'MY NOSE IS SWOLLEN, MY SKIN IS GROSS, MY LIP IS CUT'

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Province, Barry Lawrie alleges
that on Jan. 14 Vancouver police scooped him off the Granville strip, drove
him to Stanley Park, beat him -- and then left him to walk home shoeless

Barry Lawrie is the first to admit he's no angel.

But he figures that's no reason for Vancouver police officers to take him
to Stanley Park and beat him up.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Province yesterday, Lawrie --
sporting a split lip, aching testicles, cuts to his face and neck and a
nose that now features a serious S-curve -- spoke out for the first time
about his alleged ordeal.

The Province interview took place on Granville Street just minutes after
Lawrie was given a ticket by police for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk.

The 33-year-old says that on Jan. 14, police scooped him off the Granville
mall strip, took him to Stanley Park, beat him -- and then left him
shoeless to walk home.

"I'm a pretty handsome guy," he said. "Look at me . . . My nose is [still]
swollen, my skin is gross, my lip is cut. It's embarrassing looking like this."

The details of the alleged assault?

"It was, like, four in the morning," Lawrie recalls. "They took us for a
ride and said we're going to learn a lesson."

Lawrie said he was carrying no drugs or drug paraphernalia that night. He
says he had been out on a date with his girlfriend in the 1100-block of
Granville and was in a store when uniformed police officers apprehended
him. Two of his acquaintances were also questioned and detained.

Lawrie said that en route to the park, the paddy wagon stopped a number of
t imes and the officers accompanying the trio talked to other police on the
street.

The men were taken to the Third Beach area of Stanley Park, he said.

"They didn't put handcuffs on us. They took us for a ride and said we're
going to learn a lesson. It was cold, the ground was wet. They made us lie
down."

Because it was dark and he was preoccupied with the assault on him, Lawrie
said he is unsure of how many officers were present, but estimated the
number at seven.

After the beating, he said, he was left to walk home alone without his shoes.

"They said there'd be trouble if I talked to anyone . . . I know this is
big-time news . . . They're freaks, they're corrupt."

Of the three men taken to Stanley Park, one is now in jail and awaiting a
court appearance on an unspecified charge.

Lawrie, who is contemplating obtaining a lawyer, said it's common practice
for police to roust him and his friends on the Granville strip.

"They take our money, our dope . . . I'm no angel, but I'm not a bad guy. I
don't know why they did it."

Drug dealers along the Granville strip told the Sunday Province yesterday
that it's become common practice for the police to roust them and take them
to Stanley Park or the area around the university.

"A lot of times, it's not a s--t-kicking," said 'Trevor.' "It's a couple of
punches to the head and a kick in the balls.

"[Then] they say if you go back there and deal drugs, it'll be worse."

Rocked by the allegations of brutality by his officers, Vancouver Police
Department Chief Const. Jamie Graham said Friday he is moving swiftly to
deal with the allegations.

Graham has announced both a criminal and an internal investigation that was
launched Tuesday against six officers, who have between one and five years'
experience on the job.

The allegation against the officers is a physically assault on three men,
aged 27, 33 and 37, on Jan. 14.

The officers, suspended with pay, allegedly picked the men off Granville
mall in a legal arrest at about 4:30 a.m. and took them to Stanley Park and
assaulted them.

The three men were picked up under Section 30/31 of the Criminal Code,
which allows police to arrest those breaching the peace. The section is
used to allow police to disperse potentially explosive situations and
remove people from the scene.

The alleged victims were not badly injured, according to VPD spokeswoman
Const. Sarah Bloor, who declined to say why the trio were picked up by police.

"There were no serious injuries, no fractures," Bloor said. "There was a
victim who received a cut to his head."

Investigators have already collected forensic evidence in the case, Graham
said, adding that at least 15 officers have been assigned to the case.

"The facts of this incident have stunned everyone in the organization,
including me," said Graham.

The Pivot Legal Society, a Vancouver-based advocacy group, released a
report last October that accused local police of abusing their authority in
the city's drug-ridden Downtown Eastside. It detailed 12 alleged incidents
the society claimed met the United Nations definition of torture.

Society director John Richardson said the information would not be sent to
Graham, because "we do not think the Vancouver police department is in a
position to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct against its own
officers."