OUR POLICE CHIEF IS USING FIGHTING WORDS TO OUTLINE A STREET-LEVEL
CRIME SWEEP THAT AIMS TO CLEAR THE FEARLESS DRUG AND GUN-TOTING THUGS
OUT OF OUR SIGHT

Game on.

First, Calgary's finest are now bringing the hammer down on
street-level scumbags openly dealing drugs in the inner city.

Our cops are expected to make a whole slew of arrests and lay a swath
of charges, to be announced in the near future, as they vacuum up the
vermin before police Chief Rick Hanson beefs up foot patrols May 27,
when 62 officers will be walking the beat in and around the downtown
in a bid to fight lawbreakers up close and personal.

"We're establishing who owns the streets. We're the police, we
represent the community, we own the streets. The only thing going to
take them back is a different approach," says the city's top cop.

"There is a greater recognition of the deterioration of the core as
defined by the fear existing with those idiots out there," says the chief.

"Now we're going to be at Ground Zero. We are going to be the ones
pursuing the problem and not waiting for the community to call us to
send a car, to look at an issue two hours later. We've heard what the
community has had to say. We've heard what the people coming downtown
experience and what has made them uncomfortable.

"They're not comfortable with the aggressive panhandling, they're not
comfortable with the drug dealers blatantly doing what they do.
They're not comfortable with the bullies and there are a lot of
violent criminals down here looking for confrontation, looking for
people to beat up.

"We want to get away from the Vietnam model. Remember Vietnam? They'd
have a special operation. They'd fly them in, they'd take back an
area after a vicious battle with the Vietcong and they'd leave. Well,
we would do an operation, we whack everybody, we arrest them and then
we'd go to the next location. Now, we're swooping down, making
arrests and in come the beat guys to secure the area."

Yes, it is a war and including the 62 uniforms pounding the pavement,
in the downtown and from the East Village to 14 St. S.W., the
inner-city District 1 of the police service will have a strength of
more than 250 -- bike cops, police on patrol for rapid response investigators.

If it was on its own, District 1 would be the third-largest municipal
police force in Alberta.

When you come out of a concert at the Jack Singer, there's a good
chance you'll see beat cops. When you're on 17 Ave. S.W., better than
even odds, beat cops are around.

What an attitude adjustment. For years, this page has dealt with
politicians who wouldn't pony up cash for more cops, even though
Calgary has fewer police for its population than almost every major
city in the country.

Then some individuals rose to the highest ranks of the police brass
and decided to play politician, spouting namby-pamby nonsense rather
than going mano a mano with the gangsters.

"Things have changed. It wasn't that long ago we would go to council
and they would say, 'Look, we don't want to see cops. We'll call you
when we need you,' " says Hanson.

"Now we're at the point where they say, 'We want to see you out
there, we want to see the visible presence of you guys performing
your duties.' We need to get right down to the street level again."

Why? What has changed?

"Number one is open drug dealing. People have lost their fear of the
justice system. It's really aggressive drug trafficking and we're
going to aggressively enforce the law.

"These people have created victims and we see the victims of
organized crime and gangs, the setting up of the drug networks and
the dealing of the drugs. What has been created is more addicts than
we've ever seen on the streets before," says Hanson.

The chief wants the support of the whole justice system and you have
to wonder when the light bulb will go on with some of those dimwits.

He vows city cops will go after those breaching their bail
conditions. And he tells those who never come downtown to not bury
their heads in the suburban sand.

"Anybody who thinks this is just a downtown issue is just wrong
because the impact of what we do will be felt all over," he says
pointing out addicts have to go somewhere to get money, whether it's
breaking into a car or a house.

A plan for dealing with bad actors fleeing criminal hot spots to make
new ones will roll out next week. Hanson points out cops will help
the addicted and mentally ill needing a hand.

"People will holler and scream saying we want to lock up the
homeless. We don't want to pick on the homeless. They're victims, too."

There is no instant solution. There will be no Mission Accomplished
on May 27 but at least the mission is a mission.

"Realistically, we expect an exodus of some of these people. We know
some came to Calgary to do their street-level drug trafficking
because it was viewed as being a fairly safe place to do business,"
says the chief. "Calgary is not a friendly place any more -- at least
not for them."