ARRESTED WOMAN WANTS OFFICERS FIRED, WATCH ON REST

VANCOUVER - The 29-year-old woman who was also in the police wagon on the
night three men were taken to Stanley Park and assaulted by Vancouver
police officers is calling for an aggressive campaign to keep the police in
check.

Although Shannon Pritchard was not assaulted by the officers, who dropped
her off in the West End before taking the males on to Stanley Park, she
said the Jan. 14 incident traumatized her and left her fearful of police.

"They completely violated me. To this day, I am completely terrified," she
said during an interview in which she described herself as a "pathetic
honest junkie" who is trying to stay off crystal methamphetamine.

She said she wants the six officers fired and an independent group
established that would watch police in an effort to prevent similar
incidents occurring.

All the officers pleaded guilty to assault in provincial court last month,
but Pritchard doubts they are truly remorseful. "I feel completely
unsatisfied. What they did to me, they stripped me of all my power. I don't
see them as the helpers down here. ... I truly want zero-tolerance for
police brutality," she said. "They truly picked on the wrong person that
night. I won't give up."

Pritchard said she still has no idea why she was arrested and bundled into
the police wagon that night. (The statement of fact read in provincial
court in November stated that Pritchard and the three victims were arrested
because police suspected they were conducting a drug deal, which Pritchard
vehemently denies.)

She is part of a civil lawsuit filed by lawyer Phil Rankin against the six
officers, but says any potential financial settlement is secondary to her
primary goal of seeing the six fired.

"[Rankin] has made it [the lawsuit] about the money. The guys [assault
victims Barry Lawrie, Jason Desjardins and Grant Wilson] have made it about
the money. I just want them fired. ... You'd think more would come of it
because these [police officers] are really bad dudes."

A Vancouver Cop Watch program similar to those in operation in Toronto and
Montreal was established in 2002 by the Pivot Legal Society and the
Collective Opposed to Police Brutality. But Pivot executive director John
Richardson admits the program (and Pivot itself) is severely cash-strapped
and volunteers hit the streets to observe police at work only about twice a
month.

"Cop Watch is not going to solve this. ... Nothing seems to be really
working at this point," he said. "I think there has to be a better
complaint process."

The complaint system now requires complainants to go to the police and fill
out a form, or go to the office of the B.C. Police Complaint Commissioner
and lodge a formal grievance. Considering "the people who are most often
impacted by police misconduct are often the most marginalized," Richardson
said there should be some kind of independent advocacy group established to
help them through the system.

Richardson said he is aware of at least one instance when someone has filed
a complaint with the commission only to have the officer named in the
complaint learn of the filing and threaten the complainant.

"These officers are not afraid of it. There's nothing to stop that [officer
and complainant interaction] in the system. It just assumes it doesn't
happen -- but it does," he said.

Pritchard said Pivot should expand its focus on the Downtown Eastside and
include the West End and Granville Street areas where she says problems
with police are common.

"I'd love to," Richardson said, but again it is a question of money. "It's
all about the resources for me."

In the meantime, Pritchard said she is engaging in a Cop Watch program of
her own, jotting down notes and watching police behaviour downtown.

She's been in Vancouver since 2002 and collects cans to supplement her
welfare cheque that mostly goes toward the rent of her tiny hotel room.
Pritchard claims to suffer from acute stress disorder as a result of her
experience with the police and says there are many people downtown who hate
and fear the officers who are ostensibly there to protect them.

"We're sick of it and it's got to stop. ... I have to believe they're not
all bad though, because it's pretty scary if they are."