(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

A group of Nanaimo residents are spurring a province-wide protest about crime next week and they're expecting support in Kamloops and Penticton.

"Enough is Enough" appears vague, but organizer Collen Middleton said it's an effort to show provincial and federal leadership that citizens are frustrated with ongoing and increasing crime in BC, whether it's danger on public transit in the Lower Mainland or property crime in the Interior.

"The people I work with here in town have been at this for a couple years now really trying to figure out locally what can be done at a municipal level, and we pretty much exhausted all routes you can take to hold a municipality accountable," Middleton said, who is part of the Nanaimo Area Public Safety Association.

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In Kamloops, protesters are expected to stage in front of city hall on April 27. Others across the province will protest in different cities, including another in Penticton, he said.

"We formed this association in October as an outcome of the municipal election," Middleton said. "(The protest) was born out of the flashpoint of Clint Smith getting shot."

Smith was shot with a rifle last month while venturing into a Nanaimo encampment to retrieve stolen items.

Venturing into encampments isn't uncommon to retrieve stolen goods in BC, with Clean Streets Penticton starting a movement last year to do just that. Another group in Dawson Creek, Middleton said, has been doing the same thing. So far, there have been no known injuries or conflicts in those cities, but it points to a growing frustration in the province, Middleton said.

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Middleton said he's been trying to find a group in Kelowna with similar goals, but he hasn't had any luck yet.

The province has funneled millions of dollars into housing the homeless in the past few years, while also increasingly policing repeat offenders in the past year. While that happens, more people end up without shelter on the streets and the BC public has become increasingly distrustful of the justice system.

Middleton is concerned for both the victims of crime that are housed or own businesses, along with people on the streets who continue to find themselves in a precarious shelter system.

"Everybody deserves to feel safe and secure in their communities. Everybody deserves healthy food, shelter, clothing, a home," he said. "There needs to be advocacy and even activism to demonstrate that the public knows this isn't working and we don't accept it anymore."

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Middleton is a biologist, but has found himself increasingly involved with a public safety movement in the past months to the point where he's helping organize protests across the province.

"The fact I've been dragged into this, it's a great risk to me," he said. "The only reason I have the stomach for it is because my family moved to south Nanaimo and it's fight or flight for us."

Penticton's protest will be at Riverside Park on April 27 at noon, while Kamloops's will be the same time in front of city hall. It's not clear how many people are expected at either event.

More information is available online here.

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