Guardian Angels
The red beret gang has set up in Calgary a week or so ago. There are opinions from all sides, most notably from the Chief of Police who expresses concern.
I remember when they first came to Toronto. Whatever they were trying to accomplish wasn't enough motivation to keep them on the streets for very long, at least consistently.
My concern is that the Calgary Police Service has been aggressively trying to hire new cops for a few years now and the GA's seem to be a competing entity for do-gooders.
I like the idea that the GA's have been on garbage patrol (according to tv-news interviews) picking up the knives, syringes, crack pipes and whatnot from the underworld.
I don't undertand what the GA's hope to accomplish that the cops can't. Like I understand cops are often diverted from issues of more pressing immediate public safety concerns to less important guarding against illegal left hand turns during the tail end of rush hour, but having GA's seem like an additional distraction for the cops to contend with.
I'm wondering what your opinions are on this. Is any new legislation needed?