COPS SAY GOAL IS TO DISPERSE DEALERS

Vancouver police say they don't want to send the downtown east side's drug
problem into other neighbourhoods, but they do want to disperse the dealers.

"It is a concern because we don't want to displace a drug problem into
another community," said Insp. Gary Greer, in charge of police operations
in the downtown east side and a big chunk of the city's east side.

"What we are attempting to do is a dispersal.

"The dispersal is send a couple of guys [here], a couple of guys there.
Their impact on a community is quite small, but when you have 20 or 30 on a
street corner like you may see in front of the Carnegie Centre [at Main and
Hastings], it becomes a real problem.

"It's not only a threat to the community. It's difficult for the police to
deal with, because two policemen approaching 30 people can't do much.

"So our attempt is to break this up. We don't want those kind of numbers
anywhere in the city.

"We want to disperse this problem as best we can, so that they don't have
an impact on the city.

"If a community is relatively healthy, it is hard for these guys to
establish themselves on a street corner. The downtown east side, which is
beset with so many other problems . . . it's relatively easy for them to be
down there. And without a community to really attack them."