Downtown safety still a concern despite rising number of officers
By Justin Sibbet - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on June 19, 2024.
Herald file photo
Police take a person into custody as they respond to a call downtown. Deputy chief of police Gerald Grobmeier says an increase in the number of officers will help increase police presence downtown.LETHBRIDGE HERALDjsibbet@lethbridgeherald.com
As knives are brandished and fires become lit, a sense of fear and uncertainty grips some who enter the downtown core.
At the most recent Downtown Lawlessness Reduction Committee meeting, numbers showing a high rate of crime in a select area downtown were presented.
According to the supporting documents, Landmark Apartments at 515 6 St. S. had 40 incidents over a three-month span just outside of its doors.
These incidents included weapons being shown, garbage strewn about and erratic behaviours resulting in residents being fearful when entering or exiting their home.
Shirley Heather-Kalau, a senior living in Lethbridge for the past 10 years, says the issues downtown have only grown during her time living in the city. As a result, she says changing habits and increasing vigilance have been necessary steps to ensuring her own safety.
“I don’t come (downtown) very often, but I make sure everything looks hunky-dory before I stop,” said Heather-Kalau. “It’s getting a little complicated for us old people.”
She says this often involves driving around and scoping out the area before deciding where the safest place to park is.
“I circle the block a few times to see if (squatters) move and if they don’t, I make sure to park far away.”
Heather-Kalau says she hopes changes can be made to make downtown safer and easier to navigate.
“I just wish they would straighten their streets out a little bit.”
Hunter Heggie, owner of King of Trade and chair for the Downtown Lawlessness Reduction Taskforce, says most issues happen in the evening or at night, but the sunshine does not automatically bring an end to crime.
“During the daytime, the biggest issue is open drug use and people hanging out in large groups, openly selling and doing drugs,” said Heggie. “I’m going to say that’s the largest problem.”
He gave a dire warning to residents who may feel as though the downtown core is a far cry from their suburb community.
“If you don’t see it around you, just wait. It’s coming to a neighbourhood near you if we don’t put a stop to it.”
Various efforts have been made to help solve the concerns of downtown residents and business owners. The Watch, for example, recently celebrated its fifth anniversary of patrolling the streets downtown. Heggie, however, says the organization is but a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to solving the problems in the area.
“We need police. We have a very small contingent of policemen downtown right now,” said Heggie. “The ones we have are doing a great job, they’re doing the best they can, but they can only do so much. We’ve got a big downtown and there’s lots of problems.”
Deputy chief of police, Gerald Grobmeier, says police are a part of the solution, but they are by no means able to fix everything on their own.
“Simply having more police officers isn’t going to resolve the issues that are going on downtown. We’re part of an answer, but we aren’t the answer.”
He says there are positives to take away though, such as an increase in quality candidates for LPS to recruit from.
“For the longest time, we had one person in recruiting at LPS. Starting last year, we’ve changed that to three people,” said Grobmeier.
He says this has enabled recruiting efforts to triple over the past year and expand its pool of potential recruits outside of Alberta.
“We’re getting applicants from as far away as BC asking to come to Lethbridge.”
He says this increase in productivity from the recruiters has enabled LPS to finally fill certain voids.
“This year alone we’ve already hired 19 new police officers and we’re not done yet. We’re anticipating anywhere between six to nine more on top of that. So, we’re looking at definitely hiring over 20 new police officers, which will get us pretty close to our maximum allotment.”
For those living or working downtown, Grobmeier says this increase in officers will help increase police presence.
“If we have more police officers, we can start to fill some of those sections that are vacant because we’ve had to make adjustments to make sure that our frontline, our first responders are full staffed.”
Heggie says the creation of new bylaws can effectively support those officers working in the area to flush out crime. But even with the vast number of issues, he says Lethbridge is moving in a positive direction.
“I do believe we are in better shape than we were, say, a year ago.”
He says the trend has been positive, in part, because of the City’s hard work and diligence.
“They want to help. They realize that if we allow the problems downtown, they will just grow and spread and it will be across the entire city,” said Heggie.
Grobmeier says it will take a large joint effort from the police, City and other organizations to finally free Lethbridge of the obstacles facing downtown, but work is well underway to achieving this goal.
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“Grobmeier says it will take a large joint effort from the police, City and other organizations to finally free Lethbridge of the obstacles facing downtown, but work is well underway to achieving this goal.”
I agree with the deputy on this statement and I agree that we have a dedicated LPS unit, which is too small and needs to be expanded to overnight as comments from Mr. Heggie suggests, but we have hit a pause it appears on clearing the loiterers from the Galt Gardens and in front, rear and side of businesses downtown.
If you walk through Galt Gardens in the daytime with a camera or a phone that may appear that you are recording images, you likely will have threats made, or even someone following you . . . I cannot walk through there anymore with my camera, which I used to do after going for a long walk in the coulees, taking pictures there, then coming up from the outlook, past the old brewery gardens and into the park to head home without be challenged and threatened!
The most recent threat was this Monday and I only had my phone in hand after receiving a call, just before I entered the park!
So much for tourism! There is a lot of history downtown, but bringing tourists into the area would be bad for our reputation!
Many just do not understand this!!!
I commend your bravery for walking through what my (adult) children call “Horror Park”.
Also , I support and am grateful for the efforts in this article to finally clean it up .
There a lot of great people, many volunteers who are unpaid that need applause, such as some who sit on the task force who put in many hours per week on issues, not just attend the task force to sit as members and then do nothing until the next one.
I thank those such as Hunter Heggie, Matt McHugh, Sara and others who sit unpaid, and others who have to take up their valuable time for other duties to attend!
I still have faith in this task force, but the WILL must be re-ignited in some!
LOL . . . I wouldn’t call it bravery . . . I am fed up, mad as hell, that we have allowed criminals to take over such a beautiful park and we have been given a very small piece a block called Festival Square to celebrate, while they all get high, damage property, have sex, urinate/defecate in the bushes, burn benches and tables (notice the missing benches and tables? They burned them!) that I am coming out screaming for change!
I cannot do it alone!! Businesses, residents call your Councillors and tell them how upset you are! They think I am just a whining resident and I am the only one that is concerned because I have been at it for 8 years now!
If I and the hundreds of dedicated and concerned citizens would not have spent so much of our time fighting to shut down the SCS, the illegal LOPS tent, for the encampment strategy and effective treatment programs, our city would look like Vancouver DTES, /Calgary/Edmonton.
There has to be a will to change and a lot has been done, but there are some in leadership who have lost that will and some others who were always roadblocks.
There has to be a will for change and a fire needs to be built under our leaders to make that change! The laws are there, and we will not see the new recruits out on our streets for at least a year.
Something must be done in the meantime!
Security in the park has their hands bound by city officials on how to respond to people sleeping, doing drugs, etc., because of what is in their Post Orders. It is the city holding them back!
We need security patrols overnight downtown and on weekends to cover the area until we have police able to do so!
There has to be deterrents! Police must write up offenders . . . that is what law enforcement means! The boots on the ground police know this! They know there has to be change!
Anyone who thinks that if they just allow to happen downtown, their neighbourhoods at 6 Mile Coulee, or Paradise Canyon, or Sunset Acres will be safe . . . LOL . . . that is unrealistic! It has already spread and has been over by the Superstore in the south, Nicholas Sheran park in the west, Fairmont in the east and several areas in the north!
It spreads like cancer! By dealing with it and making sure they are not moving to other areas you will see change . . . but there has to be the will.
More businesses and residents need to call, write emails or even letters to their Councillors and tell them you have had enough.
They need to go to the Downtown Lawlessness Reduction Task Force meetings and tell them they have had enough and want change!
This is your city and you have a choice and we can change it!
Do you have the will !!! ???
You aren’t going to be popular anymore with the administration. Not that you care.
There is alot of deadwood that needs to be cleared in that building!
LOL . . . I have not been doing this to be ‘popular’ and openly state that I say what is on mind and who needs to review their actions on dealing with the issues.
I have filed complaints as high as the last Chief of Police, the Premier, pushing for change so we can get our city back from the clutches of the gangs and organized crime. The evil which has taken too many lives, destroyed too many families and destroyed our city and businesses.
It is achievable and I cringe when I hear ‘it is happening in other cities, so we have to accept it’ . . . that is a cop out!
We have proven even though it is complex, it is attainable! The encampment strategy the most recent, but closing the SCS and the illegal tent LOPS are others that many said there is nothing we can do . . . we did it! There has be a will and people need to realize this and get involved.
I would estimate that because of this crisis, costs that are covered by our property tax dollars, provincial and federal funding, which all from our tax dollars, exceed $50 million annually just in Lethbridge and I think that is low!
Local tax dollars alone that do not go to courts, treatment, hospitalization, are at least $11 million!
That includes funding non-profits to counter the impacts, police/fire/EMS, hospitalization, counselling services for the front line workers, repairing public property damaged, the court costs and incarceration costs, and many other areas which cost us!
I want our city back and I will call out anyone putting up roadblocks and slowing the process!
Mr Heggie said: He gave a dire warning to residents who may feel as though the downtown core is a far cry from their suburb community. “If you don’t see it around you, just wait. It’s coming to a neighbourhood near you if we don’t put a stop to it.”
Strangely, that is one of the first times I have seen someone state exactly what is happening here! Prior to this point we had the atypical proclamations of we have to “get a grip on this”, we need more policing etc etc.
More policing fullfills Heggies comments. So if this is a time for “Dire Warnings” and Honesty, why not be honest about it.
First of all Mr Heggie also offers hope that they may be able to get a grip on the situation if they had more policing, which in fact has been proven in so many cities of the world, NOT TO BE TRUE, that I cannot understand why he offers that hope?
Doing the same thing as everyone else with subtle twists does not change the outcome. No idea how many times I have to say this before someone in this City gets it. Or, perhaps, they do get it, and offer these statements up in hopes YOU don’t get it and there is still HOPE!
Breaking the problem down to its basics so people can understand it, is not difficult.
1) We redefine the term “Homeless” so funding includes Drug Addicts and Criminals. Why? Funding for the Homeless is one category, and then counting the same number again for Drug and Alcohol Addicted is another funding branch.
2) We watch as Religious Groups rush in to wash the feet of the newly defined Homeless”
3) Where are all the “Homeless”? In the Downtown.
4) Social Services Rush in to buy or rent empty buildings created by the “Newly Defined Homeless”.
5) Social Services +Religious Groups now own property in the Downtown and offer their “Free to the “Newly Defined Homeless” all the Free Taxpayer paid services.
6) This attracts more Criminals, Drug Addicts to the City Downtown Core because they now are catered too like a Justin Trudeau Formal Dinner!
7) Crime esculates, Businesses Close or Armor themselves with Security Shutters, Mall Cops, Alarm Systems
8) Residences suddenly do not feel safe walking the streets.
9) City Hall extends the “We have had enough” and creates a Lawlessness Committee.
10) The Committee is for appearances only because everyone with ANY life experiences knows they are fighting a losing battle.
11) Reports for the never ending need of an Increasing Police Force is seen as the only answer because Crime is rising exponentially.
12) Meanwhile the “Harrassement of the Homeless” to Rehab, or not do crime, or to take advantage of more social services, or to find God, is not something Addicts enjoy hearing day in and day out.
13) Addicts soon find the shelters over populated and instead of a sanctuary, they are dangerous to live in.
14) Addicts then leave the downtown core in smaller groups of 2 or 3 or 4 to then live in the “Suburbs” where there is an easy access to stealing from Residences to support their habit.
15) More Police are hired. More Addicts feel Harrassed so they continue to “branch out to the suburbs”.
So Mr Heggies proclamation above is not anything but recognizing we have gotten to Number 12 created by the “Good Intentions of the Lawlessness Committee and the City Staff”. Please note, we would have gotten there anyway and both likely “slowed” the speed of descent but its like “Going to Hell in a Handbasket” if it takes one extra year to get there, does it matter? Only during that year, but after that, where are you?
I will say this again so perhaps someone will finally realize that I just did not fall off the truck, but I appear to be the only “Turnip” that is not afraid to speak the truth!
You will lose, you are losing, and you will continue to lose. I really do not care if you think having a police force of 1000 will work! It will not, period!
Our underlying problems are many, and, by far, more than most other cities.
LHA operating on behalf of the Provincial Government will ensure the spread of this problem to the “suburbs”. There modus operandii is “We house them but are not responsible for them”! So given that, why would ANYONE expect this to be turned around by Police?
People are not interested in a Solution that would save Lethbridge and Stand Off. Why? Too many people with their fingers in the Cookie Jar would have their fingers amputated and Pearly Gate Tickets would be reduced significantly.
So for as long as we do not speak the Truth, you will have fakers telling you, in slow progression, that saving lives means YOU ARE SCREWED!
Spin it as you wish, because no one will listen!
Quote “Grobmeier says it will take a large joint effort from the police, City and other organizations to finally free Lethbridge of the obstacles facing downtown, but work is well underway to achieving this goal.”
Sorry, but you are wrong. What free’s downtown is a suburb disaster. So what you are not saying is, shifting the problem is the only answer! Police have never been the answer much like incarceration has never been the answer. Much like “Savin Lives” has never been the answer. So we can make these statements as many times as we like but there is ONLY one Answer and no one wants to hear it, Period!
Ignorance abounds in your rant!
Lethbridge is not like the other cities you mentioned, and the problems are caused by criminals who are not the truly homeless but find themselves on the streets as a result of some unfortunate event or events in their lives.
These are the criminals who are on the loose all night and have broken into businesses like mine and damaged property, or left biohazards on my doorways, wrote graffiti on my walls, threatened my customers, do drugs in my doorways and cost my thousands of dollars.
Where are you employed or live? In the morning, I talk to other business owners and view my building’s issues in my camera videos. I applaud Hunter Heggie, the Task Force, and the BRZ for their tireless efforts to resolve the issues. Are the police departments of other communities similarly understaffed as our own?
Once in awhile you make some good points, but today your rant shows your ignorance to the issues downtown!
A) I never mentioned any other cities
B) I differentiated between the “truly homeless” and the newly defined homeless which includes everyone.
C) The percentage of criminals that are also addicts although statistically hard to prove, has been seen to be 90%+. Those that never intended to become criminals became so because the overpowering need to keep shooting up, when the money runs out, adjust!
D) I have posted numerous posts, on virtually all the aspects of this process. At no time did I ever insinuate Hunter Heggie , the Task Force, the Mayor, the Council, the Police etc are not trying to find a solution or try to fix the problem. What I am saying, and please listen carefully is” good intentions do not solve these problems, PERIOD!
E) Police Understaffing, the answer is YES, almost all Police forces are understaffed because as Crime rises the recruitment lags. So if we are eg. 25 short now based on the activities in the city, then when we fill the 25 the activities will have once again created another shortage.Every police force attempts to plan out future demand. Lethbridge is probably one of the more difficult ones to plan for because of our unique situation which I have itemized in many rants prior. ie. Make life difficult, on the Reserve or any outliar community for an addict by shutting down his dealer, and off to Lethbridge he goes.
I do not shoot my mouth off to hear or see myself in writing, I can assure you. You know who I am, I do not hide behind an alias, call me, I will gladly sit down with you or anyone else and debate you.There is enough people out there with my phone number so if you want to talk, then do it.
I have offered this 10’s of times, no one will take me up on it because, no one wants to admit failure, however, that is the way we have chosen to go! We repeat every other cities attempts to curb the problem and believe we will have a different outcome…..we won’t. We either see the light, and treat addicts as you do your drooling senile seniors, or your city dies, its that simple.
Think about that for a moment, we can lock you up for your “own protection” prevent you from leaving a facility and curb every right you had under the sun and your only “crime” was to become old!. Now introduce yourself to a Meth Head and then give your head a shake!
Dennis, I know you and you know me so let me explain why I agree with the news report on this.
The Downtown police unit has been overworked and undermanned for some time now. They do not work at night and on weekends so other units pick up the slack.
There are no police to respond to many issues unless weapons and threat to human life is imminent often. Most recent was 15 June the day of the block party that brought everyone downtown. Several incidents went unreported and some that were didn’t have police to attend for whatever reason.
That night 2 individuals, one with a rock in his sock and the other a metal bar were going a street and trying to damage businesses, some vehicles driving by chasing them and even the parking terminals. They appeared to be high on meth and their violent body postures and hitting anything around them continued for 2 hours before they moved on to another area.
When the non-emergency number was called, the communications center heard the part of weapons and damaging property, but since no police werew available at 11pm they said to just fill out the online reporting form, because there had not been $10,000 in damage . . . YET!
May 10-12 we saw little to no police and major activity by addicts take over business properties, damaging property and while you know what else. Due to staffing shortages, other events, etc., there were no police to respond!
I have documented this and I am filing complaints along with some other instances.
Our police ARE undermanned and it will take 12-18 months before the recruits are fully trained and able to work alone.
We need those police! The people on the streets at night are not the truly homeless, they are the criminals who come to this city to commit crimes and they disrespect the city, the people, the businesses and our parks and most now carry weapons.
If you would have attended any of the police information sessions, or task force meetings you would have a much better understanding of where we are at, but for those of us downtown who live, work, walk, and do business in the downtown core, we see the need more than ever!
How long does it take for one of these small businesses to pay off $5,000 in damages to their properties because they don’t want to cause premium increases on their insurance? Most are just living month to month on what they make until the next peak period comes!
For some mental health and addiction treatment will work, but others require incarceration. I am all for increasing drug courts to expand the program and know it works well.
Lastly, I have watched reports across North America with cities increasing police and it is working, when the proper programs are in place. I will not use BC as an example because they are so far down the rabbit hole they have gone into that it has allowed organized crime to explode in that province and their failed policies are killing more now than 3 years ago. It is so bad that they now manipulate their fatal overdose stats and only report deaths from fatal TOXIC drug overdoses and do not report the safe supply overdoses!
We need to bring our police force up to National per capita standards! We are not there yet and downtown always get stuck without police, yet it has the highest incidents by zone in Lethbridge!
More police will help for a short term only. Its a cycle. As we get more police, and walk the downtown to enforce the rule of law, the drug addict adjusts and moves out into the residential area.
The harder you make it to break into businesses, and the more you make it extremely difficult to survive on the streets of the downtown, the more the migration of the criminals occurs to the burbs.
Some of you think I do not appreciate what is being done by Mr Heggie and others. Good intention does not solve problems. Until we have a frank discussion with intent of actually solving the situation, then good intention and hard work will result in total failure.
Some insist I do not understand the problems of downtown. I suggest they are wrong because I have seen it so many times repeated over decades and the “same good intentions” on trying to stop/control it.
you said: We need to bring our police force up to National per capita standards! We are not there yet and downtown always get stuck without police, yet it has the highest incidents by zone in Lethbridge!
That is true, however, with every action, there is an unintended consequence. The unintended consequence of more policing is less crime. Less crime means, addicts go without there needed “doses per day”. So, they hop on someone elses bike and find a different part of Lethbridge to live and steal in, to feed their habit.
Last week a couple were laying on a homeowners front lawn smoking Crack, just up from Henderson Lake. There are Crack/Meth heads behind the 7/11 on 5th South and Magrath. I talked to a woman about 30 who was smoking crack as we spoke. She left the shelter because she did not feel safe and parked herself behind the 7/11 with 2 oher girls and 3 guys. They smoke all day and steal whatever they can all night.
So, the types of people appearing at the shelter is scattering them throughout Lethbridge, as others have stated, West, East, South and North Lethbridge are not immune to the pending migration.
Sorry Dennis, you have some good points, but they would be answered if you are aware of the programs in place and the plans that are combined with more police on the streets.
The criminals, the same ones who are downtown are already and have already mored into other areas of the city. The is not just to bring in more police to flood downtown.
It would take another long email to explain this. I would just ask that you do some more research.
To clarify, the 30 year old is one of many who are the ones who prefer to commit the crimes on our streets and not follow the rules at the shelter. The lies I have heard from those types include: there are mice everywhere, body lice, head lice, people demanding sexual favours, people getting assaulted . . . that is just not happening there and area all falsehoods.
I have heard the same garbage time and time again. The same as talking to some who say they can’t get treatment, but when I offered to set them up, suddenly they say I have other stuff to do first. Another says I can’t find a job, so when I tell them I can get them a job, they say, I have to get clean first . . . They all have a song and dance to sell you thinking we are all suckers.
The shelter is there for those who do not want to commit crimes and respect others. For those who do not . . .the ones who want to stay out all night . . . they are the ones who need law enforcement.
Many of these people on the streets at night have homes as well, and many who hang out doing drugs in the park and committing crimes in the day have homes, living in Lethbridge Housing Authority provided homes!
There is a lot you seem to be missing here Dennis, but I know you suffer from considerable pain from your back issues and I am trying to show you . . . I am not trying to attack you, just explain to you there is a lot you seem to not know of the situation.
Putting more police on the streets will only help when combined with the other programs. But . . . we are still 14 – 24 months away from seeing those recruits able to patrol on their own, with a few exceptions for those who came from other law enforcement agencies.
Be well!
Appreciate that but I cannot stress enough, that “all you suggest” I am not aware of, has been tried elsewhere numerous times over many years.
You, have stated the exact problem, let me quote you, you said :
I have heard the same garbage time and time again. The same as talking to some who say they can’t get treatment, but when I offered to set them up, suddenly they say I have other stuff to do first. Another says I can’t find a job, so when I tell them I can get them a job, they say, I have to get clean first . . . They all have a song and dance to sell you thinking we are all suckers.
This is exactly the problem, and it has been and will continue to be the problem to the end of time. Addicts do not want to rehab. They do not have the spinal column to say no, less than 1% do.
So we continue to dream up stupidity thinking there is a magic pill that will solve the 99%.
What we are deathly afraid of is admitting that truth. That does not mean you give up, it means you “relocate them”!. You do not, under any circumstance allow the 99% to change your society. You give NO Choices other than Banishment from Society, so society can continue to exist, or Rehab.
You give them a roof over their head, you give them 24/7access to services and all of this is OUTSIDE the community. You pass a law, no drugs and no drug consumption in Lethbridge and you enforce it. An addict gets loaded on a bus and taken to the facility OUTSIDE the city. If he doesn’t want to stay there and he can’t live in Lethbridge, then he’ll have to move elsewhere.
That is the harsh reality and the solution to the 99%. Society makes a conscious choice, either they want to live with the 99% that will never rehab, will commit the crimes upon them, or they say Hosta La Vista Baby.
So we can think up a thousand little programs that I am unaware of, but the statistics speak for themselves. Less than 1% rehab and we gain 33% more addicts every year. Sadly, the more you “save” the bigger the problem the city has! If 30-33% do not die each year then suddenly you have a HUGE problem. Do the math with those numbers, come up with ANY Plan that can fix this, you and all the special interest groups in the world, cannot. There is ONE solution only, lets get on with it!
Choosing ANY other solution means the death of your city and society, period!
Speaking the truth of the situation makes people gag, or call you cold hearted, or they prefer to ignore in hopes it goes away. It will NEVER go away and it will always get worse.
I predicted all this, even listened to Sophie R tell me how safe she feels downtown. It just takes time to prove me right, not because I am a Guru, but because been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. We are screwed unless we do a wholesale change ASAP
People buy 649 tickets because there is a very slim chance of being a winner. We treat drug policy the same way, we buy a ticket in the hopes that the ticket solves the 99% problem. We even herald it as the best ticket yet. The fact is, its a loser in 99.99999999999999999999999999% of the cases, but that does not prevent Social Services groups exploiting millions of taxpayer money on that bet. In fact they have special groups dedicated to “the next best ticket” to market to Gov to get more and more money for a “another suckers bet” and we give them the money lol
Dennis one of the programs which is still being prepared to launch is the Compassionate Intervention Act, which will force some of the addicts into treatment and before you say it . . . we have had this go around before . . . you can force people into treatment and it be very successful if the program is similar to the drug court program!
I have tangible proof and we talked about this.
I disagree with some of your stats you state. There are many reasons why we have people getting high on our streets. With bans on drug and alcohol use on Indigenous communities, they think they can come to our city and live on our streets for a few weeks, drinking, doing drugs and hanging on the streets creating issues . . . young from other communities/cities thinking it is fun to hang out on the streets here because they don’t understand how it can suck you into a life of hell . . . others come for criminal reasons or are brought here because every year the pimps who were in other cities come to Lethbridge or some other city for change, there are many other reasons, but many on our streets are not from this city!
Not all are addicted to drugs, not all are criminals, and for many there is hope to turn their lives around so they can have a chance in life, which they will not get on the streets.
There are programs in the works, but we have to do something now . . . we have to start now!
They said we would never close the SCS . . . we did! They said we would not stop the LOPS tent . . . we did!
They said we couldn’t stop the encampments . . . we did!
We can end the carnage on our streets . . . there just needs to be the WILL that we had to bring change as we previously did.
Unlike you, I know we CAN do this!
Be well . . .
My last absurd comment on this issue . . .
I think I will travel this summer, maybe starting in Waterton, where I will sneek in from the eastside of park on foot with my backpack, sleep when I get tired where ever, and when I need to resupply, go shopping in a parking lot, where I can find food, money, and other supplies in the vehicles. I can go to the restaurants and steal the tips off of tables and hey . . . I like that tee-shirt with the eagle on it, so I will just sneek that under my jacket and walk out . . . what a holiday!
Free . . . man I love this country, I can travel for free!
I think you get my point . . . not all are addicts!
We ALLOW what happens on our streets and we DO have the right to say we don’t want this on OUR streets anymore!
We have met the requirements by law to supply housing and social supports!
We need the leaders that will act now!
Statistics-
-We have 272 walking addicts
-every year we average 90 deaths
-every year we average 270ish
33% dead, 33% more arrive
The math is simple