90 ARRESTED IN DRUG SWEEP

The first five days of a major campaign has produced hundreds of
trafficking charges

Peg Fong and Frances Bula Vancouver Sun

In the first five day of a major reallocation of more officers to the
Downtown Eastside, Vancouver police arrested 90 people on trafficking
charges, about half the number of dealers they targeted in an undercover
operation.

Police have arrest warrants out for 162 people on 234 trafficking charges
after an undercover operation that began March 18 and ended April 4.

On Monday, they began serving arrest warrants on the 205 drug purchases
made during the undercover investigation and arrested 90 people over five days.

"A majority of the people we served have been released, some are still
detained and some have been released with bail restrictions," said
Inspector Doug Le-Pard, who is in charge of the City-wide Enforcement Team,
a three-month police strategy to narrow officer resources in the Downtown
Eastside. "Some who were released with bail restrictions, we've found
immediately in the area again."

A number of individuals have been re-arrested, LePard said, including one
drug dealer whom police say they arrested April 7, re-arrested April 9 and
arrested again on April 10.

"We know that bail condition is the only way to manage the people who keep
coming back and crown have told us they will seek detention orders. There's
not much point in releasing them just to have us arrest them again," LePard
said.

The police have been calling their enhanced enforcement strategy a success
by clearing up the congestion of drug activity on Hastings Street and
Carrall Street. Forty additional officers are working with the 20 already
patrolling the area to increase police presence in the Downtown Eastside.

The three-month project is being funded internally within the police force
with reallocation of officers from nearly every other department, including
traffic, major crimes investigations and property crimes.

A $2.3-million request to city council for additional officers to continue
the increased street presence until the end of the year was unanimously
turned down Tuesday, but police chief constable Jamie Graham has vowed the
disruption of the open drug market by police will continue.

The increased police presence has created problems for various community
groups in the Downtown Eastside who say the strategy is creating needless
fear among women who live and work in the area.

At a press conference Friday, street counsellors and advocates said more
policing is not what the troubled neighbourhood needs.

"This is a very dangerous campaign and one that will only increase the
violence, disease and devastation of the poorest, most marginalized young
women in Canada," said Annabel Webb, a coordinator with Justice for Girls.

Downtown Eastside Women's Centre counsellor Wanda Villanueva said the
number of women asking for protection has increased since the crackdown.

"We know they're there needing help, especially the prostituted women who
are isolating themselves from each other on the streets to avoid police
harassment," she said.

Women are now hiding from police and working in back alleys alone, instead
of using the buddy system, she said.

Mayor Larry Campbell said he is not going to listen to any more
unsubstantiated rumours about how the police have mistreated people in the
Downtown Eastside.

"If you are being mistreated by the police, it's a very serious concern and
I want to hear about it. But I'm tired of people saying they've been
mistreated by the police and not doing anything about it."

Campbell said he believes that the complaints about police brutality are
just politics on the parts of some Downtown Eastside groups.

"I don't think there's a problem between the police and the majority of
people in the Downtown Eastside."

And he also said he completely endorses what the police are doing, saying
that he is getting a lot of e-mail from people who live in the area who are
positive about the crackdown the police initiated this week.

"We don't give credit to people who live in the Downtown Eastside ... and
who just want to have a normal life. You have to recognize the Downtown
Eastside is not just addicts. There are businessmen and regular citizens
and they have rights, too."

Campbell said he had told Police Chief Jamie Graham that he would be
happier if the police action were taking place when there was a
safe-injection site in place for drug users.

But, he said, at least the police have moved ahead and done something about
their part of the "four-pillar" drug strategy the city has asked for, which
besides enforcement, includes treatment, harm-reduction and prevention.

Campbell said he's been assured by police that the only people arrested
have been those with warrants out for their arrest for trafficking.

And he said he's not interested in hearing stories about other problems --
people being handcuffed or stopped or asked for identification on the
street just because they happen to live down there and look scruffy --
until he gets first-hand reports.

The city has organized a meeting for next Tuesday to bring together all the
community organizations that were part of the original coalition that
helped develop the city's drug strategy for an update on the progress.

"We've moved to a new era where we actually have the four pillars. There's
a safe-injection site application in and police enforcement. The two
pillars that right now I'm the most concerned about are treatment and
prevention."