Matthew Lee, and a group of Christians paid $75 for a permit to preach at Cambie & Hastings in downtown Vancouver at Christmas time. A passerby who disapproved of their preaching shoved Mathew down onto the sidewalk, knocking out two of his front teeth.
Matthew and the witnesses had a detailed description of the suspect for the Vancouver Police, including the fact that he was dressed in black and wearing a band across his forehead that read, "Resistance". But police seemed indifferent. They didn't take a report. They simply told Matthew to, "stay out of the vicinity." Matthew actually lives in the vicinity, in a bachelor suite in the old Woodwards building.
Matthew is a mix of Asian and native, and he said the man who assaulted him was native.
Neither myself or other bloggers know Matthew well, but he's been around for years and has never come across as aggressive. He also works for the BC Lions, looking after their uniforms.
Stephen Harper has set up an office to deal with religious persecution around the world, a move that is largely believed to be a response to recent attacks on Christians.
It's time Chief Chu sent an officer over to the Woodwards building to assure Matthew that this assault will be investigated.
Showing posts with label Vancouver Police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vancouver Police. Show all posts
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Cop with Dog Orders 20 Teenagers to the Ground
On the grassy edge of the parking lot at Terminal and Main, there is shrine by a tree to Chris Poeng, the 13 year old boy who was stabbed in that parking lot a few years ago, and died just hours later in hospital. The teens who knew him haven't forgotten him. They return every May on the anniversary of his death, and again in June when school is out.
They leave flowers and other things around a tree that has a white heart painted on it. Recently they left a basketball.
School has once again gotten out and the teens were there on Monday night. There seemed to be two groups of them. All Asian. There was friction. Some girls started yelling. A police officer pulled up with a dog. He ordered all the teens on the ground. Some started taking off but he told them to stop or he would get the dog after them.
The cop single-handedly managed to bring about 20 teens to their knees.
One witness thought he saw a few of the teens toss things away when the cop arrived. The cop had a flashlight and was searching the ground for something, maybe a weapon.
I don't want to make these teens sound bad. Most of them seem to be regular teenagers who cared about Poeng.
The police know who stabbed Poeng. It was a teenage boy but there wasn't enough evidence to lay charges. A VPD investigator later told the media that the investigation was hindered by social media savy teens who communicated with one another.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Women Arrested for Scratching and Hitting Pedestrians
A twenty-something woman was drunk late Thursday afternoon and was scratching and hitting pedestrians at Main & Hastings. She was arrested on Hastings next to the Royal Bank.
At least seven uniformed police officers, two on bicycles, arrived at the scene, along with two paramedics. There was a police paddy wagon and one ambulance.
The woman arrested was native, slim, with shoulder length brown hair.
At least seven uniformed police officers, two on bicycles, arrived at the scene, along with two paramedics. There was a police paddy wagon and one ambulance.
The woman arrested was native, slim, with shoulder length brown hair.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Young Man Stabbed at Balmoral Hotel
A 24 year old man was stabbed at the Balmoral Hotel on Hastings St. on Friday night at about 11 p.m. He was reportedly trying to break up a fight on the dance floor.
As I look at these photos of police officers at the Balmoral after the stabbing, I'm reminded of something I've been noticing over the past couple of years: female police officers seem short to me, considering that there is a large pool of big women to hire from. I mentioned that to the late Tom Green, who was caretaker of Strathcona Park and then Robson Park, and he said that was because there's a lot of nepotism at the VPD and they're hiring one another's daughters. The lower height requirement also allows them to hire more Asian officers, male and female.
On a positive note, the woman who sent me these photos reported that police didn't bother her when she was taking them. It's been a struggle, but the VPD under Chief Jim Chu are getting more respectful of the Charter right of citizens to take photos at crime scenes. In the past many VPD officers didn't want their photos taken and photographers were being harassed, even grabbed.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
For 57 Days City Hall has Avoided Giving Barred Carnegie Member Reason "in writing"
A witness who has spoken up about the use of the City of Vancouver "security" database at Carnegie to make fraudulent entries about critics, has found herself barred from Carnegie Centre for 57 days now, with no end in sight. She is not allowed to enter the building, not even the Vancouver Public Library branch there. She was notified of the barring on April 25, 2010 and immediately asked to be given the reason "in writing". Her request was instantly refused by the security guard who informed her that she was "barred", a guard who identified himself as "Ty" only after she asked his name.
There is evidence that the ban was pre-meditated and politically-motivated. From the beginning of the process of being informed that she was barred, the fact that she had been one of the Carnegie members who made complaints to Penny Ballem was referred to by Ty as the "problem." [If I obtain a copy of the statement she submitted to police, I will quote Ty's alleged comments more completely.] A few minutes later, when Ballem's name came up again, Ty reportedly claimed he didn't know who she was. Toward the end of the barring, after he had followed the woman to the bathroom, Ty revealed that the barring was a result of pressure from Penny Ballem and Gregor Robertson to clear her out of the building. "I guess, they don't want witnesses around", says the barred woman.
Police have been made aware of everything from verbal abuse to assault experienced by this woman since coming forward as a witness to fraud and other abuses involving the City's "security" database at Carnegie. A male Carnegie member recalls eating dinner with this woman at Carnegie in the spring, when a volunteer took her photograph, using a flash, without her permission -- she would later be told that the photo had been taken on instructions from Tio, a City staff cashier on duty, a fact she says Tio did not deny when she asked him about it -- and then stood yelling insults at her at the top of his lungs, grabbing the attention of the crowd of diners in the cafeteria. "Why isn't security doing anything!" the witness demanded to know. A security guard stood beside the yelling man, just inches away.
She was also at Carnegie having dinner -- she had just finished -- on the evening in April when Ty told her she was now barred from the entire building and refused her request to "put it in writing". At a later point, she asked that he at least allow her to read the "Incident Report" so that she could counter false statements. He refused. He told her that he did not need input from her. She told him she wished to sit down and write her own incident report about what she was experiencing, but he refused, ordering her out of the building. Such biased practices -- including outright fraud -- had been previously brought to the attention of Penny Ballem, once during a meeting in January at City Hall. The Mayor was also made aware of these practices.
Shortly after being barred, the barred woman mailed a request to City Hall and requested, under the Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act, a copy of the incident report and a copy of entries made in the City's electronic "security" database. She then telephoned the Freedom of Information office twice to see if they had received it. She spoke to a male assistant to manager Paul Hancock. The assistant told her on April 29th that he had finally received her letter. She explained that she needed a copy of the incident report quickly so that she could appeal the barring; she asked him to keep in mind that for every day that passed without this Incident Report, she was denied access to City Services in her neighbourhood, such as the public library at Carnegie. She told him that there should be no reason for extensive delay in getting the incident report to her, as it was easily retrievable from the Incident Report binder which sits on the front reception desk at Carnegie for all staff to review. The assistant reviewed her request letter and said it seemed straight forward to him and he didn't anticipate it taking long. He said he would "send it out" that day.
Shortly after speaking to the assistant, the banned woman received a letter dated April 30th from Paul Hancock, Manager, Corporate Information & Privacy, City Clerk's Office. Hancock wrote:
"This will acknowledge receipt of your request dated April 26, 2010. . . for a copy of an incident report written about you by Ty, a security person at Carnegie Centre at approximately 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 25, 2010."
"Under the Act, we have thirty (30) business days to respond to freedom of information requests. The City received your request on April 29, 2010 so we are required to respond by June 11. 2010 at the latest."
I ran into her on Sunday, June 20th, at Sunrise market and she said she had not received it. Even if the City had mailed the Incident Report on the last possible day, June 11th, she would have had it last week as Vancouver has over night delivery.
Hancock ended his April 30th letter to her with,
"We understand that this is an urgent matter for you so we will do our best to expedite this request for you."
That was 52 days ago, as of Sunday.
There is evidence that the ban was pre-meditated and politically-motivated. From the beginning of the process of being informed that she was barred, the fact that she had been one of the Carnegie members who made complaints to Penny Ballem was referred to by Ty as the "problem." [If I obtain a copy of the statement she submitted to police, I will quote Ty's alleged comments more completely.] A few minutes later, when Ballem's name came up again, Ty reportedly claimed he didn't know who she was. Toward the end of the barring, after he had followed the woman to the bathroom, Ty revealed that the barring was a result of pressure from Penny Ballem and Gregor Robertson to clear her out of the building. "I guess, they don't want witnesses around", says the barred woman.
Police have been made aware of everything from verbal abuse to assault experienced by this woman since coming forward as a witness to fraud and other abuses involving the City's "security" database at Carnegie. A male Carnegie member recalls eating dinner with this woman at Carnegie in the spring, when a volunteer took her photograph, using a flash, without her permission -- she would later be told that the photo had been taken on instructions from Tio, a City staff cashier on duty, a fact she says Tio did not deny when she asked him about it -- and then stood yelling insults at her at the top of his lungs, grabbing the attention of the crowd of diners in the cafeteria. "Why isn't security doing anything!" the witness demanded to know. A security guard stood beside the yelling man, just inches away.
She was also at Carnegie having dinner -- she had just finished -- on the evening in April when Ty told her she was now barred from the entire building and refused her request to "put it in writing". At a later point, she asked that he at least allow her to read the "Incident Report" so that she could counter false statements. He refused. He told her that he did not need input from her. She told him she wished to sit down and write her own incident report about what she was experiencing, but he refused, ordering her out of the building. Such biased practices -- including outright fraud -- had been previously brought to the attention of Penny Ballem, once during a meeting in January at City Hall. The Mayor was also made aware of these practices.
Shortly after being barred, the barred woman mailed a request to City Hall and requested, under the Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act, a copy of the incident report and a copy of entries made in the City's electronic "security" database. She then telephoned the Freedom of Information office twice to see if they had received it. She spoke to a male assistant to manager Paul Hancock. The assistant told her on April 29th that he had finally received her letter. She explained that she needed a copy of the incident report quickly so that she could appeal the barring; she asked him to keep in mind that for every day that passed without this Incident Report, she was denied access to City Services in her neighbourhood, such as the public library at Carnegie. She told him that there should be no reason for extensive delay in getting the incident report to her, as it was easily retrievable from the Incident Report binder which sits on the front reception desk at Carnegie for all staff to review. The assistant reviewed her request letter and said it seemed straight forward to him and he didn't anticipate it taking long. He said he would "send it out" that day.
Shortly after speaking to the assistant, the banned woman received a letter dated April 30th from Paul Hancock, Manager, Corporate Information & Privacy, City Clerk's Office. Hancock wrote:
"This will acknowledge receipt of your request dated April 26, 2010. . . for a copy of an incident report written about you by Ty, a security person at Carnegie Centre at approximately 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 25, 2010."
"Under the Act, we have thirty (30) business days to respond to freedom of information requests. The City received your request on April 29, 2010 so we are required to respond by June 11. 2010 at the latest."
I ran into her on Sunday, June 20th, at Sunrise market and she said she had not received it. Even if the City had mailed the Incident Report on the last possible day, June 11th, she would have had it last week as Vancouver has over night delivery.
Hancock ended his April 30th letter to her with,
"We understand that this is an urgent matter for you so we will do our best to expedite this request for you."
That was 52 days ago, as of Sunday.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Downtown Eastsider who Threatened President Obama and Sarah Palin Arrested Again and Released Again
Photo: George C. asked an acquaintance to take this photo of him in front of the UBC Learning Exchange on the Downtown Eastside
It’s the second time George C. has been arrested for issuing threats and it’s the second time his legal aid lawyer has gotten him released onto the street.
Over the past year, George, a homeless man, has been making threatening phone calls and sending threatening letters to President Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, an FBI agent with a fictitious name, the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS). George claims to be an FBI agent, and often wears a t-shirt with FBI written in gigantic white letters on the front, and handcuffs on the back of his pants.
George was first arrested by Vancouver Police for threats in the summer of 2009. He spent a couple of months in Colony Farms. "What’s Colony Farms?", I asked, when I bumped into him on Main St. in September, just after he had been released. "Colony Farms for the Criminally Insane," he responded, without a hint of embarrassment. He said he had actually been in the institution to observe the staff. "You should have seen it," he said. "It was like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest." He liked his psychiatrist though, "I had a nice doctor. He was Jewish; he looked like Dustin Hoffman."
"Did they drug you?", I asked, noticing that his eyes were bright and alert, not like those of a person on medication. "They tried that", he said, "but my lawyer wouldn’t let them".
In the months before his first arrest, George had pulled a handwritten letter from the shopping cart — "my carriage", he calls it — in which he pushed his belongings, a letter with a Kinko’s fax receipt stapled to it, that he had sent to President Obama at the White House. He pointed to a scrawled sentence, "You’re dead." Like others he showed the letters to, I told him that he couldn’t threaten people, that he could go to jail for this. He assured me he was immune from prosecution. "I’m George Washington incarnate."
Another homeless man pointed out that George actually signed the letters with his own name.
When George wasn’t sending letters, he was making threatening phone calls from public phones, like one at the University of British Columbia Learning Exchange storefront on the Downtown Eastside. He would phone CSIS and threaten to bomb them. He said CSIS phoned back once and talked to the staff who told him to stop.
Last summer when I ran into George at Burger King where he regularly had coffee, I asked why he had been threatening Sarah Palin. "I thought you liked her", I said, recalling that he had showed me the "Sarah Palin glasses" he had purchased. "I do," he said, but had nonetheless called her office – she was governor at the time — and threatened that she would be shot if she didn’t put all of the prisoners in Alaska in diapers.
After being released from Colony Farms in September, George continued his practice of making threatening phone calls. He had a phone card which allowed him to make long distance phone calls.
Recently, George went beyond phone calls and letters and sent a package to Obama at the White House, according to a friend who was with him when he was arrested for the second time in January 2010. "What was in the package?", I asked. "Oh, I don’t know, soda or something," his friend said, shaking his head. This friend, like other friends and acquaintances of George on the Downtown Eastside, constantly told him not to make threats, that it’s illegal, that he could end up back in the mental hospital. "You could end up like Francis Farmer," one woman acquaintance told him. "Who's Francis Farmer," he asked.
In addition to politicians, George also recently made threatening phone calls to the office of the U.S. prosecutor in the case of the "Prince of Pot", Marc Emery. Emery will serve a 5 yr. prison sentence in the U.S. for operating a mail order business selling marijuana seeds across the border. After being threatened once, the office secretary turned on the voice mail tape and after the beep, George left his message.
The friend who was with George on or about Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 when he was arrested for the second time, says he noticed something strange that day. "We came out of the Army & Navy [Department store] and I saw police cars everywhere, ghost cars and marked cars" (although there had been an increased police presence on the Downtown Eastside in the lead up to the Olympics.) George stopped at the TD–Canada Trust bank nearby to ask the manager if he could use the phone. He had previously used the TD Bank phone to make threatening phone calls. The friend watched as the manager refused the request, but George continued to try to persuade him. "They talked for about 15 minutes." At one point, the manager excused himself for a moment. George’s friend then went outside to wait; he noticed several police cars going by. "I saw a ghost car pull up with four cops in it; I thought that was strange, four in one car."
Two of the plain clothed officers got out of the car and walked into the bank. They posed as customers, standing in front of the tellers. One of them was listening to George talking to the manager, and then nudged the other. The manager rapped his fingers on the desk, looking at the officers, nodding his head in George’s direction.
When George left the bank, the two officers followed him. They told his friend to stay back and they arrested George. "They took his handcuffs from his back and handcuffed him," said his friend. They handcuffed him with his own handcuffs?, I asked in disbelief. "Yes." Are you sure they used his own handcuffs?, I asked again. "Yes," the friend insisted, "I was standing there watching; they took them from his back." But the police wouldn’t have the key for that set of handcuffs, I pointed out. "George would have it", his friend retorted.
One of the cops, the lead one, appeared particularly "eager", according to George’s friend, "like he wanted to move up in the ranks." The other one acted more "distracted", the way a person would act when "it’s almost time to get off work." When the friend moved closer to get a badge number, one of the officer’s scolded, "I told you to stand back. Don’t you understand good English?"
George asked his friend to take his shopping cart, telling him where to hide it. One of the police officers said, "Yeah, take it." [The friend pushed the shopping cart up Main St. in the direction of the spot George had instructed him to leave it, but had to detour because he saw a massive swarm of police officers coming in his direction, apparently engaged in an Olympic security training exercise. "I thought they would make me part of their exercise and go through the cart," he said. The shopping cart with George’s belongings later disappeared from the place he had left it.]
George’s friend recalled hearing the officers repeatedly use the term, "terrorist" during the arrest. He heard one of them use it twice; the other one once. "George, a terrorist? Give me a break", his friend had called out to the cops, feigning laughter. But he was worried about his friend, saying later that once you’re considered a terrorist, you don’t get out, and the Americans may want him extradited. "He’ll never get out."
George is out.
An acquaintance of George saw him at Pender and Main St. in the Chinatown district of the Downtown Eastside on Monday. George told him that he had been arrested for issuing threats, that he had spent 9 days in the North Fraser jail in Coquitlam. George maintained that he had to threaten politicians as they had put microchips in his brain. He was released on $3,000 bail on his own recognizance and is scheduled to appear in court. He had the same legal aid lawyer as he had after the first arrest.
The acquaintance asked George if what he’d heard was true, if the police had cuffed him with his own handcuffs. George wouldn’t answer, the acquaintance said. "I guess he was embarrassed."
George was scheduled to appear in the new "Community Court" in the Downtown Eastside, an alternative court modeled on one in New York state. The Community Court was set up last year to intervene in the lives of people who chronically cycle from the street to jail and back to the street, allowing them to opt for treatment or training rather than doing a jail sentence. If they fail to follow through on an agreed upon plan of treatment or training, they go to jail.
Things must have gone well for George at Community Court as an acquaintance saw him the other day on the Downtown Eastside.
It’s the second time George C. has been arrested for issuing threats and it’s the second time his legal aid lawyer has gotten him released onto the street.
Over the past year, George, a homeless man, has been making threatening phone calls and sending threatening letters to President Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, an FBI agent with a fictitious name, the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS). George claims to be an FBI agent, and often wears a t-shirt with FBI written in gigantic white letters on the front, and handcuffs on the back of his pants.
George was first arrested by Vancouver Police for threats in the summer of 2009. He spent a couple of months in Colony Farms. "What’s Colony Farms?", I asked, when I bumped into him on Main St. in September, just after he had been released. "Colony Farms for the Criminally Insane," he responded, without a hint of embarrassment. He said he had actually been in the institution to observe the staff. "You should have seen it," he said. "It was like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest." He liked his psychiatrist though, "I had a nice doctor. He was Jewish; he looked like Dustin Hoffman."
"Did they drug you?", I asked, noticing that his eyes were bright and alert, not like those of a person on medication. "They tried that", he said, "but my lawyer wouldn’t let them".
In the months before his first arrest, George had pulled a handwritten letter from the shopping cart — "my carriage", he calls it — in which he pushed his belongings, a letter with a Kinko’s fax receipt stapled to it, that he had sent to President Obama at the White House. He pointed to a scrawled sentence, "You’re dead." Like others he showed the letters to, I told him that he couldn’t threaten people, that he could go to jail for this. He assured me he was immune from prosecution. "I’m George Washington incarnate."
Another homeless man pointed out that George actually signed the letters with his own name.
When George wasn’t sending letters, he was making threatening phone calls from public phones, like one at the University of British Columbia Learning Exchange storefront on the Downtown Eastside. He would phone CSIS and threaten to bomb them. He said CSIS phoned back once and talked to the staff who told him to stop.
Last summer when I ran into George at Burger King where he regularly had coffee, I asked why he had been threatening Sarah Palin. "I thought you liked her", I said, recalling that he had showed me the "Sarah Palin glasses" he had purchased. "I do," he said, but had nonetheless called her office – she was governor at the time — and threatened that she would be shot if she didn’t put all of the prisoners in Alaska in diapers.
After being released from Colony Farms in September, George continued his practice of making threatening phone calls. He had a phone card which allowed him to make long distance phone calls.
Recently, George went beyond phone calls and letters and sent a package to Obama at the White House, according to a friend who was with him when he was arrested for the second time in January 2010. "What was in the package?", I asked. "Oh, I don’t know, soda or something," his friend said, shaking his head. This friend, like other friends and acquaintances of George on the Downtown Eastside, constantly told him not to make threats, that it’s illegal, that he could end up back in the mental hospital. "You could end up like Francis Farmer," one woman acquaintance told him. "Who's Francis Farmer," he asked.
In addition to politicians, George also recently made threatening phone calls to the office of the U.S. prosecutor in the case of the "Prince of Pot", Marc Emery. Emery will serve a 5 yr. prison sentence in the U.S. for operating a mail order business selling marijuana seeds across the border. After being threatened once, the office secretary turned on the voice mail tape and after the beep, George left his message.
The friend who was with George on or about Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 when he was arrested for the second time, says he noticed something strange that day. "We came out of the Army & Navy [Department store] and I saw police cars everywhere, ghost cars and marked cars" (although there had been an increased police presence on the Downtown Eastside in the lead up to the Olympics.) George stopped at the TD–Canada Trust bank nearby to ask the manager if he could use the phone. He had previously used the TD Bank phone to make threatening phone calls. The friend watched as the manager refused the request, but George continued to try to persuade him. "They talked for about 15 minutes." At one point, the manager excused himself for a moment. George’s friend then went outside to wait; he noticed several police cars going by. "I saw a ghost car pull up with four cops in it; I thought that was strange, four in one car."
Two of the plain clothed officers got out of the car and walked into the bank. They posed as customers, standing in front of the tellers. One of them was listening to George talking to the manager, and then nudged the other. The manager rapped his fingers on the desk, looking at the officers, nodding his head in George’s direction.
When George left the bank, the two officers followed him. They told his friend to stay back and they arrested George. "They took his handcuffs from his back and handcuffed him," said his friend. They handcuffed him with his own handcuffs?, I asked in disbelief. "Yes." Are you sure they used his own handcuffs?, I asked again. "Yes," the friend insisted, "I was standing there watching; they took them from his back." But the police wouldn’t have the key for that set of handcuffs, I pointed out. "George would have it", his friend retorted.
One of the cops, the lead one, appeared particularly "eager", according to George’s friend, "like he wanted to move up in the ranks." The other one acted more "distracted", the way a person would act when "it’s almost time to get off work." When the friend moved closer to get a badge number, one of the officer’s scolded, "I told you to stand back. Don’t you understand good English?"
George asked his friend to take his shopping cart, telling him where to hide it. One of the police officers said, "Yeah, take it." [The friend pushed the shopping cart up Main St. in the direction of the spot George had instructed him to leave it, but had to detour because he saw a massive swarm of police officers coming in his direction, apparently engaged in an Olympic security training exercise. "I thought they would make me part of their exercise and go through the cart," he said. The shopping cart with George’s belongings later disappeared from the place he had left it.]
George’s friend recalled hearing the officers repeatedly use the term, "terrorist" during the arrest. He heard one of them use it twice; the other one once. "George, a terrorist? Give me a break", his friend had called out to the cops, feigning laughter. But he was worried about his friend, saying later that once you’re considered a terrorist, you don’t get out, and the Americans may want him extradited. "He’ll never get out."
George is out.
An acquaintance of George saw him at Pender and Main St. in the Chinatown district of the Downtown Eastside on Monday. George told him that he had been arrested for issuing threats, that he had spent 9 days in the North Fraser jail in Coquitlam. George maintained that he had to threaten politicians as they had put microchips in his brain. He was released on $3,000 bail on his own recognizance and is scheduled to appear in court. He had the same legal aid lawyer as he had after the first arrest.
The acquaintance asked George if what he’d heard was true, if the police had cuffed him with his own handcuffs. George wouldn’t answer, the acquaintance said. "I guess he was embarrassed."
George was scheduled to appear in the new "Community Court" in the Downtown Eastside, an alternative court modeled on one in New York state. The Community Court was set up last year to intervene in the lives of people who chronically cycle from the street to jail and back to the street, allowing them to opt for treatment or training rather than doing a jail sentence. If they fail to follow through on an agreed upon plan of treatment or training, they go to jail.
Things must have gone well for George at Community Court as an acquaintance saw him the other day on the Downtown Eastside.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Ambush of Cops in a Coffee Shop could happen in Vancouver
Long before the ambush and execution of four police officers in Tacoma on Sunday, it had crossed my mind that such a thing could happen in Vancouver. I thought of it around Christmas last year when I saw about 8 uniforms sitting in Waves coffee shop on Hastings at Richards. There were so many of them, they pulled two or three tables together.
I don't often see that many cops having coffee together, although I saw about six, including a couple of under-covers, having coffee in Waves at Main & 10th last summer. I remember thinking, if you're "under cover" why would you announce to the public that you're a cop by sitting with a bunch of uniforms on your coffee break. A Downtown Eastsider told me how to recognize under covers wearing their "colours of the day".
Anyway, it occurred to me that there might be an element of risk for a bunch of cops to sit huddled together in Waves coffee shop. The VPD complain to the media that they are put at risk by people who want to commit "suicide by cop", so it wouldn't be much of stretch to think of suicide by cop in a coffee shop. But I guess it's a risk they're willing to take. (The VPD wear bullet-proof vests but so did the Tacoma cops executed in the coffee shop.)
When the four officers were shot in Tacoma, it was pointed out in the news that in many places in the U.S., police are forbidden to sit in groups in coffee shops.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Don't Cut Cops on Street, Cut VPD Mega Media Relations Department, says Eby
The Vancouver Police have announced they will avoid filling 35 positions due to the City's budget shortfall. That will mean 35 fewer constables on the street and longer response times.
David Eby of the BC Civil Liberties Association says there is no need for cuts to result in fewer constables on the street. Eby told CBC Radio last week that the Vancouver Police Department could first look at cutting their Media Relations department which is bigger than that of the City of Vancouver. The VPD media relations department, Eby said, is twice the size of the public relations departments in other organizations their size. Eby also pointed out that the VPD has an executive with an average salary of $182,000, another place that could withstand cuts.
I would add one thing: the reason the VPD needs such a monstrous media relations department is that they promote officers to six figure executive positions despite records of unprofessional and/or criminal conduct, officers who are at risk of re-offending. Take Warren Lemcke. There is documented evidence linking Lemcke to a political psychiatry scam, involving fraud and later destruction of evidence. After the evidence surfaced, Lemcke was allowed to personally decide whether the investigation into himself would proceed. He decided to cancel it. He was then promoted twice, first to Inspector and then to Superintendent. He's now well ensconced in the VPD Six Figure Club. He's even paraded in front of media cameras as head of "Con Air".
It's this constant covering for cops with questionable records by the VPD that requires a mega 'spin' department.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Vancouver Police Stop Fundraising for United Way, a Year after Giving them a Harley
Photo: This photo was taken when a swarm of police officers on motorbikes stopped on Main St. What was the incident? They had to pick up their order from the SUBmarine sandwich shop. Two officers put the boxes of food in the trunk of a police car travelling with the motorcycles.
Vancouver Police have decided not to fund raise for United Way this year.
Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry were informed of this decision after writing to the Vancouver Police Board on Sept. 22/09 requesting that they put an end to Vancouver Police fundraising for United Way. Initially, COPP received an email from Rachelle Radiuk, Executive Director of the Police Board, stating that the request would be discussed in camera by the Police Board at their next meeting on October 21, 2009. But on Thursday, October 1, 2009, COPP received a second email from Radiuk stating:“I just received a copy of a letter sent from the Vancouver Police Union to the United Way confirming that the Union would NOT be participating in United Way fundraising this year as they will be promoting their own charity….”
For years, COPP has been criticizing the conflict of interest inherent in the role of Vancouver Police as a fundraising arm of a private charitable organization which they could be called upon at any time to investigate. United Way has even gotten onto the police payroll in that officers can opt for payroll deductions for United Way. COPP alleges that this conflict of interest relationship has resulted in police employing tactics including fabrication of evidence, illicit accessing of medical records, and political psychiatry, while under pressure from United Way to deter criticism.
Conflict of interest in the VPD's relationship with United Way was in evidence as recently as last year as COPP continued efforts to have this illegal activity addressed. In 2008, one of Chief Chu's aids called such efforts "vindictive" in a letter to a COPP member, a response to a letter addressed specifically to Chief Chu. At the same time, Chief Chu was arranging to give a decommissioned VPD Harley-Davidson motorcycle to United Way as a gift. City records show that the Chief personally lobbied the City to get this gift approved.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Chief Chu, Don't Cancel Tickets Issued to Sidewalk Bicyclists
Just when the VPD finally did something to deter bicycling on the sidewalk, Downtown Eastside activists are lobbying the VPD to cancel tickets for that and other "nuisance" offences such as jaywalking and illegal street vending.
Activists claim the VPD unfairly targeted the Downtown Eastside last winter for ticketing. They're probably right. I had never seen a bicylist on the sidewalk ticketed until I saw it on March 17, 2009 at Abbott & Carroll. I was so surprised that I stopped to snap the above photo of it. I heard a male cop tell the male bicyclist that he was getting a ticket of $109 for riding on the sidewalk and $29 for riding without a helmet.
VPD Chief Jim Chu denies police specifically targeted the Downtown Eastside for ticketing last winter, but he's promising a decision on the request for cancellations will be made by the next police board meeting July 15th.
Chief Chu, don't cancel tickets issued to sidewalk bicyclists.
Instead, step up ticketing of bicyclists on sidewalks in other neighbourhoods, especially up Main St. where the bicyclists ride fast, sometimes directly into crowds of people waiting for the bus at rush hour. Bicylists on the sidewalk are a real menace. What always amazes me as I walk up Main St. by the sky train station is how they gear up with helmets -- helmets are less common on the Downtown Eastside -- and other equipment so that they are safe as they weave around the spines of pedestrians.
One reason activists say the tickets should be cancelled is that it takes people 11 months to maneouver through the court system. No mention of the pedestrian who manoeuvers through a lifetime with a spinal injury.
I'm tired of sidewalk cylists hiding behind a veil of green. They're dangerous.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
2608 filled with Hate
There is a cop with white blond hair, in his early twenties, who is often standing around outside Carnegie. Mark my words. He's trouble. I made a point of getting his number: 2608.
He's got an attitude problem. He talks to people with a "You're shit" tone. When he could be neutral in the way he speaks to somebody, he power trips. He's never bothered me when I walk by that corner but I notice him all the time, because he's such a power tripping peacock. Ask me who else is policing outside Carnegie and I couldn't tell you, I couldn't even describe them, because they don't stand out like this guy with the white blond hair and the major attitude.
Here's an example: A young native guy was standing in front of Carnegie near the cross walk and this cop goes up to him and sticks his nose just inches from the native guy's nose and asks in an aggressive "Fcuk you" tone, "What are you doing here!!?". He fired a battery of questions at the native, all with a fcuk you tone, but the native guy persisently acted deferential. The cop didn't seem to have anything on the native guy; he and his fellow partner didn't search him. The blond cop eventually walked away and the young native guy kept standing there. The native guy was no doubt into something if he was standing outside Carnegie but the cops have all the power, they don't have to treat him in a way that could get a rise out of him. Nathan, who used to run a Philosopher's Cafe at Carnegie, once said that when you're fcuking with somebody, it's best to be polite. Then he laughed.
Sooner or later, #2608 is going to become an embarrassment to the VPD.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Speeding Driver Loses Lottery
High speed appears to have been a factor in a two car accident beside the Shell station at Main & 2nd Ave. at about 11:00 p.m. Thursday night.
“They were definitely going fast, very fast”, said Gafar, the cashier inside the Shell station who was serving a customer when he heard the crash. It is unclear whether both vehicles were traveling at high speed though.
“They had to cut him out,” Gafar said, pointing to the open flap on the hood of the red car which lay on its side.
Gafar said he overheard one of the cops say, “We were looking for him.”
Gafar said there wasn't just one noise upon impact but a long sequence of loud noises. “I heard ‘Pow!, Pow!, Pow!, Pow!, Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!” Gafar estimated that these noises had continued “for one or two minutes”. He asked his customer what had happened. The customer’s first response was, “Maybe the bus crashed.” But Gafar said they soon realized that the cars were right outside the window of the store.“They were both unconscious,” said Gafar, who saw one victim removed from the red car on it’s side and another removed from a black car sitting right side up a few meters up the street.
Gafar asked one of the cops about the victim in the red car. “Is he dead?” The cop responded, “We’re working on him.”
Gafar said the accident could have been much worse. He pointed to the gas tanks outside the convenience store where there is a constant flow of people driving or walking through.
Gafar, an immigrant who speaks competent English, emphasized that it was his impression that there had been a "chase" going on when the accident occurred.
A male bystander said, "I think one of the wheels on the car is missing."Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Your Tax Dollars at Rest
Unmarked police car parked across from the Vancouver Police station on Main St. near Hastings.
Christmas night, Dec. 25
Boxing Day as it snowed.
Boxing Day night as it rained.Sunday, December 14, 2008
Vancouver Police Crash in Real Life during Filming of Halle Berry Movie
A cop in an unmarked vehicle was doing a U-turn at roughly 7:30 this evening in the middle of the 100 block Hastings St., and was struck by the car behind. That's what Marie, a young aboriginal woman with long dark hair walking along Hastings St., said.
"I saw the whole thing," Marie remarked. "It was the cop's fault."
There were lots of people on the sidewalk, some coming and going outside Insite, the supervised drug fixing site and apres fix cafe. One guy gazing at the crash site joked, "It's hard to know what's part of the movie." I didn't see filming close to the crash but police had Hastings St. blocked off from Main St. to Carroll. I don't know if it was blocked off at the time of the crash. When I walked up Hastings again a little after 10 p.m., filming with Halle Berry was going on at Columbia and Hastings using sixties era cars.
The photographer who passed the photos along to us reports that when she was taking photographs, a young, tall, white male cop in a yellow jacket strutted over to her and said, "Technically I could seize your camera as evidence." The photographer thought he was trying to tell her in a coded way to stop taking photographs. "I have a Charter right to take photographs", she responded politely. He repeated, "I just want you to know that technically I could seize your camera as evidence." Then she held up her camera to take a photo which would include him. See how fast he turned around.
Standing on the sidewalk later, she said to a friend, "I thought he was threatening me." Her friend responded, "He was."
Friday, October 17, 2008
Man Stabbed in Eye at Savoy Pub
Photo above: A Vancouver Police officer guards the door of the Savoy Pub this afternoon.A man was reportedly stabbed in the eye this afternoon at the Savoy Pub on Hasting St., just east of Main & Hastings.
According to a witness, police took everybody out of the pub, stopping traffic to get them across the street to the police station for questioning.
The Savoy Pub is close to Main & Hastings, seen in the background.
Photo above: Vancouver Police officer guarding door of Savoy Pub this afternoon chats with a passerby. He was turning people away as they arrived to enter the pub.Thursday, July 3, 2008
Woman "Beaten Up" at No. 5 Orange
A woman was assaulted at the No. 5 Orange Showroom Pub on Wednesday night around 11:15 p.m. A twenty-something male witness standing on the sidewalk outside the No. 5 at Main & Powell St. on the Downtown Eastside said the woman had been "beaten up". A female standing with him agreed, saying, "I know her".Eight to ten police cars, a few of them unmarked, along with a police paddy wagon were parked outside the No. 5 after the incident. One of the police vehicles was a black SUV that a Downtown Eastside resident said he recognized as belonging to the Gang Unit. He also said he had seen one officer at the scene carrying "a bean bag gun". The Gang Unit has identified the No. 5 Orange as an establishment that they keep an eye on.
Police officer speaks to the male suspect in the paddy wagon.
The alleged victim was sitting in the back of this police car "giving a statement" to police, according to a man standing on the sidewalk with a woman who said she knew the victim.
The female police officer with blond hair holding a plastic bag pictured above walked over to the photographer and said politely, "You can't take pictures here", when the photographer was standing on the sidewalk taking a shot of the paddy wagon with the open door. That photo is posted above. There was no yellow tape around the area and the photographer was standing about six feet back on the sidewalk where pedestrians were allowed to walk freely. The photographer then moved to other areas of the scene to take photos and the officer didn't interfere.
Several police officers search the suspect's vehicle in the No. 5 Orange parking lot.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Emergency Response Team Enters Jubilee Rooms
The Vancouver Police Emergency Response Team entered Jubilee Rooms at 235 Main St. on the Downtown Eastside this Good Friday evening. Eighteen cops were in the building, the desk clerk told tenants standing outside. Jubilee Rooms, formerly known as New Zealand Rooms is on Main St., between Cordova and Powell St., across from the courthouse.
A man "somehow got a key" to the place, a witness said. "That place is locked 24 hours a day. They can't figure out how he got a key." He managed to get past the male desk clerk and beat up his ex-girlfriend who lives there. The desk clerk called the police.
The man then barricaded himself in the washroom on the 1st floor. A male cop on a cell phone on the scene said the man apparently had a long knife.
There were numerous police vehicles outside the Jubilee: two squad cars, three ghost cars, an SUV. There were also two ambulances. Ambulance attendants placed a stretcher near the door of the Jubillee. One of the ambulance attendants was taking photographs.
Police brought out the ex-girlfriend. She was holding her hand and wrist up, as though she were favoring them. "Maybe her wrist got twisted," a witness speculated. Police put her in the back of the squad car. She was not handcuffed. "She wasn't crying," says a witness, "but she did look a bit shocked." A witness who arrived at this point says this was about 5:50 p.m. and the incident "must have happened just before that." It would not end until 7:55 p.m.
A cop said on his cell phone that the suspect had threatened suicide. He had said he wanted to kill himself and had been thinking about it for a while.
A large white truck arrived carrying Emergency Response Team equipment in the back. Some police officers went to the trunks of their cars and suited up with body armour, others went to the white truck and suited up. A driver and passenger got out of the white truck and entered the building with guns that, according to a witness, "resembled miniature AK47s". "Are those bean bag guns?", a witness asked a female cop passing by on horseback and chatting with people on the street. She said they were, adding that police try to avoid using lethal force when possible.
"You should have seen the arsenol!", says a witness, "when the cops came back down [the stairs of the building] and they put all their weapons on the cars." The cops were laughing and joking as they came out of the Jubilee, possibly out of relief said the witness.
The suspect was brought out alive.
Police brought out the ex-girlfriend. She was holding her hand and wrist up, as though she were favoring them. "Maybe her wrist got twisted," a witness speculated. Police put her in the back of the squad car. She was not handcuffed. "She wasn't crying," says a witness, "but she did look a bit shocked." A witness who arrived at this point says this was about 5:50 p.m. and the incident "must have happened just before that." It would not end until 7:55 p.m.
A cop said on his cell phone that the suspect had threatened suicide. He had said he wanted to kill himself and had been thinking about it for a while.
A large white truck arrived carrying Emergency Response Team equipment in the back. Some police officers went to the trunks of their cars and suited up with body armour, others went to the white truck and suited up. A driver and passenger got out of the white truck and entered the building with guns that, according to a witness, "resembled miniature AK47s". "Are those bean bag guns?", a witness asked a female cop passing by on horseback and chatting with people on the street. She said they were, adding that police try to avoid using lethal force when possible.
"You should have seen the arsenol!", says a witness, "when the cops came back down [the stairs of the building] and they put all their weapons on the cars." The cops were laughing and joking as they came out of the Jubilee, possibly out of relief said the witness.
The suspect was brought out alive.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Who is on Welfare?
Today is welfare day and five cops -- four uniforms and one under cover -- were standing around laughing and shootin' the breeze in front of Pathways Employment Center at Main & Hastings. The under cover waved at the photographer when he noticed the camera pointed at him. The photographer says the cops were standing around for at least half an hour. When she arrived at Pathways a little after 3 p.m. they were there, and when she looked out the window at almost 3:30, they were still there.
But a Carnegie member says the cops were there for longer than half an hour. "I figure a good hour," he says. He repeatedly noticed the cops as he did his errands this welfare day. He went to the Quest food store on Hastings just east of Main, browsed around and bought some chicken. Then he went to the TD bank on Main St. near Hastings, then on to VanCity on Pender St. Then he went to Carnegie Center at Main & Hastings and had a bowl of soup. Then he dropped in briefly to Pathways to chat with friends and went on to the Empress Hotel, just meters from where the cops were standing, in search of another friend. Then he went back to the Quest food store, then home on Powell where he stayed for about 15 minutes feeding his animals, etc. On the way back, he dropped off at another social housing building and buzzed a friend who wasn't home. Then he came back to Carnegie. "The cops were still there", he says.
One observer said it was possible that a shift change was occurring. Whatever, it is not uncommon to see cops standing around schmoozing on the Downtown Eastside. Last year, I was walking from Chinatown to Main & Hastings and saw a couple of cops arrive and pull a guy off a bus. Then four back up cops arrived, but the suspect was already lying on the ground handcuffed. Afterwards the six cops stood around chatting for 15 or 20 minutes. Of course it's human nature to feel the need to debrief, but this down time has to be considered when the police union and Chief argue for more money to hire more officers because they are run off their feet.
Before submitting the above photo to the DTES Enquirer, the photographer asked a guy at Carnegie, not entirely jokingly, "Do you think [the cops] will kill me?". The guy laughed and said, "No."
The Vancouver cops do deserve praise for their performance over the past week. They quickly apprehended the man suspected of pumping a few bullets into the head of Nova Scotian, Steve Seymour, at Pigeon Park on Friday night.
Despite the many competent cops, though, the public is losing confidence in the VPD due to their persistent covering for cops against whom there is clear evidence of wrong doing. An example is Sergeant Garry Lester, whose documented involvement in "political psychiatry" in his role as VPD School Liaison and the alleged cover-up by the VSB and the VPD has been highly destructive. It has resulted in Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry organizing, as a last resort, an international boycott of diplomas issued by the Vancouver School Board.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Gang Violence Task Force at No. 5 Orange Again Last Night
Last night, the Gang Violence Task Force was once again at the No. 5 Orange strip bar at Main & Powell St. They were also spotted there the Sunday before last. And once previous to that too. When the Task Force was first set up in 2006 after a series of brazen gang shootings, a member told the media that they would be 'in the faces' of gang members, showing up at places they hang out.
The officers seemed startled when the camera flash went off, says the photographer, "but they were friendly". The white male to the right asked where the photos would be posted. The photographer told him that one of the sites would be, "NowPublic".
Monday, October 29, 2007
Fraudulent Evidence Found In United Way Police Complaint
A Vancouver woman feels upset every time she sees United Way Campaign commercials claiming that donations will be used to promote “respect” in the community. If United Way values respect, she says, why haven’t they helped get fake evidence attached to her name in police files expunged. The fake evidence, she says, appears in a Vancouver Police report dated Dec. 18, 2002, written after Ron Dumouchelle, then Executive Director of United Way of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland lodged a police complaint against her.
Dumouchelle wanted police to pressure the Vancouver woman -- we'll call her “the whistleblower” -- to suppress a Report on United Way to which she and others had contributed and were making available to major donors. Dumouchelle stated in an internal document dated the week police were called that if donors got even a “whiff” of this report, donations to United Way could be affected.
Even after Constable J.P. St. Amant admitted in his police report that he and Dumouchelle were aware that this case was “not a criminal matter” but a civil matter, the police report reveals that Dumouchelle continued to pressure police to make contact with the whistleblower.
The whistleblower believes that the VPD, who fundraise for United Way and appear in their newspaper advertisements, were performing a favor for United Way. Certainly it was acknowledged in the police report that Dumouchelle had recruited police to visit the whistleblower because civil court wouldn’t be quick enough for him. And police did not follow the usual procedure of entering, at the top of the police report, the alleged “OFFENCE” being investigated; that section was left blank.
The first visit by police to the whistleblower's home occurred on Dec. 18, 2002, the day police reported taking "oral statements" from Dumouchelle and "witnesses" guaranteed anonymity at United Way Campaign headquarters on Dunsmuir St. in Vancouver. When Constables Lee Patterson [PC 2125] and J.P. St. Amant [PC 2010] arrived at the apartment of the whistleblower, she says, they pounded on her apartment door until the entire wood-framed building shook. "They scared my neighbors and damaged my reputation," she says. Const. St. Amant later left the woman a voice mail, which she has preserved, denying that he and Patterson had acted aggressively at her home.
After this visit, Dumouchelle told Const. St. Amant, according to the Dec. 19 police report, that he was “satisfied with police attention to date” – yet the police report shows that he continued to lean on police for over a week to have further contact with the whistleblower.
The report that United Way wanted suppressed contained information about alleged practices in United Way member groups that several women and men wanted funders to put a stop to. The report focused primarily on allegations against a battered women’s organization, allegations such as unfair labour practices and course entry requirements that differed for different applicants.
Dumouchelle was feeling the heat. He revealed in an internal document dated Dec. 2002 that he had been contacted by the Canadian Labour Congress and a few corporate donors about the Report on UW. It was then that he asked police to press the whistleblower to take out of circulation a form letter which offered the Report on UW to major donors. Dumouchelle noted in an internal document that he wanted this material out of circulation as United Way was facing a Campaign shortfall of $600,000 and was asking corporate donors for a top up.
Evidence Fabrication and Misrepresentation
After reviewing the police report, the whistleblower lodged a written complaint in 2003 to the Board of Directors of United Way in which she outlined evidence that had been fabricated. Shortly afterwards, Dumouchelle resigned as Executive Director – no reason given publicly. But United Way “has done nothing in five years”, says the whistleblower, to have the libelous material attached to her name expunged from police files.
Following is a sampling of falsified or misrepresented evidence:
paranoid in nature
In his Dec. 18th report written after his briefing by Dumouchelle and anonymous witnesses, Const. Patterson claimed that the Report on UW was "paranoid in nature". The DTES Enquirer reviewed the report and found nothing that could be considered paranoid. As evidence of paranoid content, Patterson claimed that the whistleblower had discussed lesbian "couch-trip" practices, "cult-like practices", and "comparisons" with the case of serial killing accomplice Karla Homolka. These claims are examined below as part of a sampling of evidence in the police report that the whistleblower alleges is "clearly fabricated or misleading".
lesbian “couch-trip” practices
Const. Patterson wrote that the whistleblower had written about lesbian “couch-trip” practices in the UW Report. "Outright fraud", says the whistleblower. The term “couch trip” had appeared nowhere in the Report on UW. Yet the term “couch trip” was presented in quotation marks in the police report and identified as a direct quote from the UW Report. The whistleblower has no idea what a “couch trip” is.
“cult-like practices”
The whistleblower was presented in the police report as having gone on in the Report on UW about “cult-like practices” at the battered women’s organization. Perfect for portraying her as a nut. What was conveniently concealed in the police report, though, was the fact that it was clearly stated in the Report on UW that it was an anthropologist from Simon Fraser University who had identified a few practices at the battered women’s organization as being typical of cults – not the whistleblower.
The anthropologist had been particularly concerned about rules in support groups which restricted the flow of information, rules enforced through an explicit threat of being ostracized from the group – literally being asked to leave – for non-compliance. The rules tended to maximize the number of women and non-violent men labeled “battered women” and “batterer”.
The issue of “cult-like practices” actually occupied a small sector of the 16-page report. The fact that this quote was excerpted and magnified in importance was typical, says the whistleblower, of the “tabloid" nature of the police report.
“mentions Homolka case and comparisons”
Another deceptive claim inserted in Patterson's police report on the day he met with Dumouchelle was the following: "mentions Homolka case and comparisons." A review of the Report on UW reveals no "comparisons" whatsoever with the case of Homolka, who was convicted of being an accomplice to her husband in serial killings.
Although the claim of “comparisons” was a complete fabrication, the whistleblower points out that the Homolka case was actually mentioned in the Report on UW. But in the police report, it was stripped of it’s original context, she says, “conveniently making me look like some kind of nut fixated on the Homolka case.” The context was this: An administrator at a battered women’s organization funded by United Way had appeared on BCTV prime time News Hour and performed an assessment of Karla Homolka, clearing her of all wrongdoing. The conduct of this administrator so outraged British Columbians that BCTV announced that their switchboard had been jammed with complaints, prompting them to re-play a segment of the interview on the next evening’s News Hour. The taped BCTV appearance was mentioned in the Report on UW as a tangible illustration of an issue raised in the report – the issue of this administrator consistently presenting herself “in the guise of a psychological professional” when in fact she had no such credentialing.
Neither this administrator or her United Way funders would answer questions about what this administrator’s credentials actually were. In an internal United Way document dated Dec. 2002, though, this administrator was referred to as a “library technician”.
“sexual under tones of lesbian controlled supervisors"
Despite the fact that the bulk of the Report on UW focused on unfair labor practices and fluctuating course entry requirements, it was summarized by Const. Patterson in the police report as having "sexual under tones."
At another point, the report was identified as containing "sexual under tones of lesbian controlled supervisors". The whistleblower insists there was no claim made in the Report on UW that supervisors at the battered women's organization were "controlled" by lesbians. She says there was a segment of the Report on UW which outlined allegations of discrimination against heterosexual women, primarily in hiring, by the lesbian administration of the battered women's organization. United Way never discussed accounts of discrimination with witnesses who were in a position to corroborate them.
The whistleblower says that the salacious entry about "sexual under tones of lesbian controlled supervisors" was typical of the "tabloid journalism" that passed for evidence-documenting in this case.
“requesting $525 compensation for her 16 page report.”
Even the content of a form letter announcing that the Report on UW was available to major donors was blatantly falsified in the police report. An announcement in the form letter that the report was available for a fee of “$25 to cover labour costs” was misrepresented in the police report as “requesting $525 compensation for her 16 page report.” (The date on the form letter was correctly identified in the police report.) The inflation by $500 of this fee on a page of the police report in which the Report on UW was being portrayed as “paranoid in nature” served to enhance the portrayal of the whistleblower as a crackpot.
“paranoid letters” to “undisclosed workers”
Patterson also wrote in his report that the whistleblower had been writing “paranoid letters” to “undisclosed workers”. The whistleblower alleges that this claim is fraudulent. Certainly no such letters were filed in the VPD Property Office. "That’s because they don’t exist", says the whistleblower. No "undisclosed workers" were ever identified either. The whistleblower had one contact person at United Way, Zena Simces, who answered to Dumouchelle. Simces had assured the whistleblower via voice mail that she did not view her communication as harassing and that United Way welcomed her feedback. Simces was conspicuously absent from the police report.
“concerned for the safety of employees” (a claim which was retracted the same day)
On Dec. 18th, Cst. Patterson claimed in his report the reason for the police visit to United Way was, “DUMOUCHELLE…is concerned for safety of Employees.” Yet this claim was retracted just hours later. During follow-up questioning the same day, Const. Patterson got Dumouchelle to acknowledge that safety “is not perceived as an issue.” Dumouchelle further admitted, according to Patterson’s report, that there had been “no threat (direct or indirect) involving physical harm or property damage.” In fact, in the police report which was absurdly redundant, Dumouchelle admitted on 15 separate occasions during questioning either in person or over the telephone that the whistleblower posed “no physical risk”.
Not only is it clear from Const. Patterson’s report that Dumouchelle had not been “concerned for safety of Employees”, it is evident as well from the report of Const. St. Amant. Just as he had admitted to Patterson, Dumouchelle admitted to St. Amant, who often spoke to him separately on the telephone, that he had no safety concerns. On the day after police met with Dumouchelle and showed up on the whistleblower’s doorstep, Const. St. Amant wrote:
“PC 2010 contacted DUMOUCHELLE via telephone and informed of contacting [whistleblower] ….Dumouchelle satisfied with police attention to date… PC 2010 was informed that no employee has been threatened, observed or met [whistleblower] ….”
The fact that the story about being “concerned for the safety of employees” was bogus is supported by a voice mail message that the whistleblower preserved from Dumouchelle’s assistant Zena Simces. Simces, whom Dumouchelle had assigned to be the contact person on issues of concern regarding the battered women’s organization, encouraged the whistleblower to continue to have contact with United Way.
“no improprieties found”
United Way had, at one point, invited a mediator to resolve complaints against the battered women’s organization. Following a conversation with Dumouchelle on Dec. 21, 2002, Const. St. Amant claimed in the police report that mediation had resulted in “no improprieties found.”
The whistleblower says that's not the story she got from the mediator. The mediator had telephoned the whistleblower and said that the battered women’s organization was not co-operating with mediation. The mediator reported that the battered women’s organization had been making excuses, over a period of months, not to meet with her and would not comply with the terms of mediation. One of the terms was that each side would send just one representative to mediation; the battered women’s organization insisted on having up to 7 people in the room, including a lawyer.
The whistleblower found United Way cagey after the mediator dropped the case. The whistleblower asked Zena Simces for a copy of anything written by the mediator. Despite two promises, Simces was not forthcoming with the material.
"acknowledges being in an abusive relationship"
The entry "acknowledges being in an abusive relationship", unlike the others listed above, was not false, but United Way had breached confidentiality by linking the whistleblower's name to this information. "I was shocked to see this being used against me in a police report," says the whistleblower.
The whistleblower had attended confidential support groups at the battered women's organization years earlier when she was leaving an abusive relationship. But her name, like the names of other women who had attended support groups and were witnesses to activities at the battered women's organization were withheld in the Report on UW, other than "Cindi" who did not have a problem with her given name being used. A Collective, not an individual, was identified on the cover of the Report on UW as having authored it.
Request for Criminal Investigation into United Way and Several Major Donors
The whistleblower has never been told the names of anonymous witnesses who, according to Constable Patterson's Dec. 18 report, met with police at United Way Campaign headquarters: "PC's 2010/2125 met with witnesses and complainant at 777 Dunsmuir..." Later on the same page of the police report, though, Patterson entered the names of several major United Way donors as witnesses in the case:
· Canadian Red Cross
· Revenue Canada
· Canada Post
· Toronto Dominion Bank
· Westminster Savings
· Canada Safeway
In requesting a public mischief investigation into this case, the whistleblower named the above-listed donors along with United Way and Dumouchelle. These donors were presented in the police report as witnesses based on the fact that they had obtained copies of circulating documents — a Report on UW or a form letter making the report available. Documents collected from them were later turned over to the VPD “harassment unit”, as indicated by the Dec. 29 police report. [This process may have been interrupted by a ‘Cease & Desist” letter sent to St. Amant’s supervisor, Sgt. Hatchman, as the Dec. 29th page would be the final one in the police report.]
In addition to an investigation into donors, the whistleblower had wanted an investigation into the role, if any, of the national United Way of Canada in the lodging of the “mischievous” police complaint . A letter exists to support the whistleblower’s claim that Executive Director, David Armour, became aware of this case shortly before the police complaint was lodged.
Despite Inspector John De Haas of the VPD having telling the whistleblower that she was entitled to request a public mischief investigation if a police complaint lodged against her had been unfounded and involved fabricated evidence, no investigation took place. When she requested the investigation, she got a call from Sergeant Warren Lemecke making excuses to stall it (an issue to be covered in a separate article).
PART II: United Way and VPD face allegations of further retaliation against the whistleblower based on the ordering of a VPD "Car 87" visit to her home after she put on record her intent to seek a criminal “Public Mischief” investigation.
Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry have labelled this alleged retaliation, “political psychiatry”. The whistleblower has documented evidence to support her claim that the Car 87 visit was ordered under “fraudulent pretenses”. For Part II, see United Way Implicated in Political Psychiatry
Dumouchelle wanted police to pressure the Vancouver woman -- we'll call her “the whistleblower” -- to suppress a Report on United Way to which she and others had contributed and were making available to major donors. Dumouchelle stated in an internal document dated the week police were called that if donors got even a “whiff” of this report, donations to United Way could be affected.
Even after Constable J.P. St. Amant admitted in his police report that he and Dumouchelle were aware that this case was “not a criminal matter” but a civil matter, the police report reveals that Dumouchelle continued to pressure police to make contact with the whistleblower.
The whistleblower believes that the VPD, who fundraise for United Way and appear in their newspaper advertisements, were performing a favor for United Way. Certainly it was acknowledged in the police report that Dumouchelle had recruited police to visit the whistleblower because civil court wouldn’t be quick enough for him. And police did not follow the usual procedure of entering, at the top of the police report, the alleged “OFFENCE” being investigated; that section was left blank.
The first visit by police to the whistleblower's home occurred on Dec. 18, 2002, the day police reported taking "oral statements" from Dumouchelle and "witnesses" guaranteed anonymity at United Way Campaign headquarters on Dunsmuir St. in Vancouver. When Constables Lee Patterson [PC 2125] and J.P. St. Amant [PC 2010] arrived at the apartment of the whistleblower, she says, they pounded on her apartment door until the entire wood-framed building shook. "They scared my neighbors and damaged my reputation," she says. Const. St. Amant later left the woman a voice mail, which she has preserved, denying that he and Patterson had acted aggressively at her home.
After this visit, Dumouchelle told Const. St. Amant, according to the Dec. 19 police report, that he was “satisfied with police attention to date” – yet the police report shows that he continued to lean on police for over a week to have further contact with the whistleblower.
The report that United Way wanted suppressed contained information about alleged practices in United Way member groups that several women and men wanted funders to put a stop to. The report focused primarily on allegations against a battered women’s organization, allegations such as unfair labour practices and course entry requirements that differed for different applicants.
Dumouchelle was feeling the heat. He revealed in an internal document dated Dec. 2002 that he had been contacted by the Canadian Labour Congress and a few corporate donors about the Report on UW. It was then that he asked police to press the whistleblower to take out of circulation a form letter which offered the Report on UW to major donors. Dumouchelle noted in an internal document that he wanted this material out of circulation as United Way was facing a Campaign shortfall of $600,000 and was asking corporate donors for a top up.
Evidence Fabrication and Misrepresentation
After reviewing the police report, the whistleblower lodged a written complaint in 2003 to the Board of Directors of United Way in which she outlined evidence that had been fabricated. Shortly afterwards, Dumouchelle resigned as Executive Director – no reason given publicly. But United Way “has done nothing in five years”, says the whistleblower, to have the libelous material attached to her name expunged from police files.
Following is a sampling of falsified or misrepresented evidence:
paranoid in nature
In his Dec. 18th report written after his briefing by Dumouchelle and anonymous witnesses, Const. Patterson claimed that the Report on UW was "paranoid in nature". The DTES Enquirer reviewed the report and found nothing that could be considered paranoid. As evidence of paranoid content, Patterson claimed that the whistleblower had discussed lesbian "couch-trip" practices, "cult-like practices", and "comparisons" with the case of serial killing accomplice Karla Homolka. These claims are examined below as part of a sampling of evidence in the police report that the whistleblower alleges is "clearly fabricated or misleading".
lesbian “couch-trip” practices
Const. Patterson wrote that the whistleblower had written about lesbian “couch-trip” practices in the UW Report. "Outright fraud", says the whistleblower. The term “couch trip” had appeared nowhere in the Report on UW. Yet the term “couch trip” was presented in quotation marks in the police report and identified as a direct quote from the UW Report. The whistleblower has no idea what a “couch trip” is.
“cult-like practices”
The whistleblower was presented in the police report as having gone on in the Report on UW about “cult-like practices” at the battered women’s organization. Perfect for portraying her as a nut. What was conveniently concealed in the police report, though, was the fact that it was clearly stated in the Report on UW that it was an anthropologist from Simon Fraser University who had identified a few practices at the battered women’s organization as being typical of cults – not the whistleblower.
The anthropologist had been particularly concerned about rules in support groups which restricted the flow of information, rules enforced through an explicit threat of being ostracized from the group – literally being asked to leave – for non-compliance. The rules tended to maximize the number of women and non-violent men labeled “battered women” and “batterer”.
The issue of “cult-like practices” actually occupied a small sector of the 16-page report. The fact that this quote was excerpted and magnified in importance was typical, says the whistleblower, of the “tabloid" nature of the police report.
“mentions Homolka case and comparisons”
Another deceptive claim inserted in Patterson's police report on the day he met with Dumouchelle was the following: "mentions Homolka case and comparisons." A review of the Report on UW reveals no "comparisons" whatsoever with the case of Homolka, who was convicted of being an accomplice to her husband in serial killings.
Although the claim of “comparisons” was a complete fabrication, the whistleblower points out that the Homolka case was actually mentioned in the Report on UW. But in the police report, it was stripped of it’s original context, she says, “conveniently making me look like some kind of nut fixated on the Homolka case.” The context was this: An administrator at a battered women’s organization funded by United Way had appeared on BCTV prime time News Hour and performed an assessment of Karla Homolka, clearing her of all wrongdoing. The conduct of this administrator so outraged British Columbians that BCTV announced that their switchboard had been jammed with complaints, prompting them to re-play a segment of the interview on the next evening’s News Hour. The taped BCTV appearance was mentioned in the Report on UW as a tangible illustration of an issue raised in the report – the issue of this administrator consistently presenting herself “in the guise of a psychological professional” when in fact she had no such credentialing.
Neither this administrator or her United Way funders would answer questions about what this administrator’s credentials actually were. In an internal United Way document dated Dec. 2002, though, this administrator was referred to as a “library technician”.
“sexual under tones of lesbian controlled supervisors"
Despite the fact that the bulk of the Report on UW focused on unfair labor practices and fluctuating course entry requirements, it was summarized by Const. Patterson in the police report as having "sexual under tones."
At another point, the report was identified as containing "sexual under tones of lesbian controlled supervisors". The whistleblower insists there was no claim made in the Report on UW that supervisors at the battered women's organization were "controlled" by lesbians. She says there was a segment of the Report on UW which outlined allegations of discrimination against heterosexual women, primarily in hiring, by the lesbian administration of the battered women's organization. United Way never discussed accounts of discrimination with witnesses who were in a position to corroborate them.
The whistleblower says that the salacious entry about "sexual under tones of lesbian controlled supervisors" was typical of the "tabloid journalism" that passed for evidence-documenting in this case.
“requesting $525 compensation for her 16 page report.”
Even the content of a form letter announcing that the Report on UW was available to major donors was blatantly falsified in the police report. An announcement in the form letter that the report was available for a fee of “$25 to cover labour costs” was misrepresented in the police report as “requesting $525 compensation for her 16 page report.” (The date on the form letter was correctly identified in the police report.) The inflation by $500 of this fee on a page of the police report in which the Report on UW was being portrayed as “paranoid in nature” served to enhance the portrayal of the whistleblower as a crackpot.
“paranoid letters” to “undisclosed workers”
Patterson also wrote in his report that the whistleblower had been writing “paranoid letters” to “undisclosed workers”. The whistleblower alleges that this claim is fraudulent. Certainly no such letters were filed in the VPD Property Office. "That’s because they don’t exist", says the whistleblower. No "undisclosed workers" were ever identified either. The whistleblower had one contact person at United Way, Zena Simces, who answered to Dumouchelle. Simces had assured the whistleblower via voice mail that she did not view her communication as harassing and that United Way welcomed her feedback. Simces was conspicuously absent from the police report.
“concerned for the safety of employees” (a claim which was retracted the same day)
On Dec. 18th, Cst. Patterson claimed in his report the reason for the police visit to United Way was, “DUMOUCHELLE…is concerned for safety of Employees.” Yet this claim was retracted just hours later. During follow-up questioning the same day, Const. Patterson got Dumouchelle to acknowledge that safety “is not perceived as an issue.” Dumouchelle further admitted, according to Patterson’s report, that there had been “no threat (direct or indirect) involving physical harm or property damage.” In fact, in the police report which was absurdly redundant, Dumouchelle admitted on 15 separate occasions during questioning either in person or over the telephone that the whistleblower posed “no physical risk”.
Not only is it clear from Const. Patterson’s report that Dumouchelle had not been “concerned for safety of Employees”, it is evident as well from the report of Const. St. Amant. Just as he had admitted to Patterson, Dumouchelle admitted to St. Amant, who often spoke to him separately on the telephone, that he had no safety concerns. On the day after police met with Dumouchelle and showed up on the whistleblower’s doorstep, Const. St. Amant wrote:
“PC 2010 contacted DUMOUCHELLE via telephone and informed of contacting [whistleblower] ….Dumouchelle satisfied with police attention to date… PC 2010 was informed that no employee has been threatened, observed or met [whistleblower] ….”
The fact that the story about being “concerned for the safety of employees” was bogus is supported by a voice mail message that the whistleblower preserved from Dumouchelle’s assistant Zena Simces. Simces, whom Dumouchelle had assigned to be the contact person on issues of concern regarding the battered women’s organization, encouraged the whistleblower to continue to have contact with United Way.
“no improprieties found”
United Way had, at one point, invited a mediator to resolve complaints against the battered women’s organization. Following a conversation with Dumouchelle on Dec. 21, 2002, Const. St. Amant claimed in the police report that mediation had resulted in “no improprieties found.”
The whistleblower says that's not the story she got from the mediator. The mediator had telephoned the whistleblower and said that the battered women’s organization was not co-operating with mediation. The mediator reported that the battered women’s organization had been making excuses, over a period of months, not to meet with her and would not comply with the terms of mediation. One of the terms was that each side would send just one representative to mediation; the battered women’s organization insisted on having up to 7 people in the room, including a lawyer.
The whistleblower found United Way cagey after the mediator dropped the case. The whistleblower asked Zena Simces for a copy of anything written by the mediator. Despite two promises, Simces was not forthcoming with the material.
"acknowledges being in an abusive relationship"
The entry "acknowledges being in an abusive relationship", unlike the others listed above, was not false, but United Way had breached confidentiality by linking the whistleblower's name to this information. "I was shocked to see this being used against me in a police report," says the whistleblower.
The whistleblower had attended confidential support groups at the battered women's organization years earlier when she was leaving an abusive relationship. But her name, like the names of other women who had attended support groups and were witnesses to activities at the battered women's organization were withheld in the Report on UW, other than "Cindi" who did not have a problem with her given name being used. A Collective, not an individual, was identified on the cover of the Report on UW as having authored it.
Request for Criminal Investigation into United Way and Several Major Donors
The whistleblower has never been told the names of anonymous witnesses who, according to Constable Patterson's Dec. 18 report, met with police at United Way Campaign headquarters: "PC's 2010/2125 met with witnesses and complainant at 777 Dunsmuir..." Later on the same page of the police report, though, Patterson entered the names of several major United Way donors as witnesses in the case:
· Canadian Red Cross
· Revenue Canada
· Canada Post
· Toronto Dominion Bank
· Westminster Savings
· Canada Safeway
In requesting a public mischief investigation into this case, the whistleblower named the above-listed donors along with United Way and Dumouchelle. These donors were presented in the police report as witnesses based on the fact that they had obtained copies of circulating documents — a Report on UW or a form letter making the report available. Documents collected from them were later turned over to the VPD “harassment unit”, as indicated by the Dec. 29 police report. [This process may have been interrupted by a ‘Cease & Desist” letter sent to St. Amant’s supervisor, Sgt. Hatchman, as the Dec. 29th page would be the final one in the police report.]
In addition to an investigation into donors, the whistleblower had wanted an investigation into the role, if any, of the national United Way of Canada in the lodging of the “mischievous” police complaint . A letter exists to support the whistleblower’s claim that Executive Director, David Armour, became aware of this case shortly before the police complaint was lodged.
Despite Inspector John De Haas of the VPD having telling the whistleblower that she was entitled to request a public mischief investigation if a police complaint lodged against her had been unfounded and involved fabricated evidence, no investigation took place. When she requested the investigation, she got a call from Sergeant Warren Lemecke making excuses to stall it (an issue to be covered in a separate article).
PART II: United Way and VPD face allegations of further retaliation against the whistleblower based on the ordering of a VPD "Car 87" visit to her home after she put on record her intent to seek a criminal “Public Mischief” investigation.
Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry have labelled this alleged retaliation, “political psychiatry”. The whistleblower has documented evidence to support her claim that the Car 87 visit was ordered under “fraudulent pretenses”. For Part II, see United Way Implicated in Political Psychiatry
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