HUNTER: Will Trudeau be able to shake soft-on-crime 'stench'?

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Famed political operative James Carville described the perception the Democratic Party was soft on crime as a “stench” it couldn’t shake.

For good measure, Carville added that “defund the police” were the “three stupidest words in the English language.”

“It’s like when you get smoke on your clothes and you have to wash them again and again,” Carville told The Hill. “Now people are running away from it like the devil runs away from holy water.”

And that’s where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals find themselves. It is the sort of trendy, harebrained idea they embraced with open arms and crocodile tears.

The “stench” of soft on crime is all over them like an outhouse.

There has been no shortage of evidence in just the past few days that light sentences, non-sentences for teen terrors, easy bail and hug-a-thug mentality are putting Canadian lives in danger.

Take Troy Dennis Ledrew, 29, of Toronto.

Cops say that on Tuesday, a suspect — allegedly Ledrew — shot at multiple vehicles along busy Hwy. 401. His alleged one-man crime wave continued Wednesday with shootings (one person was injured) and carjacking attempts.

Now, Ledrew is facing a slew of charges, including two counts of attempted murder, six counts of robbery with a firearm, and aggravated assault.

Notably, he is also charged with — ahem — failure to comply with his probation.

In another case, Timothy Graves, 56, is charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of Alan Mylachuk, 63. Graves was also dinged with … failure to comply with a release order. Mylachuk died exactly 10 months after he was assaulted on Jan. 23.

On Thursday, Toronto cops announced they had arrested a third teen in connection with a summer shooting in Scarborough that killed 28-year-old Sulakshan Selvasingam of Pickering. The kid is 15 and faces a first-degree murder charge.

Selvasingam was shot multiple times at a Warden Ave. gas station on July 6. Another 15-year-old boy from Oshawa and a 16-year-old from Stouffville have also been charged with first-degree murder. According to cops, the duo are allegedly responsible for 11 shootings between June 29 and July 14.

But wait! There’s a silver lining: The trio can’t be identified because of the fabulous Youth Criminal Justice Act. They’ll be locked and loaded again in a few years.

More?

The other variant is an out-of-control immigration system. Again that “stench.”

In Hamilton, cops arrested 24 people, laid 172 charges, and seized 14 firearms, 880 grams of cocaine, and 1.2 kilograms of fentanyl and part of a wide-ranging year-long project.

Investigators said most of those arrested were members of a Bahamian street gang, the Hot Mali Squad. Three of those arrested listed the islands as their addresses. They were also wanted for crimes in the Caribbean, including attempted murder.

The gang and its confederates are suspected in a slew of murders, shootings, and drug and firearms trafficking operations in Southern Ontario. Many of those arrested were also charged with bail and probation breaches.

And on Wednesday, Peel Regional Police announced they had charged Arshdeep Singh, 22, of Brampton, in a series of violent sexual assaults while he allegedly impersonated a rideshare driver.

Cops say Singh was in Canada on a student visa, although it doesn’t appear he attended school. They allege he targeted women of South Asian descent in Brampton and Vaughan. And they believe there are more alleged victims.

He is charged with three counts of kidnapping, sexual assault, armed sexual assault, sexual assault by strangulation, robbery and two counts of uttering threats.

That “stench” Carville speaks of? It’s getting raunchier by the day.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun