ALARMING SITE

One Look At Calgary's Skid Row Convinces Patroller Action Needed

Sometimes, it has to be someone from the outside to reveal the ugly
truth here at home.

Curtis Sliwa, founder and president of the renowned street-patrolling
citizen group the Guardian Angels, is in the city at the request of
some locals to check out the crime scene in our little Pleasantville.

Just so happens, Curtis and two other Guardian Angels are in Calgary
on the eve of city council considering the mayor's plan to fight
crime and grime with more cops on the beat, more transit cops at the
LRT stations and city cleanup crews to tackle the mounting garbage
and graffiti.

The trio of red-bereted Guardian Angels travels along the Bow River
pathway full of crackheads to the park by the Drop-In Centre full of
crackheads, through the East Village full of crackheads to the street
known as Crack Cul de Sac, full of crackheads. Curtis, who hasn't
been in Calgary since '91, can't believe the evidence of the eyes.

"This is like a scene out of Dawn of the Dead, this is like the
zombies in Dawn of the Dead. If I told an American this went on in
Calgary, they'd say I was smoking dope. This is Junkie Central. I've
never seen drug use in such a visible way except in Zurich,
Switzerland. This is like the old Needle Park we used to have in Manhattan."

He walks a little further, talking to people, asking questions,
friendly but not a guy to back down from the lawless.

"Wow. This is like Times Square, New York City, circa 1989. You don't
even see this public display of crack smoking in New York City. It
used to be systemic where people would be torching the glass pipe
beaming themselves up to Scotty. Late at night, you could see the
torches in the distance."

"Incredible, incredible. We're in a belt of anarchy. They flaunt what
they're doing. They don't even try to hide. We're not talking hobos,
we're talking dope fiends, degenerates. What a shame. You've turned
this area over to the junkies and you've got to take it back. We'd be
more than happy to help."

Curtis meets with a deep thinker in the Calgary police brass tomorrow
and will probably be told our top cops would rather commission a
study on the subject or create some pencil-pushing positions rather
than go out and bust some goofs.

The head Guardian Angel does a little action on his walk-about.
Coming upon a crackhead with an X-Acto knife, he takes the knife and
tosses it over the LRT fence while the owner of the knife screams and
swears, claiming the knife is not a "concealed weapon" and her rights
have been violated.

Curtis gives her his card and says she can report him.

Later, he and his crime-fighting cohorts confiscate a crack pipe and
Curtis crushes it under his foot.

The crackhead is outraged, supported by the surrounding stooges.

One has to wonder why the police are not out busting these people or
does the police chief not like to lay down the law?

Curtis also speaks to Sandro Iovinelli, a master barber in the East
Village for 42 years, who is treated like dirt by the surrounding
sleazeballs. Sandro's son is a lawyer. "Show him my card and tell him
you met Mr. Guardian Angel," says Curtis.

The first stop on his Calgary tour complete, Curtis says the city has
changed big-time in the last 15 years and not all for the good,
especially in this part of downtown.

"This area needs a major colonic. It's embarrassing. You stroll out
of city hall and you're confronted by this. Now you should have the
motivation to scrape the barnacles off your backside, get your rear
in gear and attack this problem. It's got to be aggressively
attacked. Right now, you've got the Amsterdam of Alberta."

Curtis also backs the mayor's fight against crime and grime,
comparing it to the efforts of New York City's Rudy Giuliani.

"It makes all the sense in the world. Would you want to take your
kids here? Hell no. You'd rather your kid be a mall rat. Do nothing
and the criminals will lay siege. Things may prosper on the outside
but the core will slowly slip into the abyss.

"Times are good here. You can't cull the good from the bad. This is
where the riff-raff are going to go, this is where the thugs are
going to come, this is where you will get the people who have
intentions of ripping off what they consider to be the streets paved
with gold. You've got to stop them."

The mayor says of the Guardian Angels he is "open to any advice they
have to offer."

"We have to wake up," says Mayor Bronco.

Yesterday afternoon, the alarm went off.