POLICE CONDUCT WRONG, POLICE COVER-UP EVEN WORSE

The first measure of a safe community is the capability of citizens to
trust local police to perform their duties responsibly and within
legal and ethical limits.

That's why Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham had little choice but
to move decisively against six officers who had previously pled guilty
to bullying and roughing up several drug suspects in an isolated spot
in Stanley Park.

Good on him for taking the steps he did -- firing the chief
instigators and issuing maximum 20-day unpaid suspensions to others.

In a democratic society such as Canada, which hands law enforcement
agencies extensive, invasive powers of search, seizure and arrest in
law, there has to be a corresponding intolerance of those who opt to
defy this delegation of authority or who show disregard for the safety
of Canadians required to honour it.

Sure the victims of abuse by VPD members were far from lily-white.
Fortunately in Canada, having a criminal record or an addiction does
not give police carte blanche freedom to bully, take you down in a
hail of bullets or dump you in a soiled alleyway to die.

Canadian citizens have a right to expect that police will uphold the
laws they are assigned to enforce, just as they have a right to expect
honesty and integrity from the police who serve them.

But that's not what the citizens of Vancouver have seen -- and the
decision yesterday to penalize the six officers involved in the
criminal assaults in Stanley Park hasn't changed this.

Deliberately lying or misleading officials about events that trigger a
criminal investigation is tantamount to obstructing justice. Little is
more damaging to the rule of law and a peaceful democracy than
deliberate acts by police to cover up their wrongful deeds or those of
their colleagues. And that's what Const. Duncan Gemmell did in writing
up the park event -- he falsified the report.

Other local examples:

- - Not long ago, a judge found five female officers of the VPD lied
under oath in connection with their involvement in trashing the home
of a suspected druggie.

- - An investigation was launched after a junior officer seeking a job
with Saanich police said he and others in the VPD lied under oath,
stole evidence and witRating 2 eld information about excessive use of
force by downtown officers.

- - VPD members have been accused of covering up the events that
preceded the separate, suspicious deaths of Frank Paul and Jeff Berg.
Paul was left drunk in an alley where he died, Berg died of injuries
he received during police arrest.

Graham and his 1,100- member force should keep in the mind that the
public will always forgive a mistake, but never a cover-up.