There were no pitchforks or torches. And the outward rhetoric was, for the most part, all about cooperation, all about vigilance but not vigilantism.
Nevertheless, it was a rally the City of Penticton and the RCMP didn't want to unfold.
But unfold it did.
Ultimately, a couple hundred people met up at Gyro Park early Tuesday afternoon under the banner of "Clean Streets Penticton," a local anti-crime group that sprung up recently via Facebook and almost immediately caught the attention of both law enforcement and city council for its apparent message of taking matters into its own hands.
Front man Jason Reynen, a Penticton resident and business owner, gained some measure of notoriety last week when it was revealed he recovered personal stolen goods by circumnavigating the authorities and personally confronting the thieves.
Many on social media, fed up with a perceived Penticton crime wave and lack of imposed penalties, cheered his actions. Others, including mayor and council, condemned it for being illegal and unsafe. Penticton RCMP warned it won't condone was "vigilante type activities."
But Tuesday's rally was a calmer event than it seemed it might be. Less than half the "500 people" Reynen hoped might show actually did. There was no outward sign of police presence either, and Reynan and Clean Streets co-speaker Shannon Stewart kept the fieriness to a minimum.
They did not outwardly advocate citizens follow Reynan's lead. And they were eager to point out that a pre-rally roundtable with Mayor John Vassilaki and other officials was a "positive" experience.
Indeed, when someone from the crowd called out "You've got them running scared" in reference to local authorities, Stewart responded with "No, they're not running scared. They’re working with us."
In a half hour, the rally had ended. And we talked to Stewart and Reynan, still surrounded by well-wishers, about their group and the message they wanted to get across.
Was it all about confronting criminals as Reynan did, or was it less revolutionary? Had it been modified after the meeting with the mayor and police chief?
The responses were a bit mixed. On one hand, Reynan spoke of his own experience and said, "I believe there are a lot of opportunities to do that -- getting smaller items back by having conversations with individuals -- in a lot of scenarios."
"I'm a concerned citizen," he added. "All I wanted to do was get my stuff back. I achieved that, and it resonated."
But the more consistent message between the two downplayed confrontation and accentuated cooperation with the authorities.
"The purpose of the rally was to bring awareness," said Reynen. "And we accomplished something. We sat down with them and had a conversation, which is the first of many steps going forward."
Reynen added that he wasn't "setting a precedent for others to follow."
Stewart was even more pacifying.
"We wanted to make sure mayor and council know we have a significant number of community members who have large concerns about our current state of affairs and want to do something about it, and are looking for better ways to partner," she said.
As for the pre-rally meeting, she said it "involved the sharing of information" and called it "really positive." A summary, she added, would later be posted to the Clean Streets Facebook page.
Both were anxious to discourage any association with the term "vigilante," and Stewart summarized that the directive going forward is not about "flexing muscles."
"This platform is about creating opportunities to allow members to identify concerns," she said. "Hey, there's someone in my parking lot trying door handles. There's someone scoping out my back yard. And we have plans to create support teams to respond, but only to be witness.
"There's no sense of coming in on masse. We don’t want people flexing muscles and engaging. And already we've created some significant change simply by providing observation and making it uncomfortable for those engaged in anti-social behavior to continue that behavior."
When contacted later, Mayor Vassilaki condemned Reynen's approach during his now-infamous incident and any attempt to replicate it, but otherwise seemed to see both sides of the equation.
"I don’t condone the way they went about it and the way they're going about reclaiming stolen property," he said. "The general public shouldn't get involved in situations that might escalate to the point where someone gets hurt.
"But people are frustrated. It's happening in a bunch of communities in British Columbia, not just here. The court system is, I think, broken down. The police force, their hands are tied, they can’t do their work properly. And the crown counsel refuses to lay charges because of the time it's going to take.
"So those prolific offenders go in one door and out the other."
Vassilaki believes it's those "prolific offenders" who are at the root of the problem. And the number, he says, is surprisingly small.
"I would say in the community, somewhere between ten and 15 prolific offenders. They take up a lot of RCMP time."
Vassilaki said he's aware the city is awash in "break-ins."
"When I became mayor," he said, "the downtown core was a fearful place to be. Restaurant owners were afraid to go to their cars when they closed at 9. But that's not here anymore.
"Now it's the break-ins. There are so many. And they're not just downtown, they're everywhere. My own personal buildings, they're breaking in at least two or three times a week. It cost me tens of thousands to fortify my buildings. And it's the prolific offenders mainly doing it."
The meeting with the Clean Streets group, he said, was "good, absolutely," adding that, "Just because we have a disagreement doesn't mean they're my enemy."
"You have to be cooperative. We want to cooperate with them. But we don’t want them taking the law into their own hands."
Possibly as a concession, Vassilaki offered some direct advice.
"When they find their stolen property, don’t take any action," he said. "Phone the RCMP or our bylaw people. They're trained to handle that. You don't want to create a situation where someone gets hurt."
Both parties believe Tuesday's meeting was not the last.
