Cops deserve credit for Restraint shown at Riot

For as long as I can remember, police have been criticized for clobbering people with billy clubs.  Last week's riot showed that they are listening.  I recall in the 1994 riot, innocent people were seriously injured by police brutality.

Obviously the VPD were under instructions last week to put human life first, before property.

If the Mayor, Police Chief, and City Manager had made adequate preparations for such a large crowd, much of the property damage could have been avoided too.

City Hall and the Premier have been putting enormous emphasis on charging the young people who caused the damage.  I don't have a problem with charging them, but I have a problem with using teenagers to deflect attention from the negligence of those in leadership roles.

I'm realizing as most people do as they get older that there are no grown ups.

Riot: City Manager admitted today that she Never Read Recommendations to Avoid Violence -- and Downtown Eastsiders know it's not her first time

Penny Ballem admitted to the media this morning that she had never read the Report on the 1994 Riot containing recommendations on what to do differently to avoid future violence.  This is the City manager who is notorious for micromanaging at City Hall, and once defended this management style to the media. "That's why they pay me the big bucks."

This is not the first time Ballem has ignored a report containing recommendations on how to avoid future harm to citizens.

At a meeting in January 2010 at City Hall about the epidemic of security guard violence and barrings of people from Carnegie Community Centre and library for speaking up, Ballem promised -- PROMISED repeatedly -- that she would read a report written a decade earlier containing recommendations for changes to the barring policy.  That report had been written after consultations with Carnegie members.

Ballem broke her promise.

There has been no sign that Ballem ever read the report. There has been no sign that any recommendations were implemented.  There has been no sign of follow up after the meeting by Ballem or her subordinate Brenda Procton. A woman who attended the meeting with Ballem told me she never received a phone call or an email or a letter, nothing.  Ballem stuck her head in the sand and allowed the violence by Carnegie security guards to escalate until a victim of subsequent violence called police.

A host on CKNW radio expressed outrage today that Ballem had not read the recommendations in the riot report.  Downtown Eastsiders have seen it all before.

Bicylist Collides with Car in Dunsmuir Bike Lane

At about 5 p.m. Friday, a bicyclist collided with an SUV in the Dunsmuir St. bike lane.  An SUV was driving on Dunsmuir and turned left onto Homer, headed toward Pender St.  A homeless man heard a thud.  The bicyclist had crashed right into the SUV.

The Chinese guy driving the SUV stopped.  The bicyclist managed to get up.

The witness couldn't stop because he was rushing to the Gathering Place for dinner; when you're homeless you have to stay focused on finding cheap or free dinners.  The witness assumed the driver couldn't see the cyclist and thought the accident was the cyclist's fault. "He should have been looking", the homeless man said. "Those bike lanes are dangerous."

Mayor Robertson who interfered in a requested criminal investigation into evidence of his own links to violence, now promises perpetrators of Stanley Cup violence will be held accountable

After Wednesday night's Stanley Cup game riot, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said the perpetrators of violence will be held accountable.  Interesting, when he was facing investigation for his own links to violence against a female critic at Carnegie Centre, there is evidence that he got busy witness-tampering and paying off police chief Jim Chu.   Following is a reprint of an April article about Mayor Robertson's record. 

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Mayor Robertson Accused of Pay Off to Police Chief Jim Chu who was supposed to be Criminally Investigating him

This is something you might expect in the Chicago political establishment. Mayor Gregor Robertson is accused of giving a payoff to Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu, while Chu was continuing to evade a request for a criminal investigation into evidence of criminal activity on the part of Robertson. At the very least, Robertson 'rewarded' Chu with a five year contract extension worth over one and a half million dollars for a job well done during the period in which he was stalling on investigating Robertson.

In May 2010 a request was made to VPD Chief Chu to arrange for an external police force to investigate evidence that Robertson, City manager Penny Ballem, and two security guards at Carnegie Centre were involved in the manufacture of a fraudulent security report and a pre-meditated plan to bar a Carnegie member under fraudulent pretenses, a barring which involved assault and extensive public humiliation. One of the guards involved, who the victim had never seen before but who had clearly been incited to target her, implicated Robertson and Ballem in comments he made at the time.

For some time, evidence has been reported on this blog of efforts by City staff to "bar" people from Carnegie who have complained of abuse, particularly those who have made their experiences public by talking to bloggers. We have reported that these barrings often involve public humiliation as well. When we reported this targeting of individuals who take their stories to the media, we could not have anticipated that evidence would eventually surface that Vision Vancouver has a "media hit list" along with a plan to ridicule people creating negative impressions of Vision in the media. Former 24 Hours columnist Alex Tsakumis broke the story. Mike Magee in the Mayor's office has denied the existence of any such hit list.

Despite the request being made in May that Chu arrange for an external police force to investigate Robertson -- Chu can't investigate because of conflict of interest due to Robertson's role as Chair of the Police Board -- Ballem, and two Carnegie security guards, the investigation has not yet been carried out. There is no doubt that Robertson knew that the investigation had been requested. Immediately after the request was made in May, Robertson reportedly held a secret meeting at Carnegie with witnesses and offenders. He interfered in a pending police investigation into himself.

By September, Chief Chu was continuing to stall in arranging for an investigation into his boss, Robertson. It was in the midst of this stalling that Robertson gave Chu a five year extension to his contract, at over $300,000. Now, seven months later, the case against Robertson and Ballem has still not been investigated. Are you surprised?

It is easy for Chu to treat Downtown Eastside women as though violence against them doesn't matter, because he knows they can't afford lawyers. Now a lawyer has offered to meet pro bono with the victim in this case to discuss how to proceed. He will review the evidence in the case, including a photo of the bruise the victim received. But that won't occur until the beginning of July when the lawyer returns to Vancouver from China.

Watching Chief Chu "on the take", benefiting from monetary and other rewards from a man into whom he is supposed to be arranging a criminal investigation, has led to distrust on the part of the victim. Even if Chief Chu was to suddenly meet his professional obligation to arrange for the investigation, she will be having no further contact with the VPD about this case without a lawyer present. Since not much happens over the summer, estimates are that there will be no progress on this case until September or October. A press conference will be held by the lawyer to update the public when a decision is made about how to proceed. (No further information will be released until that time.)

This case highlights the hypocrisy of Robertson and Chu on the issue of violence against Downtown Eastside women. Chu held a public meeting earlier this year at Carnegie to talk -- in front of media cameras of course -- about how committed he is to ensuring that violence against Downtown Eastside women is seriously investigated. To get into that meeting in the Carnegie theater, Chu had to walk by security guards at Carnegie that he was supposed to be investigating.

Chu would no doubt say he didn't take a pay off from Robertson, that he was due for a contract extension. But Robertson had an obligation to at least recuse himself from the decision. And Chu should have at least asked him to. An extension requires a performance review. How did Robertson manage to conclude that the Chief is doing a fine job when he knows the Chief is sitting on evidence of criminal activity against him.

Also at fault here are Police Board members. Why did Glenn Wong tell the media that he agreed with Robertson and other Police Board members that Chu was doing a fine job and deserved an extension of his contract. Did it ever occur to Wong, who told the media that Chu often calls him at home to talk, to ask Chu to avoid taking any form of reward from a government official he was supposed to be investigating. If Wong claims he didn't know about the investigation requested into Robertson, then he didn't do due diligence before approving Chu's contract extension, as the requested criminal investigation was a matter of public record.

Allan Garr, a columnist with the Courier newspaper, said in a column earlier this year that the Vancouver Police Board tends not to provide effective oversight of Chief Chu and his officers. Garr said the Police Board are more "lapdogs" than watchdogs.

Ethel Whitty "never around" say Carnegie members, despite her pay cheque of well over $100,000 annually

Where is Ethel Whitty?

It's been a long time since I've seen her at Carnegie.  A woman who goes to Carnegie almost daily commented the other day, "She's never around.  She's never there."  She doesn't remember the last time she saw Whitty.  I've heard both women and men express amazement at how invisible Whitty is at Carnegie.

Another woman who generally doesn't criticize Whitty, said that she needed a letter from Whitty recently, and went to her office only to be told by staff that she wasn't there and they had no idea when she would show up again.  It was an emergency situation, but the woman was left dangling.  This woman is not the only member who has reported the problem of staff having no idea when Whitty would return.

Whitty is supposed to be available to the people at Carnegie Centre, one woman explained.  "She's not management."  That surprised me as I thought that as director, she would be considered management. David McLellan is General  Manager of Community Services and he has to start taking more of an interest in why Carnegie members rarely see Whitty around.  Whitty is paid well over $100,000 to be at Carnegie.  If Whitty is not in her office, she has an obligation to ensure that her staff know when she will return.  These unexplained disappearances have gone on for far too long.

From the day Whitty got the job at Carnegie, she has been accused of hiding in her office.  The word, "hiding" has been used more than once.  But the problem seems to have gone beyond hiding now.

When Whitty is seen by Carnegie members, her attitude is different.  One woman said Whitty "is like a Nazi in meetings now." The word "Nazi" gets tossed around too loosely to mean much, so I asked that the woman be more specific.  She said Whitty gives orders about what she wants done when she's in meetings; it's an ordering style that she didn't have when she first arrived at Carnegie.  This style has been noticed, for example, in meetings with poverty activists.  

The taxpayin' truth is that either Whitty's job or that of her assistant, CUPE member Dan Tetrault, could easily be eliminated without any effect on services at Carnegie.  Easily.  McLellan knows that. And so does Mayor Gregor Robertson.   But they won't cut either one of these jobs because Carnegie is COPE territory and VISION Mayor Gregor has made a deal with COPE to work together to keep the centre-right from getting elected. COPE councillors like Ellen Woodsworth and David Cadman would make a fuss if Mayor Gregor deprived their loyal womyn and feminized males on the left of their sinecures.

Unfair NHL Referees throughout Series Contributed to Riot in Vancouver

A native guy in his sixties came into McDonald's restaurant at Main & Terminal at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, where people were sitting on the stools in front of the big screen televisions waiting for Stanley Cup Game 7 to begin.  As he grabbed the last available stool, he told us, "The word is that if the officiating is unfair again tonight, people are going to riot.  That's the word."  He said it twice.  The Downtown Eastside is different than other neighbourhoods: people have more time than in other neighbourhoods and talk to one another on the street, they stand on street corners and talk.
  
I've been enjoying watching the games with this guy at Mcdonalds, because he knows hockey like nobody else I know.  He grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan -- 100 miles north of Saskatoon -- where people are immersed in hockey.  He told me it's common for kids there to play on two hockey teams, one at school and one outside school.

I knew what he meant about the officiating being unfair in the Boston vs. Vancouver playoffs.  I've noticed a bias.  Even a sports reporter from Boston noted that the officiating "has favored Boston" in the finals, when he was interviewed on Tuesday by a Vancouver radio station.  I won't repeat all the examples that have been discussed on Canuck-obsessed talk radio, but when you see a penalty given for a shove at one end of the rink and five punches to Sedin's head going unnoticed at the other end of the rink, something is not right.

At the end of the first period, when the score was 1-0, the native guy turned to me and said he thought the Canucks could come back.  Early in the period, the players knew where one another was, "but by the end they seemed to be looking for each other."  He thought they would come out in the second period and function more as a team again.

When the Canucks lost, he said, "I'm gonna feel bad now for two or three days."  Then tears welled up in his eyes.

The Canucks may have let their Stanley Cup chance slip away even if the refs hadn't been handicapping them throughout the series.  Luongo after all should have stopped at least a couple of tonight's goals.  Tim Thomas was a stellar performer.  The Bruins were the better team tonight.

I've talked to several devoted hockey fans now about Brian Tuohy's book, "The Fix is In", about fixing in the NHL and other sports, and they have all said they believe it's going on.  On Tuohy's website, he publishes a quote Patrick Hruby on ESPN.com about his book,  "Tuohy makes a compelling, fact-based argument that not everything in the sports world is as it seems."  Rick, a homeless tennis player and avid recycler who is mad about hockey, told me after Monday night's game that he has no doubt there is fixing going on in hockey.

The native guy had the same response when I asked him tonight.  He pointed out that allegations of betting on hockey against Wayne Gretzky's wife and assistant coach, although no charges were laid, did nothing to inspire confidence in the integrity of the NHL.  "Do you notice they don't have him on [tv] talking about the game anymore?  They don't want nothin' to do with him.  He's tainted."

The mainstream media generally avoids discussion of suspicions of fixing.  A couple of weeks ago, CKNW's Bruce Allen, who has crafted an image as a straight talker, was guest-hosting a talk show and instantly hung up on a caller who said of the playoffs: "It's fixed."

Canucks' GM, Mike Gillis, did hint at it in a press conference in April as the Canucks battled the Chicago Blackhawks.  He pointed out that in the previous four games, Chicago had 69% more power plays than Vancouver. In the previous four games when the score had been tight, a one or two goal difference, Chicago had 100% more power plays than Vancouver.  As Gillis read a list of statistics to support his claim that there has been nowhere near "a level playing field", I suspected, "The Fix Is In".  


Gillis suggested this week that he has been muzzled.  At a press conference, when asked about the fact that there had been no penalty for Boston for the hit that broke the back of Canuck Mason Raymond, he said, 'I can't talk about.  I'll get in trouble.'

Tonight, after the Canuck's final 4-0 loss to Boston, when the first car in downtown Vancouver was turned over and burned, many of the people rocking that car until it turned over were wearing Canucks jerseys.  Although some of the rioting and looting was started by a small group of people wearing black balaclavas, fans in Canucks jerseys were quick to join them and were clearly enjoying the emotional release.  They were not all youths either.

Everybody involved "will be held accountable", the Mayor said.  But the NHL which have pumped these fans up throughout the series and then allowed refs to cheat them?  Don't expect any accountability there.