Rob Ford: One wild night in March

[CHIMO]

Loaded behind the wheel of his Cadillac Escalade, high on his Jimmy Kimmel interview, Mayor Rob Ford is winding through the streets of his city.

It’s two days after Ford’s celebrated appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, two months before rehab.

In the course of this March 5 night, Ford will bring together two of his closest felon friends, beating one and accepting drugs from another; go on a racist tirade; and boast that he often has sex with “girls” in front of his wife, according to an account of the evening. He will suggest one man could have sex with her, a source has told the Star, recalling Ford’s words.

The information for this story comes from interviews and from the Star’s review of audio tape that captures a portion of the evening. The Star did not pay for the tape. Ford could not be reached by the Star for comment, as has been the case since the Star began its investigation more than a year ago. His lawyer Dennis Morris would not comment on the majority of the allegations in this story.

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/05/09/rob_ford_one_wild_night_in_march.html

[shenmue]

1. Whoa

I've been hanging out with the wrong people.

[arikara]

2. 30 days in rehab

is not going to do a thing for this guy.

[Saviolo]

3. So much time

is being spent talking about his substance abuse problems and wild boy behaviour. His supporters just point to that and say he's not perfect, and it endears him to them all the more. He's a regular guy! He's got his problems! He's struggling with the same things that the rest of us struggle with!

Trouble is, he doesn't remotely have the same struggles the rest of us do. He's the very picture of white male privilege. If it were a black man taking part in these antics, he'd have been arrested long ago. If he weren't wealthy, he'd have been arrested long ago. But that little fact won't reach the ears of his supporters, either.

More time and column inches need to be spent on the real problem with Rob Ford, which is his incredibly bad policies. The supporters I've spoken to all parrot back the same three things: Removal of the vehicle registration fee, privatizing garbage collection, and saving the city $1billion. All of these people are "I've got mine" types that couldn't care less about public housing or low-income housing.

How do we take this discourse back? As long as he says he's saving people money (again and again and again), and they believe it, he's still got a solid chance at being re-elected. Toronto will spend weeks on the comedy shows if that happens, before everyone forgets about us, and investment slowly trickles out of the city because businesses have no confidence in a city that would elect that oaf twice in a row.