[Wamvan] Fwd: [dnc-board] in the news: inquiry news articles today

[Tami Starlight]

FYI
Tami


Police were callous to beaten sex worker, missing-women inquiry told ****

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TERRI THEODORE ****

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VANCOUVER— The Canadian Press ****

Published Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 9:43PM EST****

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Police missed a “precious moment” to gain the trust of a half-naked and
badly beaten sex-trade worker who walked into their Vancouver-area office,
choosing instead to ridicule the woman whose remains were later found on
serial killer Robert Pickton's farm, the woman's sister told an inquiry
Monday.****

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More related to this story****

Lessons from Pickton were key in arrest of sex-assault suspect, RCMP
say<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/lessons-from-pickton-were-key-in-arrest-of-sex-assault-suspect-rcmp-say/article2351409/>
****

Pickton was one of hundreds of suspects, Mountie
says<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/pickton-was-one-of-hundreds-of-suspects-mountie-says/article2340103/>
****

Mounties failed to exhaust options in early efforts to nab Pickton, court
hears
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/mounties-failed-to-exhaust-options-in-early-efforts-to-nab-pickton-court-hears/article2333450/>
****

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Video****

Eerie unseen Pickton interrogation video
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/video/video-eerie-unseen-pickton-interrogation-video/article2331891/?from=2352058>
****

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Video****

Pickton inquiry underway
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/video/video-pickton-inquiry-under-way/article2198654/?from=2352058>
****

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Sarah de Vries was turned back out on to the street to hitchhike to her
Downtown Eastside home after the attack that prompted her to seek help from
the police, her sister, author Maggie de Vries, told the inquiry into
police handling of the Pickton case.****

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Ms. de Vries said the undated incident was recorded in Sarah's journal some
time before she vanished in 1998 and became one of the 20 women on the list
of charges dropped against Mr. Pickton.****

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Maggie de Vries has read her younger sister's journals and wrote a book
about her sister, but she kept Sarah's traumatic encounter – first with a
“bad date” and then with police – to herself until now.****

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Ms. de Vries did not specify what police did to ridicule her sister.****

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She told the inquiry Sarah described being picked up by a customer in the
Downtown Eastside, being taken to a remote location east of Vancouver in
Port Moody and then being badly beaten.****

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Sarah made it to a police station, Ms. de Vries said, but officers there
turned her out without even offering the half-naked woman a blanket.****

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“It was that moment when she was in dire distress. [It] was the one
opportunity perhaps in her whole life that police had to respond in a
helpful manner to her,” she told Commissioner Wally Oppal.****

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Ms de Vries said police could have demonstrated to Sarah they were there to
help, but she was further victimized.****

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“Instead, they humiliated her, they sent her back out to experience more
violence and they sent a very clear message to her that this wasn't a good
idea.”****

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She said the officers badly misused the precious moment, cementing the
distrust those in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside had against police.****

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“You were better off to go straight to the highway and stick out your
thumb,” Ms. de Vries said of her sister's journal entry.****

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The inquiry has heard other sex-trade workers in the area where women were
disappearing had information about Mr. Pickton, but didn't share it with
police.****

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“I think that had the police taken advantage of all of those moments and
built that trust in those relationships, that information might have been
more forthcoming,” Ms. de Vries said.****

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“That could have led to Robert Pickton being arrested earlier and that
could mean that there'd be women still living and breathing in the world
today who are now dead.”****

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Ms. de Vries's information was part of a panel presentation to the
commission, along with sex-trade activist Jamie Lee Hamilton and Sarah's
friend Wayne Leng, who later started a web page about the missing women
from the area.****

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The three told the inquiry of their frustrations in getting police to admit
that a serial killer may be at work, that more police resources needed to
be put on the case and that a reward should be offered for information
about the missing women.****

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De Vries said Detective Constable Lori Shenher urged her to lobby for more
help from police because she was getting nowhere with her bosses.****

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“She clearly believed that these women met with foul play,” she told the
inquiry.****

Ms. Hamilton, a transsexual who started out in Vancouver's sex trade in the
1970s, said the work became much more dangerous when police pressured the
women to move to the industrial areas of the city.****

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Sex-trade workers were being fined $2,000 just for standing on the street
when the City of Vancouver passed a street-activity bylaw, she said.****

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Ms. Hamilton, who was issued the fine, said that was a lot of money to make
up when oral sex was running about $60 and “full service” ranged up to $150.
****

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By the late 1980s and early 1990s, pimps were starting to victimize women,
hard drugs were prevalent and police were pushing women to work in the back
alleys of the Downtown Eastside.****

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“I remember saying [to police]: ‘You're not going to be satisfied until
we're pushed into the water,”’ Ms. Hamilton said, who by that time had been
working as an advocate for the Downtown Eastside Residents Association.****

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Hamilton said the actions by police put sex-trade workers at a much greater
risk to be picked up by a serial killer.****

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She contradicted testimony given last week by former Vancouver police chief
Terry Blythe, who said the department supported Ms. Hamilton's safe house.**
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Instead she said the police targeted the place she called Grandma's House,
a place for sex workers where they could get food, clothing and support.****

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“If they were [supportive] they wouldn't have shut us down in the midst of
a serial killer roaming the streets of the Downtown Eastside.”****

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Vancouver Police charged Ms. Hamilton with keeping a common bawdy house
after a raid in August 2000. The charges were stayed three years later.****

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“If the consequence was to put us at further risk of a serial killer, well
the mission was accomplished,” she told the inquiry.****

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The inquiry is looking into why it took so long for police to stop the
serial killer before his arrest in 2002.****

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Mr. Pickton was eventually convicted of killing six women, but confessed to
an undercover officer that he murdered 49 women.****

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The DNA of 33 women was found on Mr. Pickton's pig farm in Port Coquitlam,
B.C.****

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** **** **Surrey man accused of attacks on sex trade workers dating back to
1994; Burnaby RCMP and the VPD have laid 12 charges against Surrey man
Shalendra Kumar Sharma, 43, for allegedly assaulting at least four
different sex trade workers from the DTES as early as 1994****

 ****

By Mike Hager, Vancouver Sun February 27, 2012 ****

 ****

Burnaby RCMP Chief Superintendent Dave Critchley tells a press conference
in Burnaby, February 27, 2012 about the arrest of a man in sex assaults
against sex trade workers from the Downtown Eastside in a joint
investigation with the VPD. The displayed photos are of vehicles believed
connected to the suspect who is currently in custody.****

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Photograph by: Ian Lindsay , PNG****

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A Surrey man is to appear in court Friday in connection with four sexual
assaults on Downtown Eastside sex trade workers dating back 18 years.****

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Shalendra Kumar Sharma, 43, a labourer at a manufacturing plant, was not
previously known to police, said Burnaby RCMP Chief Supt. Dave Critchley.***
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Sharma, who was arrested Feb. 17, faces four counts of sexual assault, four
counts of confining, one count of kidnapping, two counts of assault and one
count of uttering threats.****

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The charges relate to assaults on four different women, one in 1994, one in
1997 and two last December.****

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Burnaby RCMP and Vancouver police began investigating when two sex trade
workers came forward in December describing separate incidents of being
picked up in the Downtown Eastside and driven to south Burnaby. There, they
said, they were trapped and assaulted.****

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At a press conference Monday, Critchley praised the women for coming
forward. “In particular, one of the women provided us with a valuable key
piece of evidence that we could then use in our analysis to begin linking
the files.”****

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Police believe there may be other victims and used Monday’s press
conference to urge them to come forward.****

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“Now we’re reviewing all of the files and we believe we’ve located
potential victims from 1994 — there are several women [apart from the four
Sharma is accused of assaulting] we believe may have been assaulted,”
Critchley said.****

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Sgt. Peter Thiessen, spokesman for the Lower Mainland RCMP, said police are
also looking at whether Sharma may be connected to alleged assaults
elsewhere in Metro Vancouver.****

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“I can’t get into specifics, but it’s safe to say that we are looking at a
number of areas outside the Downtown Eastside that our suspect may have had
contact with,” Thiessen said.****

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Police said that after the two victims came forward in December, a
Vancouver police sex crimes analyst was able to link those assaults to ones
in 1994 and 1997.****

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Soon after the victims contacted police, the VPD’s sex industry liaison
officer Const. Linda Malcolm met with sex trade workers on the Downtown
Eastside and handed out 55 emergency cellphones (capable of calling 911) as
well as pads of paper to encourage women to record or report “bad dates.”***
*

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Critchley said there was no indication of any connection between Sharma and
convicted serial killer Robert Pickton, who picked up women from the
Downtown Eastside in the 1990s.****

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However, Pickton’s long crime spree was brought up several times at the
news conference, where Vancouver police and Burnaby RCMP stressed the high
priority they are giving the Sharma case and the strong level of
cooperation between the more than 50 investigators from both departments.***
*

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Neither Critchley nor VPD spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton made direct
references to any procedural changes after the Pickton investigation, but
both said the departments are now better at working together.****

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“What we have learned from the past is that it’s crucial and it’s critical
that we share info immediately,” Critchley said. “On the first offence in
December, we immediately shared information between the RCMP and the
Vancouver police department at a senior level.”****

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Robert Gordon, a former police officer and director of Simon Fraser
University’s school of criminology, said that after the Pickton case, both
police departments have likely made big changes in how they interact during
joint investigations.****

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“If [they haven’t changed] then of course they’ll be subjected to
tremendous criticism,” Gordon said. “Obviously the claim will be made that
it’s a good example of an integrated team, but a stronger argument can be
made, I think, for a Metro Vancouver police service where you see these
kinds of cases working out very well.”****

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