Business owners say they are being hit hard by downtown crime
By Steffanie Costigan - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on July 28, 2023.
Street violence in Lethbridge is at its highest peak in years, says a city businessman.And had Dwayne Gurr, president of London Road Market, known how bad it would get, he might have opened his business somewhere else.
“I’ve been here since 1973, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Gurr says. “If I had known that we’d be dealing with this nonsense, never in a million years would I’ve gotten into business in Lethbridge.”
General manager David Gurr, also expressed concern about the ongoing issues with the increase of weapons and their concern with protecting their staff.
“We have to protect our staff from the issues that are coming in,” he says. “And the unfortunate part is when I’m warned by the police that the violence levels are increasing, that the weapons involved are increasing.”
Sgt. Ryan Darroch of the downtown policing unit, says the patrol division responds to calls based on priority, with violence taking priority.
“Our patrol division and our downtown policing units respond to calls for service throughout the city and are based on a priority basis of many different factors, one of those, more importantly being violence,” Darroch says.
Police also have to consider if an incident is actually taking place at the time, or if the subject has already gone.
Gurr estimates London Road Market loses between $60,000 and $100,000 worth of profit from theft every year, not including ongoing damages the business is experiencing. David hopes the City can do something about the problem, but he’s not holding his breath.
“We’re hoping our municipality jumps in. We’re hoping we’re hoping, but the actual follow-through seems to be a little tough.”
A local woman experiencing life on the streets and who spoke on condition of anonymity, says the homeless live with daily trauma, which results drug abuse.
“It’s just unfortunate that most of us go through some traumatizing thing that happened in our life,” she says.
“And the only way for us to hide it or use it as a crutch is by, you know, sad to say, by going towards drugs. Just giving up and not even wanting the responsibility, and we just sort to kind of get used to it.”
She says individuals experiencing homelessness want to be homeowners and renters; however, they don’t have enough of the needed supports to overcome their addictions, and most of them are doing the best they can.
“What they don’t understand is most of us are just trying to get our own place so that we can get our life back together.”
Darroch says police don’t have control over the outcome of the offender – that is left up to the Crown.
“Our rule is to respond to those events, deal with the offender and the victim and the witnesses, and then we put the file together and put it to your Crown prosecutor. When it comes to the resolution of that event, that’s not up to us, of course, the Crown, defense counsel judges, that’s where their role is.”
Shirley McNally, the owner of Unique Hair Design, says she believes the problems started when the supervised consumption sight opened.
“When we really got into the problem was when they put in the consumption site,” McNally says. “We had enough problems before, and most of us said, ‘no, don’t do it.’ They went ahead with it.”
McNally noted she has run her business in downtown for about 25 years, and the violence has risen in the past five years.
Gurr expressed his frustration and suggests the criminal code needs to be enforced.
“Enforce the Criminal Code – it’s there, and enforce the damn thing.”
David says he has been punched, had things thrown in his face, and his ribs were cracked during an attack. He says business owners have to focus on the ongoing violent challenges rather than on their business.
“If we’re having to put so much time and resource into the problems that are coming in, that greatly takes away from what we can do, and that’s results in less sales.”
Darroch says violent incidents take an emotional toll on officers, and it’s frustrating to go through all the work of arresting suspects, charging them, filling out reports, and doing everything else necessary to complete a case, only to have it thrown out.
“When you search someone criminally, there’s a significant amount of paperwork that goes with that, which is fine, that’s part of our job. (But)to put your time and effort into something and just to see it get withdrawn or someone not get much for consequences on the back end of it can be, for sure, frustrating.”
David the next generation of his family succeed, but he’s concerned about the impact of the ongoing violence.
“With the problems that we’re experiencing, I’m worried about passing that generation of problems down. That’s a real concern, and I want to see that next generation of butchers in my family flourish.” 2
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