STREET PATROL BRUTAL FOR POLICE, OFFICER SAYS

Force Veteran Tells Complaints Hearing Into Vpd Firings About Rough Dealers

VANCOUVER -- Beats officers face "absolutely brutal" street warfare every
night in the city's downtown core, a public hearing into complaints against
two fired constables was told yesterday.

Sergeant Curtis Robinson, a 21-year veteran of the Vancouver Police
Department, told the hearing that a chronic drug-dealing problem is
concentrated in a few blocks on West Pender, Seymour and Granville Streets.

"It is absolutely brutal," Sgt. Robinson said outside court of the crime
dealt with by rotating teams of uniformed officers who patrol what is known
as District One.

In that area on Jan. 24, 2003, six police officers picked up three
suspected drug dealers, taking them to a remote location in Stanley Park,
where they roughed them up and warned them to stay away from Granville
Mall, a busy entertainment district.

After pleading guilty in provincial court last year to common assault,
three of those police officers received suspended sentences and the VPD
suspended them for 20 days without pay.

One officer received an absolute discharge in court but the police
department suspended him for 20 days without pay.

Two officers -- Constable Duncan Gemmell and Constable Gabriel Kojima --
were sentenced respectively to 60 days and 30 days house arrest and each
received six months probation. The VPD then fired them both.

Mr. Gemmell and Mr. Kojima asked the Police Complaints Commissioner to hold
a public inquiry into the matter.

The two men are hoping for a ruling that their punishment was out of line
with what the others received and for an order that they be reinstated.

In agreeing to call the hearing, Police Complaints Commissioner Dirk
Ryneveld noted that in neither the criminal case nor in the VPD internal
investigation was evidence given under oath.

He said the hearing, which retired B.C. Supreme Court judge Donald Clancy
is adjudicating, will allow a full public airing of the case, including
subjecting witnesses to cross-examination.

Police Complaint Commission counsel Dana Urban asked Sgt. Robinson, the
lead witness, to describe the crimes police typically face patrolling the
downtown core.

Using a red pen to highlight problem areas, Sgt. Robinson said the 500
block of West Pender and the 600 and 900 blocks on Seymour Street are well
known for drug dealing.

He said the entertainment strip on Granville Mall has alcohol-related
crimes as patrons pour out of clubs. There is also drug dealing along the
street, which is lined with theatres, restaurants and bars.

"There is some crack-cocaine trafficking . . . and late at night there are
always fights and damage to property," he said of the city's key
entertainment district.

Sgt. Robinson said one of the worst areas downtown is on West Pender Street.

"It has been taken over and is in the direct control of Central American
crack traffickers," he told the hearing.

Outside the courtroom, Sgt. Robinson elaborated on the problem.

"Honduran refugee crack traffickers are really making life difficult [for
police] down there," he said. "They go down there every day to sell crack
cocaine. Police arrest them and a day later they are back.

"These are people who are in Canada claiming refugee status. Some of them
have just arrived in the country. . . . The record we have so far is one
day. A person was arrested for selling drugs 24 hours after arriving in
Canada."

Sgt. Robinson said the drug traffickers "are very confrontational. They are
organized . . . and they have utter disdain for the police."

In the hearing, Sgt. Robinson was asked to comment on the three men who
were taken to Stanley Park by the police team, and who subsequently laid
criminal complaints.

He said he'd had encounters with them all, and described one as "a crime
wave" who he would like to see banned from the city.

Police patrol teams, he said, would often pick up people like that because
they thought they were intending to breach the peace, and would transport
them to another area. Suspected drug dealers picked up in the Granville
Mall, Seymour and West Pender locations were usually taken to the Downtown
Eastside before being released without charges.

Sgt. Robison said he'd never known police to "breach" anyone to Stanley Park.

"It's not a sound decision," he said, because the park has no public
transportation late at night, and people are often in the park, jogging or
making out in parked cars.

Sgt. Robinson also said "the optics" of dropping someone in the park would
be bad because it would be hard for police to explain.

The hearing, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.