This followed the article, Greenside raids ‘bad for business’, published on 14 August on the Rosebank Killarney Gazette website.
The Greenside business strip has been subjected to frequent raids, conducted by the Parkview police and the Metro Police, often in conjunction with other City departments like environmental health, fire and safety, and urban planning, which have received much support from residents.
Councillor Forsythe said the raids had a detrimental effect on all businesses in the affected area and the reputation of the suburb, as most of the time the raids were hard-hitting: businesses and their patrons have reacted negatively to being swamped by officials, swooping into establishments and ruining their evenings.
“Whenever I have been informed of raids, I have gone to great lengths to supply authorities with the names and locations of specific offenders, as well as details of the problems or bylaw infringements taking place at these venues,” she said.
“I have also asked that care be taken in the manner in which businesses and their patrons are approached and handled, but in most instances, this seems to fall on deaf ears, just like the requests I send in to these departments to deal with issues on an individual basis during working hours.”
Forsythe said during the raids, when confrontations inevitably ensue, cellphones are whipped out to record the events and footage is posted on social media sites, causing reputational damage to the officials and the suburb.
“While we do indeed have some serious problems with certain venues breaking the law in Greenside and patrons of these establishments misbehaving in the streets, the whole of Greenside does not need to be punished for their actions.”
The councillor insisted that there would be no need for raids if law enforcement and City officials simply did their jobs during working hours and dealt with the problem makers individually.
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