[news] Police harassment of panhandlers escalates on the Drive

[Ishaq]

http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/07/28108.php

Police harassment of panhandlers escalates on the Drive
by an East Side resident • Tuesday July 20, 2004 at 03:40 PM


On Sunday, July 18, 2004, I stumbled upon at least five Vancouver police 
officers, with about as many police vehicles, arresting a man for 
panhandling at the corner of East 1st and Commercial, and detaining 
another person (handcuffing him while he was on his bike).



Police harassment of panhandlers escalates on the Drive

by an East Side resident
July 20, 2004

On Sunday, July 18, 2004, I stumbled upon at least five Vancouver police 
officers, with about as many police vehicles, arresting a man for 
panhandling at the corner of East 1st and Commercial, and detaining 
another person (handcuffing him while he was on his bike). A small group 
of people were standing around, watching the cops's actions with 
disgust. The police gave the panhandler and the other person long 
lectures and eventually let the other guy go (all he did was ask the 
cops why they were arresting somebody for panning). The cops actually 
told the panhandler that he should "go to another country" if he didn't 
like the amazing social assistance programs that exist in this province 
(as the cop put it). Some guys yelled something at the cops as they 
drove by (seemingly some negative remark directed at the cops... 
hopefully this happens often!). The cops lectured the panhandler for a 
while longer and then "breached him out of the area", driving him in a 
wagon to some other location and letting him go, probably with a ticket 
fine. By the time he was about to be "breached" there were seven cops on 
the scene to deal with this "major crime". A second police wagon drove 
past on the other side of Commercial, and I couldn't help but feel that 
I was in "occupied territory".

This event was only one case among many, as the Vancouver Police 
Department, Commercial Drive Business Association and the Grandview Park 
Community Policing Centre have been working together to crush 
panhandling on the Drive.

Business "activists" have gone so far as to personally harass 
panhandlers and spread lies about them, and they've gone to Drive 
businesses and told them they'll be fined if they allow people to pan in 
front of their store (which is a complete lie, but hey, that's politics 
right?!?!).

For months now, Vancouver cops have been "cracking-down" on the Drive, 
mostly arresting young Native kids for "dealing" or whatever.

On June 6th, a bunch of anarchists had a rowdy march up Commercial Drive 
to oppose the escalated police presence and the cops attacked them and 
arrested three people. The rest of the group linked arms and circled 
together as onlookers shouted at the cops in support of the anarchists. 
This probably made further arrests undesirable for the cops at that point.

The yuppification of the Drive was accomplished years ago, but the fact 
that poor and working class people still come to the area appears to be 
too much to deal with for some wankers. Just having to see a poor person 
is an unpleasant "inconvenience" for a yuppie, I guess.

So, how can we fight the growth of police-state conditions of the Drive? 
Something that has been used in the past is a Cop-Watch program, which 
involved people following the cops around with cameras and documenting 
their activity in an attempt to limit cop violence. This may work to 
some extent, but is also very limited, since cops will always do what 
they have to do regardless of who watches them, you won't always be able 
to catch the cops in the act, and even if you do catch an abuse 
"on-film" it won't have any repercussions for the cops in the end (in 
court). Just look at the Frank Paul and Jeff Berg cases. The cops can 
get away with murder,with the full complicity of the courts.

So maybe other tactics are in order. One such tactic could be the 
"escrache", popular in Argentina, through which people publically shame 
and insult politicians and military leaders by yelling, blowing 
whistles, banging on pots and pans and shouting words of contempt. A 
small or large group (preferably at least 8 to 10 people, or more) could 
easily organize to do this to the cops on the Drive and make their jobs 
hell. Of course, they'd be walking the boundaries of "obstruction", but 
if enough people could organize to do this and kept their distance from 
the cops, the action would be difficult to control. Our possibilities 
are mostly limited by our own lack of determination and commitment. But 
resistance is possible, if we choose to live a life without restraints.

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