Vancouver, June 17, 2009 - The Vancouver Police Board has been asked by Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), to cancel the hundreds of tickets handed out in the Downtown Eastside last winter.
VANDU, supported by the Pivot Legal Society and Portland Hotel Society, made a presentation to the Police Board meeting today, where they asked the board to work toward positive solutions on important issues in the community.
In December alone, police issued over 1,000 tickets to Downtown Eastside community members for minor offences like spitting or riding a bicycle without a bell. Fines range from $100 for jaywalking and riding a bicycle on the sidewalk to $250 for vending without a business licence.
Police singled out the Downtown Eastside for increased bylaw enforcement: 80% of all panhandling, loitering and vending tickets issued in the city as a whole last year were handed out in the Downtown Eastside.
“People in the Downtown Eastside are feeling picked on, oppressed and singled out because of where they live and who they are,” says Hugh Lampkin, VANDU Vice-President. "Society at large should feel ashamed of the way the VPD is acting down here.
Just because we are marginalized doesn’t mean we should be subject to this treatment; we have the same rights as any other citizen."“You didn’t see a jaywalking crackdown in the Granville Street entertainment district, or ticketing of people having unlicensed yard sales in the West End," says Laura Track, campaign lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society.
“Instead, the city’s most marginalized residents were given tickets that
would cost them their entire monthly budget to pay. It’s caused an
incredible amount of stress in the community. People are literally afraid to go outside for fear they’ll be arrested for failing to pay their tickets.
"The ticketing blitz occurred with no warning to the community, and no opportunity to resolve the concerns the police say motivated their actions in the first place. "That’s what’s most frustrating about this whole mess" says Ann Livingston, long-time volunteer and co founder of VANDU. "VANDU members work to address safety in the streets and hotels. The people affected think of all sorts of solutions to the issues the police raise: a designated place for people to vend, a pedestrian safety program, access to another safe injection site. There’s no shortage of ideas."
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Downtown Eastside groups demand police cancel tickets issued in crackdownPivot Legal Society lawyer Laura Track had written the board on behalf of VANDU and PHS, requesting the cancellation of hundreds if not thousands of tickets slapped by the police on Downtown Eastside residents since December last year.
[Georgia Straight, June 17, 2009]
