Second car torched in Cartierville
A car was torched in Cartierville early Saturday, and another in the same location early Sunday.
None of the reports of the second incident state clearly whether both cars belonged to the same address.
There are so many arsons now that I mostly don’t blog about them, although I pin them on the incident map.
JaneyB 11:22 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
That’s a great map. Thanks!
Kate 20:52 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
It’s interesting to see it build over time. I suppose I could use the same impulse to do some work on the historical records you link two posts below.
walkerp 08:58 on 2024-10-21 Permalink
It’s quite interesting, now that you have so many data points. Does the island of unburnt cars that is the Plateau/Parc Ex/Little Italy reveal a pattern of behaviour? Are they protected areas because it would bring to much heat to burn cars and buildings in these tony neighbourhoods? Or is there just less organized crime there?
Kate 09:58 on 2024-10-21 Permalink
Or fewer cars?
DeWolf 10:17 on 2024-10-21 Permalink
I see four incidents on the Plateau so it’s not exactly arson-free.
There are a lot of incidents in VSL/Cartierville and St-Leo but aside from that, I don’t think you can draw any conclusions. There aren’t enough arsons in other neighbourhoods to draw a pattern.
And that’s the first time I’ve ever seen Park Ex described as “tony”!
Joey 11:44 on 2024-10-21 Permalink
@walkerp there was a story a few years back about the guy who owned a patisserie on Jeanne-Mance/St-Viateur – the owner went to the press instead of paying protection money. I notice that this shop has been replaced by a new (chain, obvs) Italian bakery. Anyway, I suspect that the commerces in the Plateau/Little Italy/etc pay what’s demanded and move on. Maybe it’s just that the OC in these areas is better established.
DeWolf 10:58 on 2024-10-22 Permalink
The story of the bakery at St-Viateur and Jeanne-Mance is telling because it proves my point that the protection racket here usually isn’t random, it’s based on existing connections to the mafia. The bakery was originally a franchise of Pagel, which was owned by a mobbed-up guy who testified before the Charbonneau commission. An employee bought two franchises from that mobbed-up guy, then when the whole Pagel business went bankrupt, the mafia came calling for the money they were owed.
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2013/02/18/lenfer-dun-patissier-intimide
We’ve discussed this before, but the idea that every retail business pays protection money to organized crime in Montreal is ludicrous. In Palermo, an estimated 80% of businesses pay protection money, and if you’ve ever been to Palermo, the mafia presence is noticeable even to a casual visitor. So Montreal is on par with the most corrupt, mafia-ridden city in Italy, but somehow the gangsters here are so sophisticated they’ve managed to keep it extra hush-hush?
Last time I brought this up all the uncles on this page tried to gaslight me into thinking that somehow every friend I have who has ever owned a retail business in Montreal has been lying to me about never having to pay protection money.
Ian 13:50 on 2024-10-24 Permalink
Ah yes, your friends we hear so much about. Clearly representative.
I guess all those business owners that get shaken down are crooks, eh? Sounds suspiciously like victim blaming. “Bad things only happen to bad people” is such a sheltered, elitist perspective 😉