Either for a lack of resources or a lack of concern, Salt Lake City and Ogden have not been able to stem growing gang and drug problems.
That's the position of Curtis Sliwa, leader of a controversial group of red-beret-wearing civilian security guards who came to town Thursday to announce help is on the way.
The New York native said he has seen rough parks in San Francisco and Los Angeles but never expected to see a similar site in Salt Lake City.
"You say no way, people smoking meth, smoking crack, openly in Salt Lake City," Sliwa said. "That means City Hall is openly allowing that activity. It's not a hard problem to fix."
I'll be interested to see how this pans out; a lot of people have been getting frustrated by the lack of law enforcement of gangs and related problems. The park to which they refer is Pioneer Park in SLC; it is home to junkies, drunks, dealers, and bums. Most of the undesirables there are not "just homeless", the majority of them are people who have fallen to the bottom through circumstances of their own choosing, so I have little sympathy for them.
Utah didn't really have a gang problem until a few years ago; much of it was the result of people moving from southern California to "get their children away from gangs". As soon as they got here, the "children" formed local chapters of the gangs of which they were members.
Much of the local criminal activity has been the result of two main groups; illegal aliens, and meth junkies. Between the fact that a lot of Utahns are getting CWW permits, and these Guardians coming in, maybe things may turn around a bit. We'll just have to wait and see.
9 comments:
The community as a whole has to get involved to remove these types.
Hope it works because once things start going downhill it's really hard to take it back.
Is it just me, or does there seem to be a lack of law enforcement in a lot of areas. Why would anyone want to be a border guard these days? They go their job and get arrested, put in prison for doing it. Same thing with police and other law enforcement. They get sued by the criminals.
Gangs present their own special kind of problems, but criminals are criminals. I don't know what the answer is.
We are lucky, we don't have gangs in our area.
Watch yourself. Had a similar thing in a park near me. A few muggings, kids smoking weed, occasionally a heroine needle in a flower bed. The local council's response? CCTV cameras. I could stand the junkies (crazy but harmless), I could risk the muggers and I could mind out for needles in the shady areas at the back, but I don't go there anymore.
I think most utans want to bury their head in the sand. If this keeps up we will be like California in no time at all
Yeah, we get alot of those Kalifornia types here in Texas, too. They bring in their "gangster" kids, but worse, they try to bring their politics, too.
Don't know if they're trying to create a target rich environment, or maybe they moved here by accident, or if some of them are just dumb enough to think they can Kalifornicate The Lone Star State until they hate it here, too.
I do hope that someone can get the gang and drug garbage under control. Sounds like someone in City Hall is basically turning Pioneer Park into the Gaza Strip, willfully giving it up in the vain hopes that the inhabitants won't expand.
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tweaker
Well, I'm not glad to hear the problems I've seen in California are really hittin' it hard up your way.
Good families and good neighborhoods will always prevail, I'd say. A good local police force can't hurt either!
Have a great week!
This has actually been a problem for over 20 years now, but no one seems to want to do anything about it.
Any of those gang members Osmonds?
I think one of Lawdog's first posts was on people moving to Texas from MA or CA and trying to change things.
Have some relatives near Colorado Springs who mention the same problem you do: some dorks move there from CA or OR to 'get away from the gangs', only their sweet little kids are members and start branches in CO when they get there. AND the bastards try to change things to make it more like where they came from. Which does bring up the question that if they like it so much there, why not go back?
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