Our once peaceful city is facing an acute public safety crisis caused by our council's incompetence, and every respectable taxpayer lives in fear, for themselves and their loved ones.

For years we concerned citizens and public safety advocates have called upon the Alto administration to wrangle the homeless, mentally ill drug addicts invading the downtown core before social ills turn into violence, but we were ignored. Nowadays random assaults and vandalism have grown rampant, to the point we dare not walk downtown at night anymore.

The city's lax police force, sworn to protect and to serve, won't keep us safer. It no longer believes in broken window policing, even as the said broken windows multiply exponentially across town. Delinquents ransack our bus stops and storefronts, gangs sell drugs to our kids, ruffians sell stolen merchandise in broad daylight, drugged lunatics spit in our faces and spray us with mace, yet law enforcement officers scoff and brush aside our complaints, and so do the few city councillors who deign meet with us. Group mentality has turned the menace into a fearless mob rampaging with impunity.

The council's response was simply to fence off parks and encampments, which of course only spread the problem further; instead of sheltering on our greens and sidewalks, now the culprits sleep in our doorways and creep in our backyards. Is the city going to fence us off Douglas Street next? Are we to build our own fences to protect our lots and families?

We cannot work with an elitist city council that dismisses the concerns of the labor and entrepreneur classes alike, whose taxes buy only extravagance and rusty fences. It caters so much to tourists that is has forsaken the city's own residents. And it has the nerve to blame neighboring municipalities for its own failings. Therefore we demand the Victoria city council's immediate resignation.

References:

VicPD Responding To Ongoing Youth Violence After Assaults, Swarmings & Vandalism

Stuck in a loop: Victoria business owner wants city bylaw officers to respond to safety concerns

First responders can't go to Victoria neighbourhood without police, chief says