CRIMINAL COP OFF THE BEAT!

Over one hundred DTES residents and concerned people across Vancouver gathered for an emergency rally to denounce police violence. This was in direct response to the recent controversy surrounding a VPD officer’s physical assault of a 26-year old woman with cerebral palsy in the Downtown Eastside. Over 25 residents of the DTES spoke out painfully and powerfully about their daily experience of police brutality, assault, negligence, indiscriminate arrests and ticketing, and harassment.

The rally demanded:

- The Police Apology to Sandy is Not Enough: Get that Officer off the beat!

- Why Do Police Not Get Criminal Charges for Assaulting Women and Disabled people?

- No to Internal Investigations: Armed, Violent, and Dangerous Police Off Our Streets!

Shortly after the protest and as a direct result of the ongoing public pressure, the VPD announced that the police officer responsible was taken off the DTES beat and reassigned. It was also announced that the New Westminster Police Department would be taking over a Police Act investigation as well as a criminal investigation into the incident, including of the additional two officers who simply watched the assault take place.

This is a significant and tangible victory for us as residents of the DTES to have forced some measure of accountability and justice for our friend Sandy and to push back against such police impunity. Though we do know that the police investigating themselves is a farce. And the assaulting police officer, wherever else he is reassigned, and whichever officer takes his place in the DTES will continue to act as police officers often
do: as armed and dangerous offenders. We continue to demand No to Internal Investigations and Armed, Violent, and Dangerous Police Off Our Streets!

The DTES Power of Women Group are a group of women (we are an inclusive group) from all walks of life who are either on social assistance, working poor, or homeless; but we are all living in extreme poverty. Our aim is to empower ourselves through our experiences and to raise awareness from our own perspectives about the social issues affecting the neighbourhood. We need your support in our struggles. Join us next week too, for MCFD: KEEP OUR FAMILIES TOGETHER!