With triple murders in Lloyd recently, it’s difficult to feel the city is safe, despite assurances from the RCMP and city officials.
I wouldn’t imagine the relatives of the three men that were killed feeling it’s safe along with some of the area neighbours.
The police call it a targeted murder, but until someone is arrested, a lot of residents will perceive a threat to their wellbeing.
I have lived in Lloyd since 2009 and I have been victim of crime twice. Nowhere else where I have lived in Canada I have been a victim and that includes living in the seedy part of downtown Toronto.
My car was stolen two months after I moved here, and this summer I was a targeted victim of a hit and run driver allegedly on drugs who drove on to assault another victim who was just going about his business as I was.
I am lucky to be alive as most cyclists hit by vehicles don’t fare very well. The other fellow victim needed major dental work.
When I first moved here, stolen cars were the crime of the day, but things have escalated to random acts of violence by criminals on powerful mind-altering drugs.
Random acts of violence against strangers are crimes weren’t on the radar much before COVID when a lot of craziness started coming out of the woodwork.
Anyone in Lloyd who has been a victim of crime is not likely to say the city is safe. One senior at a recent public meeting told Mayor Gerald Aalbers, his truck was just stolen from his driveway two days earlier.
Another elderly female resident in a seniors’ subsidized home, reported she and her neighbours don’t feel safe in the parking lot where a lot of theft etc. has taken place. It’s easy to blame some homelessness people for some of the crime, but it’s pretty clear it’s criminals on drugs that are the big worry.
I have no idea what the solution is, but proclaiming the city is safe by saying so, is not one of them for a lot of folks.
It’s time to get everyone together with the experts on how to actually make our community a safer with some results-driven initiatives.
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