[van-announce] Spit-in Succeeds, Police Harassment continues unabated...

[Dave Olsen]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 19, 2002

The First Annual SPIT-IN for Just-us and Against Police Harassment 
was a "salivating" success in that it accomplished its immediate goal of
defeating the outrageous $100 ticket issued by officer #113 of the
Vancouver Police Department for "Expectorating in Public."

The traffic court judge laughed when the VPD Officer, #113, stood up 
to retract the charge because he "misunderstood how expectorate is 
defined and confused nose blowing with spitting."

No compensation was offered for the time and energy spent 
contesting the charge or for the mental and physical stress involved.

However, the police harassment continued when the person who 
disputed this ridiculous ticket, Dave Olsen, left the courtroom.  As 
soon as he stepped outside, VPD officer #113 came up to Dave and 
HANDED HIM ANOTHER VIOLATION TICKET (this time under the 
Motor Vehicle Act) for "Must Ride on Right Side of Highway."  This 
ticket is for $86 and is dated for the same time (April 19, 2002 at 
10:15am) and place (300 Main Street in the Downtown Eastside of 
Vancouver) as the previous "spitting" one.

It should be noted that this police officer is being paid well over $30
per hour, all of it from our municipal tax dollars, to prepare for and
attend both this trial and the next, which will occur whenever the Just-
us system gets around to setting another court date.

And there will be another court date.  Dave immediately disputed the 
$86 ticket, primarily because a court in Victoria recently dismissed a 
similar ticket.  The Motor Vehicle Act states (in Section 183 (2) (c)) 
that "A person operating a cycle...must...ride as near as practicable to 
the right side of the highway."  Steve Balyi was ticketed for a similar 
"offence" and was able to get the court to agree that the real-world 
definition of "practicable" is safe.  Given that there are no physically 
separated bike lanes beyond 20 metres in length on any roadway in 
Vancouver, this definition in practise means that the safest place for a 
cyclist to ride ranges anywhere from a metre away from the curb to a 
couple of metres from the exact middle of a road (think of this 
common situation: parked cars in the right lane leaving only one 
narrow lane to ride in, within which there is not enough room for a four- 
wheeled vehicle to pass safely).

Obviously we don't pay VPD officer #113 more than $60,000 per year 
to know or understand the law that he enforces.

Fortunately for this cyclist, his bicycle and other worldly possessions
were not stolen and thrown into a garbage trunk as a result of either
ticket.  That was not the case for 60 of the people tenting outside of 
the Woodwards building back on September 22.  At 11:30 pm that 
Sunday night, dozens of people were arrested and the belongings of 
60 people were thrown into four waiting garbage trucks.  The police 
stated that the reason for the brutal raid was that people were 
committing a bylaw infraction by obstructing the sidewalk.

For more information, please contact Dave Olsen at 
dolsen at vcn.bc.ca

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Come to the First Annual SPIT-IN for Just-us...
...and Against Police Harassment!

Your Participation is Expectorate!

When: 9am, Friday, October 11th, 2002

Where: Outside the Provincial Courts on Smithe Street, between 
Howe and Hornby in Downtown Vancouver (look for the bike rack!)

Who: Anyone who gives a spit about police harassment.

What: Spitting Contest for the Farthest, Biggest, Loudest, Greenest, 
and
for best aim (at Gordon Campbell's head, of course!); PRIZES include
homemade wild apricot jam!  YOU be the Judge!

Why: 
-Because a bicyclist will be in court at 9:30am Friday, October 11th, 
2002
to contest the $100 ticket he received for "unlawfully expectorating in a
public street" on April 19th, 2002.

-Because Police harassment of cyclists, squatters, homeless, street 
workers, youth, and political protesters must end NOW.

The Long Story:
Just after 10am on April 19th, while riding northbound on Main Street
between Hastings and Cordova, Dave Olsen stopped at the red light.  
A
police car pulled up beside him and the driver asked, "do you want a
ticket for riding in the middle of the lane or for spitting?"  Dave
replied, "do what you need to do."  The white male officer (#113) then
commanded Dave to get onto the sidewalk, which he did.

The police car continued to idle during the 5 minutes that Dave's 
identity was checked and the $100 ticket was issued.  The white 
woman police officer (#1615) sat in the passenger seat the entire time.
Dave noted that gasoline was dripping out of the car's tailpipe and he
found a fresh oil patch underneath where the car sat, once the police 
sped
away.

Dave always rides as far to the right on a roadway as he determines is
safe, in this case just to the right of the middle of the middle lane,
since there was a lane full of parked cars in the right-most lane (Safety
Notice: never ride in the space between the dotted white line and 
parked
cars because you can suffer injuries that can prevent you from both 
riding
and walking ever again if a car door suddenly opens in front of you).

While riding a bike, it is common for cyclists to accumulate saliva and
snot in their noses.  What Dave did is blow out his nose onto the 
pavement
in the middle of the road.  It is unlikely that anyone would be walking,
crawling, or licking the pavement where Dave blew his nose.  If 
someone
did, however, the injury s/he would suffer from ingesting his saliva 
would
probably pale in comparison to the thousands of toxic chemicals that 
s/he
would ingest from automobile emissions and leaks.

If you think that this constitutes police harassment, or if you want our
police force to spend our tax money on more useful activities, please
contact mayorandcouncil at city.vancouver.bc.ca and make it an 
election
issue!

If you have hours of free time, you can also call the Vancouver Police
Department at 604-717-3321.

But don't forget to...

Come to the First Annual SPIT-IN for Just-us...
...and Against Police Harassment

9am, Friday 11 October 2002, Outside the Provincial Courts on 
Smythe Street, between Howe and Hornby (look for the bike rack!)


For more information, please contact Dave at dolsen at vcn.bc.ca


And show your support for Political Prisoners in Canada by signing the
petition at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/april01