On a beautiful Saturday in the fall of 2002, the employee of a florist in Saint-Léonard rang the doorbell of a residence in LaSalle. When an elderly woman opens the door, the delivery man asks to see Mr. Poletti. As he is absent, he gives him a funeral wreath with a card on which we can read: “From the Office”. Mr. Poletti is an investigator with the Montreal police.
A few days later, high-ranking police officers discreetly met Vito Rizzuto, the godfather of the Montreal mafia. The message is clear: “If you threaten or touch one of our guys, we’re going to put so much heat on your clan that you’re going to lose a fortune. »
Rizzuto calmly responds that sending a wreath is an isolated act of a hothead and that he has taken all “internal measures” to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. On the eve of his extradition to the United States for a murder case, he will tell a police officer that his departure will cause chaos in the city, he alone having the power to impose stability.
In 2024, would he have been able to end the chaos in the streets of Montreal with a simple phone call? Probably not.
And here’s why.
The pyramid of organized crime has disintegrated over the years. The mafia is no longer what it used to be. Street gangs and other small criminal groups are increasing.
They even dare to challenge the Hells Angels. No one seems to have the power to impose their law.
In 2022, Montreal will be the scene of 91 events involving firearms. Gang members in Montréal-Nord and Rivière-des-Prairies whistle bullets to protect their territory, to take revenge, because they are frustrated or to show that they are ready for anything.
Today, other gangs are arriving and pushing the older ones around. Shut down! Hand jobs are becoming more and more violent. If the mafia had a certain code of ethics – I know, it sounds a little strange – the new players in the business don’t get stuck in the principles.
The new generation of criminals is getting younger and younger. They know that the sentences imposed for a crime committed by a minor are nothing comparable to sentences for adults.
How could a 14-year-old from Montreal, armed with an AK-47, be found dead in front of the den of a Hells Angels school club in Chaudière-Appalaches?
This is because hardened criminals offer contracts to young people who want to make a lot of money quickly. They solicit them through social networks and encrypted messages. Even in prison, where cell phones are circulating, orders can be placed for contracts of extortion, intimidation, collection of an unpaid debt or murder.
A 16-year-old gets the contract. He will take a photo of the crime as proof to get paid. As a bonus, they can travel to the four corners of Quebec.
This business model exists elsewhere. In Marseille, a 14-year-old teenager killed a private driver. An accident, according to his version. He was promised 50,000 euros to avenge the death of another teenager.
The client, a 23-year-old prisoner, placed in solitary confinement, but in possession of a cell phone, reported him to the authorities because he was dissatisfied with the work of his hitman.
We find contract criminals under the age of 18 on the streets ready to follow orders.
Now we have to name things.
These gangs are formed on an ethnic basis, often from neighborhoods. Nothing new. At the time, we found the mafia, the Irish and the Dubois clan. Not much room for cultural diversity. The face of Montreal is changing and that of its crime too.
So you have gangs that recruit young Haitians, North Africans, Lebanese, Latinos.
Poverty, racism, the absence of a male role model are breeding grounds for enlisting soldiers who thirst for money and recognition. All these young people serve as easily manipulated cannon fodder. We are not born criminals, we become them.
How should the police confront this reality?
On the one hand, Judge Dominique Poulin of the Superior Court affirms that there is systemic racial profiling at the SPVM and awards damages as part of a class action brought by the Ligue des Noirs du Québec.
On the other hand, the director of the SPVM Fady Dagher wants to develop criminal profiling based on observations and facts. Alright. Act quickly.
Because the feeling of insecurity is real. Citizens pay taxes and want visible, proactive policing on the streets. Too many police officers tell me that they feel their hands are tied. The question that resonates: what am I allowed to do?
Gang violence always results in innocent victims. Like this mother and her daughter who tragically lost their lives in the fire in Old Montreal.
But most of the time, this violence explodes within the very communities where gang members live. It is parents, friends, neighbors who pay the price first.