About 15 people attended a rally Wednesday over to express concern about a rise in public disorder, vandalism, theft and random assaults.
It was held during the noon hour at the walkway between the School District 57 office and Treasure Cove Casino and was among about a half-dozen "enough is enough" rallies in communities across the province.
A handful of speakers expressed frustration with a general lack of feeling safe in the city's downtown as well as such "soft-on-crime" measures as allowing adults to possess as much as 2.5 grams of hard drugs and the "revolving door" approach to dealing with repeat criminals facing new charges.
Given the limited effort to publicize the event, organizer Nathan Giede said he was "actually ecstatic" with the turnout.
"It just goes to show that any further sort of outreach would have had exponential effect so I'm really happy about it, to be honest with you," Giede said.
Similar rallies were planned for Victoria, Surrey, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Dawson Creek and Penticton. Giede said troubles in Nanaimo in particular formed "genesis" for the rallies.
"They have had kind of an endemic issue in Nanaimo, when it comes to the issues of hard drug use, when it comes to the issues of poverty, when it comes to the issues of mental illness being properly treated," Giede said.
In November, Premier David Eby announced creation of new repeat violent offender co-ordinated response teams, made up of police, and dedicated prosecutors and probation officers. A team based in Prince George is scheduled to be up and running by next week.
Federal Justice Minister David Lametti, meanwhile, has publicly said he intends to bring in bail reform legislation as early as this spring.
In the interim, both levels of government have been under fire over a string of fatal stabbings and other incidents that have made the headlines.
Although not impressed with the progress made so far, Giede expressed hope that measures will have a desired effect going forward.
"I wish them all the best," Giede said in reference to the co-ordinated response teams. "I hope it's a solid step forward."
