[van-announce] Commercial Drive "Community Police" Dispossess Local Indigenous Carver

[Stephanie Smith]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 16:14:41 -0700
From: Andrew Loewen <andrewloewen/at/gmail/dot/com>

Saturday, June 6, 2009

OPEN LETTER

This morning two members of the Grandview-Woodland Community 
Policing Centre initiated the dispossession of Dance, the 
indigenous artist who lives, peacefully and quietly, on the 
corner of Commercial and Kitchener. Dance is a valued member of 
the Commercial Drive community; dozens of households in the area 
are home to his carvings. Dance is a friend and neighbour, whose 
beautiful smile often gives me a lift when I'm feeling down.

The Community Policing volunteers initiated the action in Dance's 
absence, claiming he has been absent for "several weeks," which 
is simply untrue as I know Dance was on his corner (which is his 
home) just yesterday.  A member of the VPD supervised the sorting 
of Dance's belongings into two piles. The bulk of Dance's things 
were deemed garbage, and tossed directly into a City of Vancouver 
garbage truck by 2 city workers. Among the possessions dispatched 
were all Dance's blankets and bedding and the wood which is his 
art and his livelihood (neighbours here on the Drive supply Dance 
with a steady supply of Cedar). The other pile, which included a 
backpack and Dance's carving tools, was taken to the Police 
Station on Main St. with assurances that Dance can retrieve them 
in person.

Concerned residents, many of whom know Dance, came by to 
investigate. A local independent newspaper publisher attempted to 
persuade the police officer and city workers not to throw out 
Dance's wood, to no avail.

This kind of dispossession by the VPD is routine in the Downtown 
Eastside.

The Grandview-Woodlands Community Policing Centre is a 
contentious institution on the Drive. Its uniformed volunteers 
act, like the VPD proper, to harass and intimidate the poor and 
the marginalized in the interests of members of the business 
class. Essentially, they police poverty and non-normative modes 
of living, ensuring that only economically legitimate forms of 
life remain visible. Community Policing volunteers are a nasty 
and unwanted presence on The Drive, a Downtown Ambassadors-style 
para-police force, whose activities and presence run counter to 
the diverse and progressive spirit of our community.

It is no small irony that, as a recent a editorial noted, the 
Policing Centre itself was a visual blight for months, with a 
facade of plywood for a storefront (after committed vandals are 
purported to have smashed its window. The Centre has faced 3 
arson attempts and 4 smashed windows in the past decade--hardly a 
venerable institution).

In a curious attempt to generate credibility for the Centre, it 
commenced a fund raising campaign to replace the plywood by 
collecting thousands of old cell phones. Even celebrated NDP 
Member of Parliament and anti-poverty activist Libby Davies (for 
whom many, including myself, have done campaign legwork) got into 
the act, sending out the call for old cell phones on her official 
email list.

*As members of the Commercial Drive community, and as guests on 
this unceded aboriginal territory, we need to show solidarity 
with Dance and other victims of police harassment; we need to 
resist the presence of uniformed goons on our streets and 
sidewalks; we need to continue to build the kind of inclusive, 
caring community that makes East Vancouver special.

If you oppose the ruthless dispossession of Dance by 
Grandview-Woodlands Community Policing volunteers, the Vancouver 
Police Department, and the City of Vancouver, please join me and 
others in speaking up.

* Andrew Loewen