[van-announce] PRESS RELEASE: Police raid Woodwards tent city: brutalize homeless people

[megan]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 22, 2002


Police raid Woodwards tent city: brutalize homeless people

At 11:30 pm Sunday night, the police attacked the tent city that has been
outside of the Woodwards building for the past eight days. This marks the
second time in 48 hours that police arrested and brutalized people at the
building site. 

Dozens of people were arrested and the belongings of sixty people 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.

Police cordoned off Abbott between Hastings and Cordova and two blocks 
squatters off the premises, and then without allowing people to gather
their belongings and leave, the police started to arrest people at the
site. Many were thrown to the ground and witnesses saw police beating
people up during the arrests. 

"I witnessed a homeless woman being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and
thrown down by three police officers after she asked them where their
heart was.  They are picking on the homeless and poor," said Jack, an
orginal squatter from the Woodwards building.

Police went so far as to arrest John Richardson, lawyer for the squatters
arrested on Saturday morning, when he asked to speak to an officer who
could provide more information on the charges under which people were
being arrested. 

Last Saturday the homeless squatted the Woodwards building to demand the
province make good on their promise for social housing in that building. 
Early Saturday morning, 58 squatters were brutally arrested and evicted
from their home in the Woodwards building.

The Anti-Poverty Committee demands the unconditional release of all
people arrested at the Woodwards building tonight.

There will be a Community Meeting Monday morning at 10 am at Victory
Square.

Contact: Mike Krebs
604-779-7430

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