Neudorf says UCP plan aims to make cities safer
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on May 10, 2023.
UCP candidate Nathan Neudorf, seen here at a forum earlier this week, says violent crime is increasing across Alberta. Herald photo by Ian MartensLETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
The UCP has announced a plan to make cities safer if the party is re-elected to govern Alberta on May 29.
The Safe Streets Action plan was unveiled Tuesday and consists of comprehensive measures aimed at improving safety in Alberta communities and on public transit.
The plan would increase monitoring of dangerous offenders who are out of custody on bail, “keep hard drugs and guns off Alberta streets and protect women and children facing abuse,” says the UCP.
UCP candidate for Lethbridge East Nathan Neudorf on Tuesday afternoon told The Herald “violent crime is increasing across Alberta and the problem exists in Lethbridge as well. It is fueled by drugs, illegal weapons, and the broken federal “catch and release” bail system. The federal Liberals are not dealing with these issues, and the NDP seem determined to make these problems worse by supporting defunding the police and flooding our streets with taxpayer-funded drugs.
“Enough is enough. We have to take action. The UCP plan will address the broken bail system, fight back against gang violence, crack down on the fentanyl and illegal firearms trade, and keep violent and sexual offenders off our streets,” said Neudorf.
“We are putting criminals on notice that Albertans will no longer tolerate being harassed, frightened, or victimized. We will do what it takes to make Albertans to feel safe on their streets, in their communities, and on public transit.”
In a release, UCP leader Danielle Smith said “every day Albertans wake up to news that someone in their community has been attacked . . or even worse. Enough is enough. We have to take action to ensure Albertans feel safe again. We will address the Liberal/NDP catch-and-release bail system and gang violence, crack down on the fentanyl and gun trade, and keep violent offenders and sexual offenders off our streets. Anything less is unacceptable.”
The UCP says violent crime has increased in Calgary and Edmonton fueled by several factors including drugs, illegal guns and the federal “revolving door” bail system.
One element of the plan calls for putting bracelet monitors on dangerous offenders who have been released on bail and deploying sheriffs to monitor them.
The UCP will add 100 more officers on street of Alberta cities and continue to deploy sheriffs to work alongside police in Calgary and Edmonton under the plan.
New anti-fentanyl and anti-gun trafficking teams will be created and funding will be increased for units focusing on gang suppression and internet child exploitation.
The UCP says it make it easier for parents to know the whereabouts of violent and sexual offenders while increasing investments in women’s shelters and counseling for sex assaults.
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“Social root causes of crime are: inequality, not sharing power, lack of support to families and neighborhoods, real or perceived inaccessibility to services, low value placed on children and individual well-being, the overexposure to television as a means of recreation.”
Perhaps, more emphasis should be placed on proactive prevention, rather than reaction.
Agree. What has the Blood tribe tired for proactive prevention? I know they restrict access or try to into the Reserves as some measure of control.
There are so many things on both sides I do not like and it has being very hard deciding how to vote , but for over a year my decision has been made so the pre-election promises that never seem to evolve with most parties, do not sway my decision.
At his point my primary focus is to make sure this city doesn’t become another Vancouver DTES, or like many other cities where the carnage grows from failed harm reduction programs, or like the growth of the billion dollar non-profit industry in BC that focuses on enabling the addicts and not treating them to end the carnage/loss of life, with little increase in mental health and addiction treatment.
Effective mental health and addiction treatment is what is going to bring these issues down to a manageable number, because there will always be addictions . . . people are still dying from alcohol abuse and you see those totals in the stats in Alberta, which are included in the overdose stats on the Alberta website.
It is what accompanies the addiction/homeless issues that cost the most to the taxpayers and citizens: increased crime, increases in organized crime which increase the human trafficking, illegal weapons sales, stolen goods market which also increases the drug dealing . . . we pay in this city over $14 million of local taxpayers money to combat and react to these issues in many areas.
I have watched the pimps/human traffickers who call themselves, ‘husbands’ beat their ‘wives’ ( trafficked girl ) for no reason and the victim will not turn their ‘husbands’ in, because they brainwashed them with threats and that no one else wants them.
There is alot that happens in these encampments that would make every citizen angry enough to say ‘enough’ and demand an end to them!
Other cities across North America now realize that these encampments only increase long-term anti-social behaviours that cost everyone, including the encampees and are removing them.
Several weeks ago I asked people to watch the crisis in Phoenix that has destroyed parts of that city after they opened a Community Care Campus that failed and increased the numbers on the streets dramatically. In frustration, the people/business community of that sued the city and won, and now they are removing the encampments.
Phoenix Community Care Campus in Crisis;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryGyoTn_wz0
Phoenix Sued by resident and encampments being removed:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/08/us/phoenix-homeless-encampment-the-zone/index.html
People have had enough! They are tired of watching their cities destroyed, the high costs, the fear and loss of safety, the crime and seeing people slowly kill themselves on drugs!
I also asked people to watch the video “Vancouver is Dying” by Aaron Gunn and he will be in this city on May 16th showing his new video at the Movie Mill “Canada is Dying” and discussing the issues. This is a paid viewing, but well worth the $22 to view it!
If you want to see it please buy your tickets online for May 16 6:00 PM at:
Documentary Screening: Canada Is Dying | A Sequel To “Vancouver Is Dying” Tickets, Tue, 16 May 2023 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite
If you missed Vancouver is Dying you can view it at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT8OU8Yhs_s&ab_channel=AaronGunn
I would like to say I do not agree with everything the UCP has done, but I had to decide what would be best for our city and remember how the SCS destroyed our city and the downtown business community and we have never recovered.
I would like the UCP to openly confirm/state that there will be no changes to our pensions by the UCP by taking our CPP and changing them to an Alberta pension plan. That is one big issue that many are concerned with after statements by the UCP that they would take over the (Albertans) CPP and bring it under Alberta control.
Please make this clear!
I commend those who filed a lawsuit in Phoenix.Perhaps legal actions are the solution to get results?
On this forum, someone said that the Blood tribe or the Blackfoot Confederacy will be the target of a class-action lawsuit. People are fed-up! I’m curious if the city will be included.
What could be even more disturbing about the UCP is the now, chatter, that representatives of the UCP who are campaign door-knocking are saying, that even if the UCP win, Danielle Smith will be replaced. By who? Will the head of Take Back Alberta, David Parker, be telling us who the next Premier is if the UCP win? One of theirs? Folks have even been questioned, at the door, that if they knew Danielle Smith was being replaced, would they vote for the UCP?
Let’s not kid ourselves, the UCP, et al, are not, going to confirm/state there will be no changes to our pensions or any other topic they have flip-flopped on, or refusing comment on. As was said in political commentary from outside Alberta on CBC’s Power & Politics yesterday, what is more the problem in Alberta, is who would vote for Danielle Smith, who appears to be unhinged. When they hear what Smith is about, they just shake their heads.
What I do know is the NDP destroyed our city with the SCS and would not listen to our concerns after the SCS increases the issues on our streets, increasing crime almost 6,000 % in the area of the SCS with increases around the city.
They refused to listen. It was the UCP that shut down the killing machine that even addicts said was bad because it enabled them.
I do know that if they tried to make a move to switch the CPP to an Alberta pension plan you would see protests by mass on the streets and it would shut that plan down.
I do not like either party and had to decide which one would be worse for our city!
The NDP has done nothing to help in the past 4 years except complain and in one case launch a civil lawsuit against our Lethbridge Police Service, which in my mind was uncalled for since the LPS dealt with the issues more than reasonably and satisfied the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General. By suing the LPS you sue the Lethbridge taxpayer.
I would vote Liberal before voting NDP!
Certainly, for me, in the big picture, the prospect of UCP christo-fascism style politics is the most disturbing. With regard to the very drastic problem of drug addiction and its related crime, etc. it goes to the very roots of a society who is not dealing proactively, in the first place, to deal with the social issues which propagate them. We all, are complicit here.
Have you considered voting for the Alberta Party? I know some folks who will vote for them, but they know that it would be a protest vote because they will not win a seat. I voted for the Rhino Party provincially one year as a protest vote because the Conservatives then, displayed their hate for us, members of United Nurses of Alberta. The Rhinos got 11% of the vote in our riding that year. The Conservative MLA who lived across the field from us then, screamed (literally) at me on the phone when we were out on our illegal strike in 1988. I never voted for the conservatives after that, and I knew then, as well, that they were pissing away $billions of our oil and gas royalties. That was enough for me to last the rest of my voting lifetime.
Thank you for the ideas, but my mind was set over a year ago.
I see the UCP acting to reduce the senseless waste of human lives by increasing beds for treatment and not allowing more SCS sites, which are proven to increase use.
You are partially correct in saying that leadership failed to be proactive in dealing with the issues as they grew and I have tried to enlighten the leadership in this to be proactive and we are now seeing hard working agencies on the ground in this city preventing encampments from setting up, letting the people know that we will not accept it and now they know that they need to carefully consider where they are going to stay, hopefully taking advantage of various options they now have, including treatment.
I have watched some only last on the streets in Lethbridge for a few months before fatally overdosing, while others 1-6 years. Enabling them is a slow, torturous death on the streets. It is the most inhumane thing a civilized society can do. Effective mental health and addiction treatment is the most effective way of ending the carnage.
The drug availability and society saying that possessing small amounts is okay iswhat helps people become addicted, because people then think it can’t be that bad if they are allowing it and giving us all the paraphernalia to do the drugs for free.
Law enforcement now realize that ending the war on drugs and saying they will not win, has only increased the drug problems on our streets, in our homes and devastated so many lives.
I have observed this for 7 years and talked with people in the US who have had successful programs which included Targeted Community Crime Reduction programs.
I don’t have all the answers, but I know BC continues to make bad decisions that increase the issues, as well as some other cities in the US.
Many are now realizing that they have to get back to the old tried and true methods.
There is now a Liberal candidate in Lethbridge East and Lethbridge West.
Perhaps our mayor needs to get what is called a strong mayor status?
The city or town of Nelson B.C. seeing what has gone on in Vancouver recently voted no to an SCS and some services for those who have substance abuse habits being set up within the town limits. They don’t have the budget or resources to handle it. I haven’t had a chance to investigate any more details. But if a city councilor gives you circular talk that there is nothing they can do,I wonder?
Halmarst Manor recently put up a huge fence there on 6 avenue south to help keep out the drug dealers who pry on their occupants/renters who are not dry or unaddicted totally. No one complains of that being a jail. Wonder why not? Although those occupants are free to meet their drug dealers out on the street any how. But at least it stops some drug dealers from moving in.