Trail of Blood in Gastown

Early this morning there was a trail of blood on the sidewalk in Gastown.   I've seen trails of blood on two previous occasions when walking through Gastown in the early morning.

Gang Unit Searches Vehicle near Richards on Richards Nightclub

   

On Friday, Mar. 6 at 2 a.m., the Gang Unit stopped the white vehicle in the photo above on Richards St. near Nelson, on the same block as Richards on Richards nightclub.  They handcuffed the passengers, both men and women, and searched the car.   

Before searching, a middle-aged officer turned to the passengers now sitting on the sidewalk and asked if they knew of anything he was going to find in the vehicle.  They said no.  The officer did not appear to find anything. 

The Gang Unit travels in black SUVs.

The officer standing in the center of the above photo watching the passengers seated on the sidewalk, attempted with his arm to wave away the photographer standing on the other side of the street. Shortly afterwards, the officer turned around and said, "Please put your camera away."

A complaint the public is often heard making is that there is too much respect for the Charter rights of gang members.  Apparently there is not enough for the Charter rights of photographers.   

Waves of Gentrification

photo: Waves coffee shop at Main St. & Cordova, Mar. 2/09

They say that with gentrification comes dog walkers and specialty coffee shops.

Another Waves coffee shop is opening on the Downtown Eastside, just two blocks from the first one that opened last year at Main & Pender.  The new Waves at Main and Cordova will open on March 16th, in the now renovated space that used to house Vic's Coffee Shop, where you could get good coffee and the occasional bout of e coli.

There were lots of staff in Waves today, all wearing the same dark uniforms.  At first, I thought the place was swarming with cops.  

The new location may prove profitable if the Vancouver Police building across the street once again becomes police headquarters, a move Chief Chu supports.  Chu told the media last month that he would like to move VPD headquarters back to the Downtown Eastside, as the move to Cambie St. allowed the Downtown Eastside to deteriorate.  Even police officers driving to and from work in the neighborhood, Chu said, can deter open crime.

Waves has free internet access which there is never enough of on the Downtown Eastside.  An increasing number of Downtown Eastsiders, frustrated with the unreliable access to Vancouver Public Library computers at the Carnegie Center computer room where Director Ethel Whitty too often allows staff to lock the poor out, are purchasing netbooks now that the prices have come down. But often they don't have internet connections at home.

Collision at Main St. & Georgia Viaduct

There was a two car collision at roughly 5 p.m. today on Main St. at Prior St., just across the street from the entrance to the Georgia Viaduct.  

There appeared to be no serious injuries.

Premier Campbell Accused of Pink Shirt Hypocrisy on Anti-Bullying Day

Photo: Christie Clark (centre)

Premier Gordon Campbell and CKNW talk show host Christie Clark may wish they had left their pink shirts in the closet as their own bullying baggage is dragged out along with the shirts. Campbell has declared Feb. 25 "Anti-Bullying Day" and announced he will support Clark's "Pink Shirt" campaign to oppose bullying campaign by wearing a pink shirt today.

"The pink shirts are a gimmick", according to a press release by Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry [COPP], while the actual record of Campbelll and Clark indicates that bullying tactics are well within their comfort zone.

Both Campbell and Clark, former BC Education Minister, are accused by COPP of having looked the other way when informed in writing that provincial dollars were being used to finance illegal criminal harassment, fraud, and "political psychiatry" tactics to ensure that "Bullying Complaints Go Nowhere." The political psychiatry tactics, in particular, have resulted in an international boycott of diplomas issued by the Vancouver School Board, a fact that Campbell has been keeping under his hat.

But COPP was not the first to sound alarms. As early as the fall of 2002, Reggi Balabanov, outgoing President of the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils with whom Clark would have been familiar, mentioned in a Vancouver Sun interview that intimidation tactics were being used against citizens pursuing bullying complaints with school administrators. Balabanov said complainants were finding themselves the focus of police visits to their homes and that this had put a "chill" on the willingness of citizens to pursue complaints.

The boycott was triggered by the case of a Vancouver woman -- she lived on the Downtown Eastside at the time but has since moved -- who COPP claims became the target of political psychiatry by VSB bureaucrats using Coastal Health Authority resources. She became a target almost immediately after informing the VSB in writing that she intended to campaign in an upcoming election about their mishandling of bullying complaints. The VSB-School Liaison would later admit in a taped telephone call that he had emphasized to the VSB that there was "nothing untoward" about this woman's letter, but they nonetheless used it as the sole basis for arranging to have her assessed for "apprehension" to a mental hospital. The nurse, Don Getz, who arrived unannounced at her home to perform the assessment was, incidentally, wearing a pink t-shirt. (For a more extensive account of the political psychiatry tactics employed, click on boycott.)

The bullying worked. The woman was sufficiently terrorized that she did not campaign on the bullying issue in the election.

The provincially-funded political psychiatry that ultimately led to the boycott was brought to the attention of Premier Campbell in a letter addressed to him and hand-delivered to his office. He did not respond.

The full range of evidence of a criminal level of bullying by provincial government staff to aid the VSB in deterring bullying complainants must be investigated if Campbell is committed to the slogan, "Bullying Stops Here." And it must be investigated if the international boycott of diplomas issued by the Vancouver School Board is to be lifted. But as COPP points out, "It's going to take more than putting on a pink shirt."

Poor T-4

On Monday at around 3 p.m., I walked by H & R Block Tax Services on Main St. near Carnegie and there was a crowd of people outside.  A woman waiting in the crowd was loudly explaining that H & R Block wasn't taking any more people that day, that they had given out tickets but they had stopped at 165.

That's when I knew that the T-4's had come out.  

"Nobody gets you money faster, instant cash back", blares a sign in the window of H & R Block.  If you take in your T-4 slip, H & R Block will do  your taxes and give you the refund right away, but they skim a little off the top.  

I was surprised that so many people were in need of quick cash.   Welfare day was just last Wednesday.