Calgarians 'wary' about public safety following shootings, mall stabbings: criminologist

Article content

Recent shootings and other acts of violence have been damaging to Calgarians’ perceptions of safety in their community, says a local criminologist, though police say numbers are roughly in line with the average in recent years.

Violence erupted in two Calgary area malls on Friday, with six people being stabbed in separate targeted attacks at Market Mall and CrossIron Mills. Calgary police arrested four people after the Market Mall incident, but RCMP are still searching for suspects related to the CrossIron stabbing.

Those public acts of violence were followed by a shooting at a busy Earls restaurant in McKenzie Towne on Saturday evening — which is believed to be tied to organized crime — and an early Monday shooting in Forest Lawn.

“We’ve seen so many shootings and now stabbings. People are becoming quite wary of their own public safety,” said Mount Royal University’s Doug King, a criminal justice professor.

“What we’re dealing with now is more perception of safety and perception of fear of crime — which is really real and you have to deal with it. But it also can become quite unrealistic,” he added. “We can become more fearful than we really should be in a given situation. So that’s what I’m really concerned about right now.”

Supt. Cliff O’Brien with the Calgary Police Service said the number of shootings in Calgary this year is consistent with the five-year average. Data provided by CPS show shootings are down since last year, with 92 having occurred in the city as of Nov. 27 — about a quarter of which have been tied to organized crime — compared to 121 by the same date last year.

“But that doesn’t help if you and your family are going to see Santa Claus at the mall and there’s a fistfight that breaks out,” he said. “We know that we can’t let up — that we have to continue to work not just on the organized crime individuals, but identify and locate these other people that are involved in incidents.

“It doesn’t matter what the numbers are if people are feeling unsafe.”

Violent incidents show ‘hallmarks of organized crime’: police

O’Brien said with a lot of violent incidents involving guns in the city — like those that stem from road rage — “you can’t predict them.” He said residents communicating with police about any incidents near their homes or involving people they know is key to helping reduce gun violence.

“Reporting even the small things can really have a tremendous impact on investigation,” he said.

Calgary saw five shootings in four days earlier this month — many in residential areas — with police saying the incidents bore the “hallmarks of organized crime.” King says the incidents — and others that have occurred recently in Calgary — are similar to those of the lengthy organized crime conflict in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.

“Rival criminal organizations are basically competing with one another, and the way they’re competing is by trying to kill each other,” he said, noting the torched getaway vehicles associated with several recent shootings in Calgary are typical of gang shootings out west.

“We’re definitely not at the point where the Lower Mainland is right now … but there’s got to be some kind of discussion by (Calgary) police about how (and) what they’re doing to address it.”

Calgary isn’t that far removed from its own similar conflict — the FOB-FK conflict in the late 2000s. CPS has pivoted resources to tackle organized crime locally over the last few years. The dynamics now, however, are much more different than they were a decade ago, with individuals often changing allegiances — which can lead to attacks born out of revenge or infighting.

“We know that the violence generally is retaliatory in nature. But the answers about who’s involved and who committed the crimes lie within the community. I would encourage people to call Crime Stoppers or call us and co-operate,” said O’Brien.

Province directing resources to fight organized crime

CPS Staff Sgt. Lee Dunbar of the organized crime and dangerous offenders unit said that lack of loyalty makes it harder for police to keep track of specific organizations. However, he said Calgary is nowhere near where it was with the FK-FOB conflict.

“Groups are fighting over territory constantly to get their bigger piece of the pie, and with that comes violence — and that’s what we’re seeing right now,” he said.

CPS continues to monitor over 350 people with alleged ties to organized crime and noted that close to 300 “crime guns” have been seized by police this year.

The Alberta government has bolstered efforts in the organized crime realm, investing $4.4 million earlier this year to create a gang suppression and firearms investigative unit at ALERT. Earlier this month, Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis — while announcing a new Alberta Sheriff unit to tackle organized crime in southern Alberta — called the level of gang violence throughout Alberta “intolerable.”

Calgary also recently received $8 million in federal funding to prevent gun violence.

Better communication needed from police: criminologist

King said he, alongside many Calgarians, would like to see more regular progress updates from CPS on incidents like those that have occurred recently in the city.

“And if they aren’t being very successful, why not?” he said. “I think we’ve got some questions to ask of our police that I think they need to answer.”

He also said police need to be more mindful of how they frame violent incidents to Calgarians. CPS statements frequently describe incidents as being targeted and posing no risk to the public, which King says is “downplaying and, in some ways, undermining the message.”

“I think the responsibility rests with them to tell us what they’re doing as opposed to just saying, ‘Well, don’t worry, it’s targeted, and you’re not at any particular risk,'” he said. “Tell the people at the Earls restaurant that they’re not at risk … I mean, there were a lot of bullets flying there (Saturday).”

mrodriguez@postmedia.com

X: @MichaelRdrguez