MATTHEWGOODONLINE

It’s a bad time to be poor in Vancouver. The Vancouver Police Department have vowed to increase tickets directed at ”crimes” of poverty by 20% in their 2008 business plan. The plan appoints a new VPD “Champion” who will address issues of street disorder through a crackdown on what they call “urban decay” caused by the homeless.

Symptoms of “urban decay” the VPD seek to eliminate are activities that you may expect the homeless to participate in on a fairly regular basis: sleeping/camping in public places and in parks and engaging in the “scavenger economy.”

Newly appointed Champion Superintendent Warren Lemcke is expecting to wipe out this type of behaviour by increasing Safe Streets Act ticket distribution by 20%. He also wants to increase distribution of Trespass Act tickets by 20% as well to get rid of people who have the nerve to sleep outside, just because they don’t have a home.

Although the VPD would swear up and down that this new initiative to ticket the homeless into submission has nothing to do with the upcoming Olympics, City of Vancouver employee Judy Graves had a different version of events last night as she received an award from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

In response to a question from the floor, Graves told the assembled audience that police are having closed door meetings where no minutes are kept with city officials on how to deal with the homeless and the Downtown Eastside come 2010. Typically, meetings are held without minutes to avoid having to disclose embarassing topics discussed if those minutes are requested under a Freedom of Information request.

Graves said she was “very afraid” that a crackdown on the homeless was on the way. It’s a very bad time to be poor in the number one place to live on the planet.

PhD candidate Officer Rivieri of the Baltimore Police department goes off on two extremely young looking skateboarders, wrestling a 14 year old to the ground, taking his skateboard illegally, and threatening to kill him for talking back.

I don’t use the word hero very often, but this cop is the greatest hero that ever lived. God bless video cameras, because you just know Rivieri has done this a million times and not been busted. Who votes for putting video cameras and mics on every cop?

The CBC has posted absolutely unbelievable footage of Victoria Police officers tying a 15 year old girl up in their cells and leaving her tethered to the cell door, tied up in a sitting position for over four hours. She had been arrested for being drunk at an outdoor party earlier in the evening. The video is here.

The girl is now suing police, and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association is reportedly calling the case torture and has filed a complaint.

In the second half of the video, the girl can be seen trying to lie down, and failing. The discomfort is palpable. She ends up lying on her face, at significant risk of aspirating vomit and dying should she become ill.

She is not visited by a nurse once, although hourly rounds are supposed to be routine, especially when people are arrested for being intoxicated. She appears to be in a 4 by 8 foot padded cell. A video camera mounted on the roof of the cell captures the entire incident.

The response of the cops is predictable, sad, pathetic, and somehow funny despite it all. A spokesman is reported as saying: ”The city lawyers are very confident that the force applied was reasonable considering the circumstances, and we feel they were justified in using that restraint.” Watch the video, and judge for yourself.

In early December Seattle announced that it had passed a new bylaw prohibiting the harassment of homeless people. Noting that it was located in the 7th most dangerous state for homeless people in America (Florida was the most dangerous), Seattle decided to do something about it.

The new law increases sentences for injuring a person or damaging a person’s belongings if that person is homeless, making crimes committed against homeless people similar in penalty to crimes against other identifiable groups, essentially, creating a homeless “hate crime” category.

In Vancouver, where we now have more than 1200 people on the street, there is no special protection for the homeless. Fifteen months ago in Vancouver, four homeless men were stabbed by the same man who was later arrested by police. This was just one high profile case; homeless people regularly face everything from drunk jerks on the way home from the bar, to threats from another homeless person trying to steal their boots.

Do we need a special law to protect the homeless? Or just a police force that reaches out to the homeless to provide them with protection as a particularly vulnerable group? Or does all of this just entrench the idea that we’ll always have homeless on the street, and there’s nothing we can do about it but protect them from being harassed? Whatever the case, Seattle’s experiment should be very instructive for Vancouver.

I came back from visiting family for Christmas on January 5th to find a giant black military plane circling downtown Vancouver. The media quickly assured me it was just part of a “routine” mission to, um, routinely photograph routine Olympic venues.

This routine mission reminded me of what the new routine will be for Vancouver during the Olympics. It’s difficult to imagine spending $175m on anything, but VANOC is planning on spending at least that to militarize Vancouver for the Olympics, and the RCMP says that’s not nearly enough. Obviously it’s not, because the RCMP is already pissing away money watching “potential troublemakers,” with social activists likely high on the list.

Security planning around the 2010 Olympics currently includes the military, the RCMP, the Vancouver Police and CSIS being prepared for 57 possible hazards, including falling space debris. VANOC anticipates security will also include such things as Olympic traffic lanes, and that access to the entire downtown core will be restricted for the duration of the Games.

If with two years to go to the Games we’ve already got military jets taking pictures of venues as part of their “routine”, I can’t imagine what Fortress Vancouver will look like come 2010. Hope it’s worth it.

They stroll the streets and alleys adorned in their bright yellow security jackets – but they’re not Police Officers, they’re members of a private security firm hired to patrol the neighbourhood. Despite their mandate from the local business association that hired them, they have absolutely no legal authority, cannot lawfully touch another person, ask them questions, ask them for identification, or ask them to ‘move along’ when on public property. But you see, around here the law might as well be written on wet toilet paper if you don’t look like the sort of person that’s contributing to the neighbourhood’s ‘new look’. That would be why private security personnel are able to walk the streets as if they’re Police Officers and enforce ‘rules’ that are in complete violation of the Charter rights of others.

Now, some of you might view this subject as mildly unimportant, but it is anything but. If, in a bad part of town that is in the midst of gentrification, the homeless and impoverished can be ‘handled’ by private security personnel, what’s next? Better yet, who’s next?

The Vancouver Police Department exists for a reason, and the outsourcing of security by local business associations is, in truth, a massively dangerous precedent. What is even more concerning is that the authorities turn a blind eye to it and, at times, even capitalize on it.

At 9:30 tomorrow morning, Vancouver City Council is considering a proposal by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) to spend public tax dollars on private security guards downtown.

The proposal calls for funding of up to $872,000 to fund the Genesis security firm to expand a program that stations private security guards, euphemistically called Downtown Ambassadors, throughout the downtown core. Downtown Ambassadors are as well known for their help to lost tourists as their harassment of panhandlers and the homeless who set up shop in undesirable locations. The Ambassadors are accountable not to the City, but to the private businesses in the downtown core. The $872,000 would be given as a grant to the DVBIA.

Of course, this isn’t Olympic related. It’s just part of the Mayor’s campaign to clean up the streets by 2010. Mere coincidence in the dates.

At this rate, it’s not hard to understand why the City is already $20m over budget for the Olympics, and is looking at a greater than 4% property tax hike for next year. If we’ve got almost $1m in public dollars for downtown businesses to hire their own police force, surely we’ve got enough money to keep vital services open for residents of the Downtown Eastside in the lead up to 2010.

Two days ago, a UN committee came to the conclusion that the use of Tasers can be ‘a form of torture’, and thus in contravention of the U.N. Convention Against Torture…

“Use of the electronic stun devices by police has been marked with a sudden rise in deaths - including four men in the United States and two in Canada within the last week.

Canadian authorities are taking a second look at them, and in the United States, there is a wave of demands to BAN them.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture referred Friday to the use of TaserX26 weapons which Portuguese police has acquired. An expert had testified to the committee that use of the weapons had “proven risks of harm or death.”

“The use of TaserX26 weapons, provoking extreme pain, constituted a form of torture, and that in certain cases it could also cause death, as shown by several reliable studies and by certain cases that had happened after practical use,” the committee said in a statement.”

Obviously, there are those that are going to passionately disagree with the UN’s conclusion. Then again, one has to wonder how many deaths it’s going to take to compile enough evidence to sway those that believe Tasers are a useful policing tool.

This topic has, of course, been a hot one of late. Those that support the use of Tasers point to the fact that they help protect police officers in dangerous situations. I’ll not argue that the authorities confront danger on a daily basis, but the use of the Taser, and how it has been promoted, must be placed into proper context.

A gun is a serious weapon, one that is only employed in this country as a last measure, or when an officer’s life, or that of another, is in peril. Police officers understand the ramifications of using their side arms because their employment constitutes the use of deadly force, be it completely justified or not. Tasers, on the other hand, have been promoted as tools that do not have the same seriousness attached to them. Therefore, the use of a Taser is not seen as employing deadly force, but that of a controlled, non-lethal deterrent. Unfortunately, the psychology behind that results in a greater frequency of use; turning to the Taser as an initial measure rather than being a measure of last resort.

Of course, many who claim that the authorities are routinely placed in harms way, and have ever right to protect themselves in dangerous situations, commonly justify their use. And while there is no question that they do find themselves in such situations, it cannot be overlooked that that has been the case for quite some time, certainly long before the Taser became an option. In short, the Taser allows the authorities to ability to forgo thinking on their feet, of reading a situation, and simply employing force to deal with that situation. And that is a very dangerous and scary precedent.

One of the more unfortunate aspects of police work has always been the use of physicality. But does the use of the Taser now allow police officers the ability to forgo that aspect of their profession? And if so, what has the primary goal of police work become? Self-protectionism or the job?

The BC government has ordered a public inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski and the use of Tasers. From the CBC…

“Solicitor General John Les said Monday afternoon that for the sake of public safety and public confidence, there needs to be “a comprehensive and independent look at all the issues.”

The inquiry will not only examine the death of Dziekanski, but will look at the policy of Taser use by police in British Columbia.

The release of a video recording of the incident last Wednesday led to widespread condemnation of police use of the weapon.

“If B.C. and Canada are to welcome the world to our doorstep, we need to learn from this tragedy and do better,” Les said.

“There are a number of processes that have been launched to date, and we are confident they will be thorough. But it is equally important that we establish an open and integrative review,” the minister said.

“Public safety and confidence demands a comprehensive and independent look at all of these issues.”

The commissioner of the inquiry will be identified in the near future, and formal terms of reference will be drafted at that time, said Les. Once appointed, the commissioner will start the review immediately.

The commissioner will also determine the appropriate time to conduct the remainder of the inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Dzeikanski’s death, taking into account the fact that a homicide investigation is underway.”

If a homicide investigation is underway then the incident is being treated as a crime – and so it should be.

Also in Taser related news…

“A 20-year-old man died Sunday after being shot with a Taser device during a scuffle with a sheriff’s deputy in Maryland, a spokeswoman for the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said.

Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said deputies responding to a report of a fight in progress arrived at the location in Frederick, Maryland, just before 5 a.m. ET and found four people fighting.

A deputy used a Taser device on one of the men, who fell unconscious, Bailey said.

The man was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His identity was not immediately released, pending the notification of his family.

The deputy, who has not been identified publicly, has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the completion of an investigation, Bailey said.

Amnesty International has reported that, since June 2001, more than 150 people have died in the United States after being subdued with a stun gun. The organization has called for police departments to suspend use of the devices pending study of their possible risks.

Few have done so, said Amnesty, which added that more than 7,000 of the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies use the devices.”

It’s like a vacuum. On this side of the ocean people have become so tired of it that ignoring it has become the norm. On the other side of the ocean, despite claims that things are improving, instability still reigns in Iraq.

Millions have fled the country, millions more are displaced within it, it boasts the highest child mortality rate in the world, is governed by a wholly ineffectual government that still has little to no ability to act beyond the policies of those occupying the nation, it suffers from the limited availability of clean water and power in numerous parts of the country, and is rife with corruption, criminality, and the presence of external militant influences.

Trying to tally the cost of Iraqi lives has become so exhaustive that it almost seems pointless, something that lends credence to the reality that civilian deaths are probably closer to those estimates that are higher than those that are lower. It has also taken the lives of thousands of US troops, not to mention those of the British and others, and has rendered an entire generation of Iraqis traumatized, not to mention done immense damage to the US economy, military, and the reputation of the United States itself.

Just this past week, a group of pro-US Sunni militiamen were killed by US air strikes, the very same that the United States has been praising since late last spring for their decision to aid in anti-Salafi Jihadi operations. By paying them off and arming them in an attempt to help create vigilante groups in those enclaves in which predominantly Shia authorities have little regard for the Sunni population, the US military hoped to win brownie points within Sunni communities, an undertaking that has caused strife at top levels of government, especially within the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Given that the Iraqi army, which was predominantly Sunni, was disbanded after the invasion, the reconstituted Iraqi armed forces, the very same that have been promoted as needing to play the leading role in stabilizing the country to facilitate a US withdraw, is now in the hands of the Shia majority, and the affects of that reality have become exceedingly evident. The situation, and how the US has gone about attempting to quell it, is not only exceedingly dangerous, but also unbelievably ignorant given the level of sectarian tension that existed prior to the institution of such operations.

Unfortunately, such policies are not the only negatives that have produced fruit of late. Beyond the murderous actions of private military contractors, such as Blackwater, yesterday a US military convoy opened fire on a group of cars, killing civilians. Local authorities, which have claimed that six people were actually killed in the incident, including two of their own, said that the cars were fired on from behind as the convoy approached and that the attack was entirely unjustified. US authorities later commented that the incident is under investigation, but stressed, in a rather politically motivated fashion, that violence has decreased because of the surge and that deaths were down. In the same breath they also presented the reminder that while violence is down, US forces are still facing an enemy that “has both the will and capacity to conduct barbaric attacks”. Ironically, opening fire on a column of cars isn’t considered barbaric, just unfortunate.

The economic price of this folly is already being felt in the United States, which has the world’s largest annual defense budget – almost $500 billion dollars more than that of the Chinese who have the second largest annual budget.

Afghanistan

An interesting development regarding the recent suicide bombing that claimed the lives of 77 people…

“Afghan lawmakers’ bodyguards fired indiscriminately into a crowd after a suicide bombing and children bore the brunt of the onslaught, according to an internal U.N. report obtained Monday. The report calls the shooting deliberate and criminal.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said the report is one of several conflicting views inside the world body and has not been officially endorsed.

The report by the U.N. Department of Safety and Security said it was not clear how many people died in the suicide bombing and how many died from gunfire that erupted after the Nov. 6 attack in Baghlan province. Sixty-one students and six lawmakers were among those killed.

The report said as many as two-thirds of the 77 people killed and more than 100 wounded were hit by gunfire. But it also said some estimates of the number of people shot were much lower, a likely reference to the Afghan government’s estimate. It described the gunmen’s actions as crimes.”