Mayor Gondek Wants More Personal Security While Calgarians Deal With Crime Rise

Recently Calgary’s Mayor Jyoti Gondek did the two dumbest things in the face of a general rise in crime across the city. Through her actions, she belittled the issue of crime and safety by refusing to give the police the resources they need but then proceeds to take the issue of security seriously only when she starts being affected personally.

Recently, Mayor Gondek pushed for a new bylaw to ban protesting within 100 metres of a building hosting a drag queen story hour event and then felt the need to increase security at city hall when Calgarians protested her new bylaw. 

The Calgary Police Service can already barely keep up with the rise in crime, and Gondek continues to misappropriate police resources to enforce increasingly foolish bylaws. Coming up soon police and bylaw officers may also start wasting their time making sure businesses are not using plastic bags…

It all demonstrates that Gondek is entirely focused on herself and her woke governance priorities over what matters to everyday citizens. 

Although some in the City of Calgary would try and point to government statics to prove crime rates have not greatly increased, it is obvious to those who ride public transportation or work downtown that things have deteriorated. Yet Gondek doesn’t think we need to significantly increase the police budget and impose a stricter enforcement of basic laws. 

In fact, CPS has been floundering for several years now. CPS gets budget increases that barely keep up with inflation, but does not account properly for the increase in population, workload, or technology costs for law enforcement. 

This is what makes the move by Gondek to staff city hall with more officers so egregious.

No doubt some of the protesters that show up to city hall can be obnoxious (ie. Derek Riemer seemingly intentionally getting himself arrested), but there is no indication any of the protesters posed an actual danger to the mayor or her staff. 

In CTV News story on the security increase, Calgary Ward 7 Councellor Terry Wong confirmed that he did not feel threatened by the protesters. 

Wong stated:

I think every counsellor knows the risks that they are exposed to, they know, precautions that they can take, how to secure themselves,

I leave it up to them as to the measures they take, whether you need to be accompanied by a partner or close protection. But with relative to myself, I know exactly when and where I need to be and how to secure (myself).

No doubt there have been instances of harassment against Mayor Gondek, but again it all has to be contextualized relative to the amount of danger the average Calgarian is now facing. It all demonstrates that Gondek is completely out-of-touch with the issues of everyday Calgarians, and only takes the concerns seriously out of the communities she identifies closest with, hence the defence of drag events as her top priority while drug addicts deteriorate on the streets.