The Gene Jones debacle is another example of how misguided zealotry can wound and diminish our public institutions.

It also proves again that our mayor is a dangerous man — not an innocuous, pseudo-celebrity whose outrageous behaviour will live in infamy.

Minutes after Toronto’s social housing agency announced Jones had been forced out of his CEO job — following a stinging report from the city’s ombudsman — Ford presented himself, live on television, venomous and toxic.

With a fake earnestness he musters even at times when he is most devious, Ford warned Torontonians that the housing projects could explode in violence this summer — and the mayor won’t be able to stop it.

“In the summer, when there’s unfortunately, there’s a lot — you had the worst shootings in Danzig and all this — in the summer. This is only going to — hopefully it won’t. I’ll do everything in my power to control it — but this could get out of control this summer.”

Irresponsible and contemptible, his comments were. He resurrected the memory of the Danzig trauma shooting to his own political ends. The connection between the CEO and gunplay at community housing projects is lost on most observers. But Ford wanted to stoke that fire.

In essence, Ford was suggesting his druglord friends, his crackhead compatriots in Etobicoke, and the malleable masses could rise up and raise holy hell because the “corrupt” city was sticking it to them once again.

And if the projects erupt, who do you think he will blame? Not his unbridled tongue and debased politics. No, the salvation he offers is a discredited and bewildering brew.

He told anyone who was listening Friday that there was a left-wing conspiracy at city hall to oust Jones. He offered no evidence. Context and truth and facts don’t matter. In typical black-white blinkeredness, the mayor posited the issue in us-and-them terms.

The ombudsman’s report — clear and unequivocal until someone, anyone, can show where it is wrong — was somehow, “political.” It is Fiona Crean, the independent ombudsman, who should resign; not Jones, Ford bellowed.

And if he’s re-elected, Jones will be back, he promised; and Crean gone, he hinted. It was astonishing, even for the mayor.

Ford fired the previous TCHC board and senior management. He installed Jones and basically emboldened him to “clean house” without regard to employment law, public accountability, transparency and fairness. Jones went too far. And now Ford blasts anyone who stands up for principle.

When our leaders are the ones who show open and aggressive disregard — animus even — towards the basic tenets of public accountability, only the passage of time and the resilience of our city can weather the assault.

The mayor said he couldn’t wait till the Oct. 27 election so he can win and re-launch his brand of polarizing, divisive, destructive politics. Many in this city can’t wait for Oct. 27 to rid the city of the disease and dysfunction.

Toronto Community Housing will survive Jones’ departure. The organization seems to regularly behead its leader. The re-imaging of Regent Park and Lawrence Heights preceded Jones and will continue after him. The housing repair backlog remains as he found it. The waiting list for one of the 58,500 units remains unconscionably long. Cockroaches and bedbugs still roam, seemingly under immunity.

Jones’ exemplary brand of hands-on managerial practice endeared him to those of the 164,000 tenants he reached. He showed up at their door. He cut through red tape, took on slow-moving repairmen and got units fixed. The tenants he touched remain loyal to him. That explains why tenants are in his corner.

But the ombudsman found Jones’ indiscretions to be willful and harmful — intentional and arrogantly offensive. He violated basic employment practices. He hired individuals without proper vetting. He gave salary raises — just because he felt it right — rules be dammed. He ignored potential conflict of interest. He ran roughshod over rules and practices. He created chaos.

No CEO — subject to public accountability — could survive such a record. Certainly, no CEO running a public institution could expect to hold the position should such practices come to light.

Instead of accepting the results of the independent investigation, Ford resorts to burning down the entire house.

Famous for ignoring the rules, himself, Ford refused to abide by simple and fair advice given by council’s integrity commissioner, who advised him against using city staff and city letterhead to boost his private charity. The matter ended in court and nearly derailed his mayoralty. In retaliation, he’s actively campaigned to marginalize Janet Leiper, often using his acolytes in the media to do so.

Today he is accusing the ombudsman — the independent officer established to do exactly what she is doing — of bias and conducting a “witch hunt.”

It’s offensive. And so predictable.

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Any demagogue can command a crowd, assemble adherents, self-flagellate in front of followers and play the victim.

Ford’s perfected that. Now, he’s even suggesting the “victims” could become violent.

Ignore him as benign, if you will. The chickens always come home to roost.