POLICE CRACKDOWN HAVING AN EFFECT

For Rory Nymark, it's an unusual sight-two elderly men engaged in polite
conversation outside the meat store he manages on West Hastings near Main.

It's unusual because Nymark would normally see drug dealers outside
Save-On-Meat Inc., one of the few long-time businesses on the drug-plagued
strip.

"We'd have to call 911 sometimes eight to 10 times a day because of the
crack [cocaine] being sold outside," said Nymark Monday from inside the
store at 43 West Hastings, which opened in 1957.

A month after police began a controversial crackdown on drug dealers in the
Downtown Eastside, Nymark said he's spending less time on the phone to 911
dispatchers and more time greeting new customers.

"When I'm having conversations with people who shopped here 25 years ago,
I'm thinking, 'Wow, this is really nice,'" he said. "It's not a big
difference yet, but there is a difference. We don't usually get the
Yaletown crowd coming in, but we're seeing that now, too."

Insp. Doug LePard, head of the city-wide enforcement team that's undertaken
the crackdown, is glad Nymark is happy with the police effort. LePard said
the focus was never to totally rid the streets of dealers, but to restore
public order to the community.

Though he admits some dealers have moved west to the Dunsmuir/Richards area
and others have retreated to hotels, LePard said the courts have helped
keep others off the streets or away from the Downtown Eastside.

Seven dealers have pleaded guilty to trafficking and 29 suspected dealers
have been detained pending their trials. Police still have 25 warrants out
for the arrest of other suspected dealers working in the Downtown Eastside.

The city also shut down a pizza joint and a pawn shop after police
discovered the businesses were buying stolen goods. They received three and
four-month business licence suspensions, respectively.

Despite accusations from critics, LePard stressed police are arresting
suspected dealers, not addicts, unless they are engaged in a crime other
than drug dealing or have a warrant out for their arrest.

LePard said the department has not received one written complaint since the
crackdown began April 7, adding accusations of police brutality by the
Pivot Legal Society are unfounded.

"I don't know how you respond to that in that they never ever provide any
details of anything we can investigate."

Katrina Pacey of Pivot said the society is preparing to launch a mass
complaint against the police for alleged misconduct. Pacey alleges police
have committed illegal searches and seizures and there is evidence of
"police violence and brutality."

Pacey said the crackdown has simply driven addicts and dealers underground,
with no attendant decrease in drug dealing in the Downtown Eastside.

As a result, addicts have been scared away from needle exchanges, forcing
them to share syringes, which could lead to an increase in HIV/AIDS cases,
she said.

Pacey argues the police crackdown should be scrapped in favour of a
health-based approach, which includes supervised injection sites and
treatment centres.

"People are feeling terrorized."

New York-based Human Rights Watch, which visited Vancouver during the first
week of the crackdown, is expected to issue a report today on its
observations. The report is titled, "Abusing the User: Police Misconduct,
Harm Reduction and HIV/AIDS in Vancouver."