Downtown Eastside advocates vow to fight police crackdown

A police plan to crack down on street crime, drug dealers and chronic offenders onVancouver's Downtown Eastside isangering HIV/AIDS and civil rights advocates in the troubled neighbourhood.

Douglas King, a lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society, said the police crackdown is an unwanted remnant of the previous city council's controversial Project Civil City program that aimed to reduce street disorder by ticketing petty street-level crimes.

"Voters rejected Project Civil City when they elected a new mayor. I'd like to call on city hall to make it clear to the VPD that this is not the policy the people want and it's undemocratic for them to continue with [former mayor] Sam Sullivan's policies when the people of Vancouver specifically stated that we want to focus on social housing," he said.

"We want to focus on making the neighbourhood better for the people," he said.

'If the VPD wants to give out hundreds of tickets, then they better be prepared for their officers to spend hundreds of hours in court.' Doug King, Pivot Legal Society lawyer

In January, Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu put forward a draft business plan for the force for 2009.

The draftplan, which requires the approval of the police board chaired by Mayor Gregor Robertson, includes proposals to increase the number of street patrols on the Downtown Eastside. It alsofocuses on reducing petty crimes and offences by ticketing chronic offenders and seizing drugs from dealers rather than spending more time formally arresting and processing them.

But the Pivot Legal Society is prepared to help the residents fight the crackdown, said King.

"If the VPD wants to give out hundreds of tickets, then they better be prepared for their officers to spend hundreds of hours in court," said King on Sunday.

Crackdown on street crime a health threat

On Friday, a coalition of seven community groups, which work with residents suffering from HIV/AIDS, and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, issued a joint statement saying the police sweeps and aggressive ticketing would threaten the health and safety of residents in the Downtown Eastside.

The group sent a letter calling for an end to the aggressive policing in the areato Vancouver's mayor and police chief.

If the low-income offenders inthe troubled neighbourhood are unable to pay the fines from the bylaw infraction tickets, judges could then issue court orders that could bar them from that part of the city under threat of incarceration, they said.

And if the Downtown Eastside residents get barred from their own neighbourhood, they lose access to essential services, including health-care and drug treatment programs, the groups said.

Without critical health services, people in the area run an increased risk of HIV and hepatitis infection and transmission, according to the groups.

Nobody from the Vancouver Police Department was immediately available for comment.

VancouverCoun. Geoff Meggs said he believes the groups' concerns are valid, and a desire to clean up the streets ahead of the2010 Olympics is ultimately behind the crackdown.

"Unfortunately there has been a pattern around the Olympics of increased enforcement in poor neighbourhoods. We don't want that in the city. We want enforcement that's long lasting. We don't need just an Olympic reduction in crime. We need a long-term reduction in crime," said Meggs.