HANSON VOWS TO RECLAIM CITY

But can an Ottawa in crisis be counted on to help?

We're not in Pleasantville anymore.

With the boom, the dirtbags blew into town and now the wastes of skin
are setting up shop to stay awhile.

City police chief Hanson is not prepared to sit back, as a lot of top
cops do, and play politically correct and pretend an exhaling of
nicey-nicey bafflegab and dime-store sociological claptrap are going
to make the bad guys see sweetness and light.

No, sometimes, people just need to get the message up close and
personal.

So, in the new year, for less cash than the city will spend on
designer bridges, we'll see 75 cops walking the beat, yes, permanent
foot patrols in the old-school style, on the streets of the downtown
and in surrounding neighbourhoods suffering under an infestation of
human parasites.

"What bad guys fear most is the loss of anonymity. The beauty of the
beats is the good guys get to know the cops and the cops get to know
the bad guys," says Hanson.

But, if you're going to have foot patrols, the idiots have to be
cleared out.

To do this, in the spring, city police will launch an all-out,
take-some-prisoners attack on the street-level drug thugs, the dealers
who are the visible foot soldiers in a war fought with guns and
spreading into suburbia, leaving no part of this city immune.

"We taking back the streets and keeping the streets. We're targeting
the street-level drug traffickers. We're going to be thorough,
complete and we're going all over," says Hanson.

"We've had it with these guys. We want them off the street. They are a
risk to us and our kids. They should be in jail. This is serious
enough, we're going to get serious.

"The community has told us in no uncertain terms they've had it.
They're intimidated and they're threatened. There's a culture of
violence associated with street-level trafficking nobody wants to put
up with it. Calgarians want to see results."

Also, in '09, another 10 cops, on top of the 10 already assigned, will
be working the bar beat, with Hanson lobbying for more authority to
confront the criminal element who treat certain clubs as their
personal playpens.

One hopes the province's justice boss Alison Redford, a big supporter
of Hanson's previous efforts, is listening.

"You want to clean up the bars so you don't have guys walking in there
with guns and having doormen too scared to confront them because
they'll come back and wreak havoc," says the chief.

"The police have to be actively involved and provide the level of
protection required to secure the bars so people don't have to fear
going for a beer."

Really, though, how bad are some of these hangouts?

"Some are bad because some of these gangbangers think they own them
and can do what they want," says Hanson, not about to start mincing
words now.

Yes, we've come a long way from the days when a scrap over a pool
table or a couple spilled glasses of draft was a big deal. Of course,
there is always the fly in the ointment.

You can patrol all you want and you can arrest who you want, but
eventually the trail leads to the courthouse, a place where
lawbreakers get a good laugh when they find out the time rarely fits
the crime.

Hanson knows all about this inaccurately-named criminal justice
system, a set-up more interested in bending over backwards for the
lawbreakers than backing up those fighting the good fight on our behalf.

The chief says he will work with the feds to make sure all charges
laid are airtight, the i's dotted, the t's crossed, the many legal
beagle hoops jumped through. He doesn't want the drill where this case
isn't followed up and that case is blown off. He wants cases "fully
prosecutable."

"We're not making deals. We want every case ready to go forward," he
says.

"We need to be firmly on the same page as federal prosecutions and
that's why we're intent on working with them."

And, when they go forward, Hanson wants a serious push to fight
catch-and-release of these criminals and, if they are given a Get Out
Of Jail Free card pending trial, he wants the feds, who prosecute drug
cases, to press for strict conditions so, if the conditions are
breached, the perp is behind bars.

Hanson also wants "significant sentences fitting the
crime."

At this point the chief realizes some readers will see this talk as
more blah-blah. Such is the level of cynicism when politicians of all
stripes keep breaking our hearts.

Hanson has his own catalogue of stories in this theatre of the absurd,
like the dealer who is arrested with drugs and $1,000 in his pocket
and, less than four hours later, walks out the same doors as the
arresting officers who just finished the paperwork.

The dealer eventually pleads guilty. His sentence is time served --
the three and a half hours -- and he gets the $1,000 back. One little
story in a very big, stupid system.

It is true. To pull off this approach, the feds will have to fork out
a few more pennies, and we all know everything is up in the air in
Ottawa, but the local Tory MPs should be battling for some bucks in
the January budget. Otherwise, what good are they?

And now, Harper's chances of surviving a budget vote are at least even
odds, with many Liberals not interested in going anywhere with Dion.

Let it be noted, Justice Minister Redford is also scheduled to meet
with the feds this week and she has been vocal in wanting the legal
system to get a reality check.

Hanson is ready.

"We've got the commitment, we've got the passion. Let's do it," he
says.