JP, Toronto's Next Mayor, Says Don't Mess With the Men & Women in Blue

Shame on the Toronto Sun! JP Pampena, who is running in 2010 as Toronto’s next Mayor, is very disappointed with the actions of the Toronto Sun reporter for their front page story featured on November 24, 2009 criticizing an 11 Division police hero for parking in a bicycle lane as he stopped to pick up some lunch at a local diner.

Was this really front page news? Must have been a slow news day if the most important story of the day involved a reporter staking out a police officer as he rushed to pick up a quick meal to wolf down in his cruiser while whisking away to continue in his duties.

JP challenges the reporter and any critics of the police officer to try to walk a day in his shoes. These men and women superheros in blue are putting their lives on the line everyday to protect and serve the citizens of Toronto, including the reporter who snapped the photo. Everyday is a roll of the dice – not knowing if at the end of their long day they will be returning to their families or if they will end up in a coffin.

So, shame on the reporter and shame on the Toronto Sun for such trashy tabloid-style reporting. In JP’s opinion, yes, the police need to uphold and obey the law however in minor situations such as this we should definitely cut them some slack.

After all, imagine that an emergency call came in, is it not better that the police officer has close access to his cruiser in order to quickly respond to the emergency or would we prefer that he had obeyed the law, parked quite a long distance away and been delayed in responding to what could be a life and death emergency situation.

“Long story short, I believe Toronto police deserve our respect and better treatment than this,” states JP. “And I don’t see any problem in granting them special consideration in such situations. It‘s the least we could do for their selfless duty to Toronto’s citizens”.