This letter to the editor was posted in the Gillette News Record on November 18th, 2025. You can read the original letter online HERE.

I would like to address a comment made by Mayor Lundvall during the last City Council meeting. Mayor Lundvall said that if something terrible is happening to anyone, he would like to know about it so he can do something. With all due respect, Mr. Mayor, I thought that is what supporters of the Malicious Harms Ordinance have been doing: telling City Council members about specific targeted attacks in your community.

You’re going to protect everyone? Where were you when the library director and former library board were afraid to walk to their cars? When the church was vandalized? When parents lose their kids to more supportive communities? When someone’s business and vehicle is vandalized? When someone is attacked for not looking “woman enough”, or their child is bullied to end their life? All real examples of how people in Gillette have been targeted, and that you have heard about by the way.

Simply saying that you want people to reach out to you directly if they are being targeted is not what I would call a solid game plan. And frankly, I don’t think you want that level of responsibility on your shoulders.

People don’t want a chaperone while they walk to their car. They want to exist in their community freely, knowing that God forbid if something were to happen, the law has their back. It’s not that hard. It’s not political. It is common decency.

Leigh Bertch

Gillette