Canadian, eh?

[George II]

25. The mayor of Canada's largest city should not ever get himself in "a drunken stupor"!

[AAO]

27. Sure he should, if he wants to! It's a free country, right? (freer than here)

Now that givse you no right to hold you job.

[laundry_queen]

29. If only it was just that

if it was one night of extreme drunkenness and it was out of character, then I think Torontonians would be pretty forgiving.

The problem is he's lied about it for months, him and his brother have tag teamed on their radio show to trash everyone who has every questioned them, he's denied a video exists, he's demoted people because they spoke out against him, one of the people who he smoked crack with was murdered around the time the video went missing, he has shown up to official functions floor-licking drunk, he has continually trashed the media, called them liars (the ones who saw the video), his brother is now attacking the police and asking the chief to step down (I presume because they found the video, although the excuse was his 'personal comments' about being disappointed were 'unprofessional'...oh fucking please) ....

he's disgusting. A typical conservative - blames everyone else. Hell, today he blamed the press for why he didn't admit smoking crack before, "You guys didn't ask the right question, I'll answer if you as the proper question" WTF, really??

The drunken stupor is the least of it. And yes, I've totally BTDT and I get exactly what a drunken stupor is (BTDT nearly every weekend when I was a teen) and it doesn't make you totally lose your head in that fashion if you aren't already predisposed to it.

[daleo]

44. He is in his mid 40s

By that stage of life, a person leading a city of 4 million or so has to do better.

[Brickbat]

4. AWESOME. I love this story.

[kelliekat44]

5. Not as much flack or outrage as Marion Barry caught in DC. nt

[jessie04]

6. This guy is good...

"I was drunk....."

"PROBABLY one year ago...."

" I want to see the tape...."

[bemildred]

7. Toast. nt

[rurallib]

8. does IOKIYAR* work in Canada?

*It's OK If You're A Republican

Hope to enjoy each delicious detail.

[bemildred]

9. Don't think so. He should run for the Senate like Cruz.

We're very "tolerant" about politicans with poor self-control down here (unless they are Democrats).

[JackRiddler]

30. Oh yes, IOKIYAR very much so in Canada.

Meaning IOKIYARConservative, of course.

Otherwise he would have been out six months ago or more.

His poll ratings have not dropped! They are solid at the level of his base, which remains fully loyal and is toughing it out. There's more to this story, the murder probably is also related to the coverup. He's been visibly trashed at many public events, where all other politicians crowd on the other side of the photo from him and he stands alone with pants practically falling off, red-faced and barely able to stand. And he's hung on all this time.

[NickB79]

10. Why does he party with people with crack cocaine in the first place?

We've all done stupid things while drunk, but most of us don't end up smoking crack, because we choose not to party with people who do.

[AAO]

13. I don't like to discriminate against anyone, let alone someone that can get me good drugs!

[olddad56]

16. he couldn't help it, he was the victim of a drunken stupor.

[KamaAina]

11. Well, that explains it.

He was in a drunken stupor!

[closeupready]

14. There we go, folks! K&R

[olddad56]

15. Well, he smoked crack, but it wasn't his fault because he was in a drunken stupor.

It is Jack Daniels fault.

[DallasNE]

17. If He Was In A "Drunken Stupor"

How would he remember smoking Crack. And what does it say about the Mayor that he gets stupid drunk. His political career is all but over. Start working on that resignation speech now.

[Spazito]

19. The Mayor of Toronto goes around in a drunken stupor smoking crack cocaine and...

nothing can be done to remove him from office, wow.

[Posteritatis]

37. Municipal government is a pretty weird thing up here

Constitutionally speaking it doesn't really exist per se, so most city governments can be fairly ad-hoc structures at first, with a lot of precedent and tradition and specific provincial rules factoring in to how they operate. There's avenues for the provincial government to intervene, but they're sufficiently without precedent that I can't even remember clearly what they would be. It's different in each province as well.

[Spazito]

39. Yes, that has become glaringly apparent...

Until this appalling debacle, I thought there would be procedures in place to deal with a municipal official who has behaved as Ford has while he was and continues to be in office.

I am betting this sorry episode will generate new policy and procedures to ensure there will be an avenue to address this in the future.

Edited to add: The media is now reporting there will be more coming out next week in the second release of documents that includes telephone surveillance of the Mayor.

[Saviolo]

21. My suspicion

Is that Police Chief Bill Blair had a little come-to-Jesus talk with Ford about the video and the evidence they have against him. As I said in another thread on this topic:

I get why it's funny, and I get that people viewing this absurdity from the outside are lau8ghing about all of this, but damn... I just can't find the humour in it any longer. Living in Toronto under all of this is upsetting, sad, and just... I don't know, it's hard to take.

I feel bad for his family, and in a way I feel bad for him (though I oppose his politics fiercely). He's clearly in way over his head, and he's now backed into a corner in addition to all of that. His behaviour is becoming more erratic, and even his staffers didn't know he was about to make this admission. His brother was even out of the building at Ryerson.

There's no way this ends well. And it's not going to be funny.

[Blue_Tires]

22. And again I ask: What is preventing the cops from arresting him?

Don't they have VIDEO PROOF?!?!

And someone please tell Ford that 1995 wants it's necktie back...

[former9thward]

38. You can't arrest someone for illegal substances on a video.

There is no way of proving it. They have to tested. Without a test even an admission is worthless in court.

[Blue_Tires]

40. I guess I'm just shocked that the city has no way to remove him

short of an arrest and conviction...

I'm betting any amount of money that the city *WILL* have some rules in place when this is all over...

[maindawg]

23. is there a procedure to remove this mayor?

He obviously has no self respect or conscience so he wont do the decent thing and relieve the city of his prescience. He is a pig. He has always been a pig ,being a fucking pig has worked well for him just look how far he has come. Dont think he will ever change or willingly go away.
The real assholes are the voters who elected him. They are the problem. Apparently Canadians are full of hate and ignorance also. I suppose its from watching American TV.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

32. I don't think so.

I think he has to be charged and/or convicted to get booted out. His crack smoking and drunkenness are in the glare of the spotlight of another police investigation of murder, and gang activity.

The cops were surveilling him though and have tons of evidence of him downing bottles of vodka and driving. I don't think any regular citizen would get away that!

[Posteritatis]

36. Nope. He needs to be convicted of a bad enough crime to warrant jail time. (nt)

[maindawg]

42. well they have video

and a confession. I wonder if they will press charges ?

[George II]

24. All these months of denying it.........damn! It would have been better........

....to admit it right away. How can anyone respect (or trust!) him any more?

[Orrex]

26. What a difference a gram makes

Just two days ago he was howling about these slanderous allegations, and now here we are.

[hollowdweller]

31. Maybe he was under a lot of stress

And needed a drink and to smoke a little crack.

The man's human.

[DeSwiss]

33. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.....

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO....

- OKAY, I SMOKED THE CRACK DAMN YOU!!!!!!!

K&R

[PeoViejo]

34. Does anyone smoke Crack just once?

From what I have seen and read, it's more than a Gateway Drug.

[question everything]

35. Wno does he think he is? Marion Barry? (nt)

[MyNameGoesHere]

41. Hey mayor Ford, 2 things you should never say as mayor

I smoked crack in a drunken stupor. Kind of kills the confidence level, and I am talking from experience.

[marble falls]

43. Hey, he was drunk to the point of stupor for goodness sakes.