Downtown business owners fed up with ongoing crime and damage to shops

“It’s been totally heartwarming. It’s been amazing and to state that we all need to keep our voices loud and make a difference, and not become complacent and not allow criminals to take over our streets,” Mitra told CFJC News.

Included in the sign is a show of support for a North Shore Tim Hortons restaurant that recently closed its doors for the same reason. Now, other businesses are uniting by posting, ‘We stand with Continental Barbershop’ signs, hoping to get the City’s attention.

The deputy mayor says the City of Kamloops has heard the concerns, loud and clear.

“We’re really trying to lean into what we can do to try to increase people’s safety and not to also target or vilify the most marginalized people in our community,” said Kamloops Deputy Mayor Arjun Singh.

“We don’t want to do that either. We want to have both an empathetic approach, and an approach that emphasizes the accountability for bad behaviour,” he continued.

Singh says the City will add more security and community service officers and it will set up more places for vulnerable people to stay.

But another downtown official says it’s not just a municipal issue.

“As a thirty-year veteran with the Calgary police service, I’m a retired member, I know when things are working and I sure know when they’re not,” said Carl DeSantis, executive director at Downtown Kamloops.

“Something is broken, and B.C. Prosecutions, they’re dropping the ball here. They need to step up their game. There’s a gap in the system and it’s failing our Canadians, it’s failing our community,” he added.

Mitra says she has heard the same frustration expressed by other shop owners.

“We’re tired of cleaning up the feces and the needles and being harassed in our businesses and nobody seems to do anything about it,” said Mitra.

by Amandalina Letterio

Downtown business owners fed up with ongoing crime and damage to shops

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