Why was he in Calgary? I wonder if it was to see the Stampede?
Huh - somehow I missed this story until now - it’s quite hilarious.
I wonder if the two fellows handing out the Stampede tickets have been located - I would love to hear what their take on the whole thing was.
I do feel a bit sorry for Walt though - I think I would hate to go through life feeling that scared and paranoid all the time.
Well, Calgary doesn’t have a lot of serious crime. Of course, Calgary has crime, but it is hardly on the scale of some cities. No gangs are having shootouts, people are not being mugged in broad daylight, murders are infrequent. I don’t recall a drive-by ever happening. It’s a city of about a million people that seem to get along pretty well. In the years that I lived there, I don’t recall any part of it being particularly unsafe to walk around in–yes, there were some neighbourhoods where you wanted to be alert and careful, but for the most part, it’s a pretty safe place.
I found this interesting: Calgary’s Top 13 Most-Wanted Criminals. The date is June 2011, but I don’t think it would be much different in August 2012. Breaking down the alleged crimes of Calgary’s 13 most-wanted, we find:
– Break and enter.
– Weapons offenses, and possession of a dangerous weapon. Note that these would not include firearms; they would be for possessing (and possibly using) such things as brass knuckles, pepper spray, etc.
– Uttering threats.
– Sexual assault. It’s rape, and a serious charge, but we don’t call it “rape” in the Criminal Code.
– Assault with a weapon. In this case, the weapon could be anything used offensively: a baseball bat, a knife, a tennis racket, a crowbar…
– Assault causing bodily harm. This would be, for example, a fight where the other party was injured in the fight and required medical treatment.
– Assault. Somebody physically assaults another. This charge is often laid in the case of bar fights. Nobody requires medical treatment, but a fight occurred nonetheless.
– Failure to stop for police. This would not be an arbitrary stop. As in the US, the police need reasonable and probable grounds to stop somebody; but if they have those, then the person must stop.
– Failure to comply. This is often laid when the offender somehow did not comply with, for example, a probation order.
I will emphasize that in the above charges, “weapon” does not equate with “firearm” or “gun.” Here in Canada, we have an entirely different set of charges that specify if the offense was committed with a firearm (see, e.g. ss. 85 and 86 of the Criminal Code of Canada). Since none of the above specify “firearm,” I conclude that none of the above involved firearms.
I don’t mean to display Calgary as some sort of crime-free paradise–as the above shows, it is not. But I hope you can now understand my “This guy was in Calgary” comment. If one of Calgary’s “13 Most Wanted” is a guy who broke his probation order (which offense might be as mild as failing to keep an appointment with his probation officer, or simply having a cold beer when the order states he cannot), then it is hardly a place where anybody needs a gun to feel safe.
I recall a Brazilian kid being blinded by a stray shot in a drive-by shooting a few years ago here, actually. If there’s been another one since, I can’t remember hearing about it.
That was AWESOME!
If you don’t want to be gunned down as an innocent bystander, stay out of the Vietnamese restaurants.
Oh yeah. That incident. Apologies, I forgot about that one. Still, perhaps the publicity it received underscores the fact that such things are rather rare in Calgary.
Those incidents, actually - it’s happened twice now.
Cat, you’re not helping. 
Wanting to wave a gun to ward off annoying people in a park is a ludicrous overreaction.
A blast of pepper spray up the snout, and most anyone will stop grilling you about seeing the local tourist attractions.
After becoming aware of this incident, if I was this cop’s superior, I would recommend a mandatory psych evaluation
It’s not an unexpected reaction for a small town guy in another country for the first time when he’s used to not being treated in a way he considered unusual.
That certainly is not true here. That it may be true in the USA is sad thing indeed.
Oops. Good point. 
I dunno, I mean, I’ve been to quite a few countries other than my home, and part of the reason for doing so is to experience the unusual.
If the guy can’t handle the unusual without feeling the need to defend himself against it, he should stay at home.
You mean it’s not always like this?
Everything about that cop’s letter is awesome: the fact that he felt threatened in the middle of a park by two people asking him a question; the fact that he thanked the Lord Jesus Christ that they didn’t pull a weapon on him; and the fact that he used this incident to justify needing a gun. Just a red state trifecta.
Is people talking to other people in a park (and about the biggest event in town, to boot), really that unusual?
On my way home from work, I might just see if I can find an American tourist and ask if he saw the Olympics. Bonus points if he looks like a religious nutjob cop. I’ll let you know how it goes.
carnivorousplant, you’re not helping …
The US is NOT full of people that want to shoot everyone who looks cross-eyed at him.
Most gun-owners in the US do not react this way.
Agreed - to me, it’s not particularly unusual. When I lived in the US, people approached me and spoke to me fairly often.
What I meant was that, well, if you go to another country, you shouldn’t be surprised to experience things you find unusual. But yeah, being asked innocuous questions by harmless strangers isn’t unusual to me.
[
](Breaking News - Headlines & Top Stories | The Star)I think it’s hilarious that in his original letter, Wawra himself admitted that the gentlemen looked “bewildered”.
WTF? I’m trying to imagine a scenario in which I’m approached by two men and I get the impression that they are aggressive and menacing, to the point where I think they might threaten violence. If I told them to leave me alone and they were noticeably “bewildered” by that, then I think I’d have to reevaluate my impression of them. Would an armed mugger ever be bewildered that his victim doesn’t want him around?