Police presence boosted after Laval killing
Police have been boosting their presence in restaurants and bars since the killing of Bernard Cherfan last week in a Laval restaurant. With a nicely judged description of what it’s like when 15 cops walk into a peaceful restaurant on a Friday evening.
DeWolf 10:27 on 2022-06-05 Permalink
Interesting to hear Carrefour Laval described as a “point chaud.” It’s also interesting to see the “cityfication” of Laval. Although it’s still generally sprawling and suburban in form, it is becoming more similar to Montreal than it is to the north shore suburbs in terms of demographics and overall feel. On a couple of occasions, stopping for lunch in Chomedey on the way back from time in the Laurentians, I remember getting the distinct impression of having arrived in a less-dense version of Park Ex.
Blork 12:43 on 2022-06-05 Permalink
Laval also has a few new clusters of highrise condos that are sort of like taller, denser Griffintown, but without the canal, the walkability, and the proximity to anything other than malls and autoroutes.
Or in this case, you’re at least walking distance to the Montmorency Metro station.
https://goo.gl/maps/sgCGeMBCg9KkALqZA
That said, I’m not sure what sending clusters of cops into random restaurants does other than demonstrate a sort of d*ck-wavng show of force to reassure the public. Assassinations in restaurants don’t exactly happen every day, and the chances of one set to happen just as the cluster of cops walks in to a place is exceedingly unlikely.
Kate 14:16 on 2022-06-05 Permalink
Blork, I think it’s a question more of either warning or reassuring restaurant owners rather than the general public. Given how often we see reports of attempted arson on restaurants, some owners must be associating with shady people. They may not be so shady themselves, but be in their debt or paying protection money or something like that.
I used to eat in a Chinatown place where SQ officers often dropped by, and when I commented to my (Chinese) friend that I wondered how the owner liked it, he said that he probably liked it fine, because having friendly cops around was a signal to crooks that his restaurant was
notless vulnerable to extortion or robbery.Blork 20:54 on 2022-06-05 Permalink
Good point. Although I would amend “not” to “less.”
walkerp 07:34 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
Probably going in and shaking the owners down to make sure the mafia don’t undercut their own protection racket.
Kate 08:44 on 2022-06-06 Permalink
Blork, edit granted.