Besides the fact that not many people want to play vigilante, the problem with the Guardian Angels is that it doesn’t address root causes of crime. You can spend two hours a week marching around, wannabe cop fashion, or you can spend two hours volunteering for Big Brothers Big Sisters, or coaching a ball team or working politically for a more equitable distribution of wealth.
Arguably, walking around with nice red berets might make this or that location momentarily “safer,” but whatever threat was out there is just waiting to pop up somewhere else. More here.
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25 for 25: episode 2007
Inside the Square with councillor Lindell Smith and Halifax’s slow road to better biking with Kelsey Lane.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2008.