It’s an unfortunate reality in any urban center that there are homeless. People end up homeless for a wide variety of reasons… loss of employment, underemployment, mental illness, family breakdown. And the amount of thought the average citizen gives ‘the homeless’ is negligible. Aside from the occasional donation to a food drive or some over administrated charity, little is done. They live on the edges of society, frequently a subject of scorn and derision, or misplaced and misspent pity.
And Bob forbid they be a minority, especially native.
I recently blogged about surveillance in Calgary and my concerns, finishing with
I want to know I can take a walk with my wife, and stop and kiss her in a doorway or under a tree, without some bureaucrat leering over our shoulder.
It appears I’m already far too late. I was taking some shots of the Langevin Bridge, and had spotted a native couple on the bridge.
They were holding hands, and making frequent stops to whisper to one another and kiss against the railing. I moved to a different spot to shoot something else and leave them some privacy, when a male voice came loud and clear over a loudspeaker…
“You are under live video surveillance! Take your activity off the bridge!”
Uhm, what? No kissing on the bridge? Or just no kissing for homeless natives…
To add to the conundrum, they are in a poor position to challenge the intrusion. Even assuming they had the inclination to flip off the anonymous State voyeur, it would have resulted in a Calgary Police officer being dispatched to the bridge. Being homeless, they don’t have the resources to fight being hustled off the bridge or spuriously arrested on something unrelated.
This is just the surface though. It’s a rare moment when a homeless person can spare a moment from day to day survival and getting by to carry on something so basic as a relationship. That they are homeless denies them the privacy and dignity to carry on their romance anywhere but in public, whether in plain view or hiding in some out of the way spot.
That the State, acting on our behalf, chooses to deny them even these simple acts of humanity is barbarous. It’s bad enough they are chased out of businesses for wanting to use their washrooms, forced to duck behind bushes and dumpsters in broad daylight and freezing blizzards. To deny them even a chance at a quiet walk on a bridge is inhuman.
This particular couple moved off the bridge to sit on one of the abutments at the rivers edge to enjoy each others company.
Tags: bridge, calgary, cameras, flickr, homeless, Langevin Bridge, photo, photography, rights, state, surveillance, yyc
Are you serious …. is this what they are spending your tax dollars on?
F***ing left wing bast**ds on city council!
Are you kidding? This is Calgary, Alberta… left wing out here is a raving right winger in nearly any other municipality
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Great photography and great story. I walk by the bridge on a daily basis, and more often than not there is usually someone drinking in public. While I don’t think it’s okay that police intervene in this couple’s romance, I 100% support the police activities regarding cleaning up the drug dealing and alcohol abuse. In my community, since closing down the Cecil, and installing surveillance in the area, crime in offsetting area has dropped a dramatic 30% since last year. There was a problem with open drug dealing that took place in this area, and drug abuse often leads to other crimes like petty theft from vehichles and break and enters. It’s about time that there is no more data collection about drug abuse in the area, so that the police can respond appropriately. One incident, I observed was that a man was drunk and meant to throw his liquor bottle in the river, instead it hit a fence and shattered above the heads of above 6 bystanders. What would be even less humane, would be if the police were to ignore the assaults and abuse that is inflicted by homeless people on other homeless people. Anyways, my observation is that I have yet to see that the Calgary Police act inappropriately even though I walk by there daily.