Pizzeria firebombed downtown
La Medusa, a pizzeria on Drummond, was firebombed early Thursday, and TVA mentions a cluster of pizzerias that have sustained arson attacks this week, with pizza places in Blainville and St‑Eustache also targets, although they don’t delve into whether anything else links them.
Neither of these reports mentions, which you can see in the Radio‑Canada photo, that La Medusa is directly next door to fire station 25.
This obscure media source lists the many pizzerias in Quebec that have sustained arson attacks over the last year and a half.
dwgs 08:36 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
A few years back there was a similar spate of attacks on pizza joints in the Niagara region. Turns out that some of the owners weren’t buying their mozzarella from the right supplier. I’m not joking.
Kate 09:05 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
I know you’re not. The mob has always exerted control over pizza ingredients here.
Ephraim 10:05 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
Which is why Pizza Hut used to have a sign saying that they were “corporate” and had no control over the suppliers that were chosen.
DeWolf 11:04 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
I’ve always heard that but it makes me wonder about the recent spate of new pizzerias serving various different styles at different price points. Is a politically-engaged business like Pizza Bouquet (queer-friendly, pro-Palestine) getting their goods from a mobbed-up supplier? Are Moccione or Elena, when they’re trendy spots run by well-known chefs? Where is Stella buying their fior di latte, chèvre and gorgonzola? Is there some kind of artisanal cheesemonger affiliated with the mafia?
I don’t doubt there are restaurants who do business with the mafia either by choice or under duress, but I just wonder how extensive it really is.
Blork 11:20 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
My understanding, which might not be correct, is that such places are offered a choice to either use a specific supplier, or to pay for the privilege of using a different supplier.
DeWolf 11:43 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
And what’s stopping them from calling the police? It’s not like this is Serpico-era New York.
walkerp 11:56 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
DeWolf, seriously? You’ve been here a while. I’m surprised you have to ask that question.
DeWolf 14:52 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
Are you saying the police are on the take from the mafia? Or that they would ignore or cover up accounts of businesses being extorted?
All I’m saying is I find it hard to believe that *every single pizzeria in the city* is being shaken down in some elaborate mafia system that tells everyone what cheese to use. It sounds like an urban legend.
As I’ve said before when we’ve discussed firebombings, I think it’s much more likely that they’re the result of business owners dealing with loansharks, or more specific and localized instance of intimidating or harassment, than some kind of vast conspiracy that “everybody knows” exists but for which there isn’t any on-the-record evidence.
Kate 17:55 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
There’s more than an urban legend, DW. Google for the history of the Cotroni and Violi clans, or indeed the history of cheese in this town. I agree nobody can fairly make blanket statements about all pepperoni or all mozzarella being mobbed up, but there’s persistent evidence of shady goings‑on in the pizza supply business.
Ian 18:00 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
You need to talk to more people in the food & booze businesses. Everyone pays protection. Often to more than one racket. Sometimes the police will show up to a bar night after night to inspect the bathrooms and look around then mysteriously stop doing that. It’s so peculiar. One might think they were running their own racket or something. Of course if a place mysteriously caatches on fire that’s a totally different thing with maybe a local protection thing or a specific supplier.
Loansharks aren’t the issue. It’s the protection racket. And no, it’s not a myth. And yes, of course every single person paying protection denies it, the fear is part of the racket.
Blork 18:38 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
And the cops have no interest in small-time thuggery like protection “incentives” for a single restaurant. Investigating, compiling evidence, prosecuting, etc. for something as slippery as a fella making an offer you cannot refuse is a huge resource suck with very little payoff. Even if they got a conviction it would be a slap on the wrist and then the pizza joint would be fire bombed anyway. (I’m not talking about a major investigation at a higher level; I mean if one lone restaurant decided to go to the cops.)
No, the cops have more important things to do. After all, those traffic lights aren’t going to change by themselves!
jeather 21:41 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
Don’t describe the cops as just traffic help, they do other things too! For instance they are often busy stopping non-white people in a definitely not systematically racist way.
Ian 22:13 on 2024-07-18 Permalink
And certainly not systemically because systemic racism doesn’t exist according to them.