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Resist the Olympic Police State!
Thursday, February 7th at 7pm
SFU Harbor center (515 W. Hastings, Vancouver)

Speakers Panel featuring:

Kristian Williams is the Portland based activist and author of American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination and Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America.

Kristian will speak to the counter insurgency war being fought in Iraq and its correlation to the militarization of the police at home.

Other panelists include representatives from:

Stopwar.ca – Vancouver’s mass-based anti-war organization that has for years mobilized the people to end the war and fight for social justice.

No2010 Coalition – Grass-roots anti-Olympics coalition organized to confront the 2010 games with the demands: No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!, No Social Cleansing! and, No Eco-Destruction! www.no2010.com

Hosted by Indigenous Action Movement and organized by [the] Anti-Poverty Committee.

Resist [the] Olympic Police State:

When discussing the Olympic Police State many will assume that activists are being paranoid and that such preparations are made to prevent terrorism not ‘legitimate protest’. Here it is important to note that the first two targets for the Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSET) following September 11, 2001, was the West Coast Warriors Society and Animal Liberation activists.

Years later, the state has honed its devices and expanded its covert operations. It has not publicly presented itself [in] its totality until now - in the lead up to the 2010 Olympic Games.

The Integrated Security Unit (ISU) is the public face of the police state. It was formed in 2003 to act as the all-seeing and all-knowing policing apparatus. Bringing together all levels of government, police, surveillance agencies and the armed forces, the ISU is arguably the most sophisticated police state Canada has ever been subject to since the earlier wars of colonial conquest.

According to their last year’s annual review, the ISU ‘has grown substantially, adding personnel from the RCMP, VPD, West Vancouver Police, Department of Defense and VANOC’.

Leading the pack is the RCMP, which has total control and oversight ‘in planning and managing policing and security operations’. Under their control and listed as ‘Base Resources’ which need be ‘maximized’ are the:

West Vancouver Police
West Vancouver Bylaw Enforcement
Vancouver Police Department
VPD Bylaw Enforcement
Richmond RCMP
Richmond Bylaw Enforcement
Whistler RCMP
CSIS
Canadian Armed Forces
Any federal or provincial public servant: and,
Any other federal, provincial or municipal agency.

All police, surveillance and military institutions are lining up like pigs at a trough for a bonanza of free and new equipment and funding. By complaining that the technology ‘in place at the time of its writing (the Olympic bid book) is no longer state-of-the-art,’ all agencies can share in the loot obtained.

New radios at $4.5 million (plus batteries), snowmobiles and [All-Terrain Vehicles], are but a few of the toys. More serious though, is the Close Circuited Surveillance that will be needed to keep a constant watch on the 150 kilometers that fall under the ‘Olympic theater of operations’ and the 102 (up from the original 21) Olympic venues and other ‘sensitive areas’. Already warehouses are being bought up and command centers, operational and logistical staging areas, helipads, command trailers, tents for screening areas and observation Posts are being built for use before, during and after the Games. Miles of electric fencing and ‘alternative methods of intrusion detection and prevention’ along with support materials and computers ‘for dispatching of security units’ are also being purchased and distributed to different [law] enforcement agencies.

The question is where does all this go after the Games? What happens to the police state? As according to the deal made between Her Majesty the Queen and the Province of BC ‘this agreement that the integration of federal and provincial policing services into a single policing and security operation’ will not end until December 31, 2011.

The Olympic Police State Mascots:

CSIS:

It has just been made public that the Canadian Security & Intelligence Service (CSIS) has begun targeting anti-Olympic resistance groups. Wherever covert information agencies are found, so too is mis-information, provocateurs, infiltration and state-sponsored terrorism. This has been the case in previous mega-events in Canada, and has already become the
norm here.

The bid book assured the IOC that ‘the country has established security intelligence and law enforcement regimes which work closely with international agencies to identify, assess, and combat activist violence or terrorism.’ CSIS is the prize pet and will be unleashed and made responsible ‘for providing threat assessments and security intelligence reports’. As well they will lead a ‘joint intelligence group’ to ensure ‘all police and intelligence groups are working together’.

Canadian Armed Forces:

The armed forces have entered new ground in fighting a counter-insurgency war in Afghanistan. With this new role has come an increase in experience policing imperialism. From training prison guards to police officers, the Canadian armed forces have advanced the militarization of policing and that experience will be called upon in 2010.

As agreed, ‘the resources of the Canadian forces will be utilized to augment the police and emergency services’. And in the case of eventual policing shortages, the armed forces will fill the void not entirely filled by rent-a-cops and retired police officers.

Vancouver Police Department

The Vancouver Police Department has been central in the social cleansing preparations for the games. By enforcing the Civil City Initiative and acting as the City’s eviction service, the police have become VANOC’s thugs.

During the Games the VPD will operate under RCMP command primarily in the Urban Domain as opposed to the designated Games Security Domain. To assist in the facilitating of 'public safety not directly related to the game's venues or sites', the VPD aggressively begged for an armored tank.

For info regarding the resistance to the Olympic police state check out: www.no2010.com

The Anti-Poverty Committee is an organization of poor and working people, who fight for poor people, their rights and an end to poverty by any means necessary. For more information on the Anti-Poverty Committee's on-going campaigns, visit http://apc.resist.ca. Contact us by e-mailing apc@resist.ca or phoning 604-682-3276.

UNITED WE WILL WIN!