Allegations of Brutality, Shoddy Investigations Dog Police Force
By Daniel Girard, The Toronto Star
It took more than five years and cost $800,000 in several investigations to exonerate Vancouver police of wrongdoing in the so-called Riot at the Hyatt.
The clash between the riot squad and people opposed to then-prime minister Jean Chrétien outside a downtown hotel here in December, 1998, left 11 protesters injured and resulted in lawsuits alleging police brutality. But this week, a 6,000-page report on the incident during a Liberal fundraising dinner concluded officers acted appropriately.
Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham said he hopes the report will put to rest questions of officers using excessive force. Fat chance — these are rough days for the city’s finest.
Members of the 1,100-officer Vancouver police force are under fire after a string of high-profile cases that paint them as a collection of undisciplined thugs. From the beating of drug dealers plucked off a downtown street to deaths of people in custody to claims of excessive force and brutality, there’s no shortage of disturbing accusations.
All come long after the clash over the appearance by Chrétien, his first visit to the city after the well-documented skirmish between police and protesters at the APEC summit the year before.
Earlier this year, Graham fired two officers and suspended four others for their “deplorable” actions in taking three drug dealers to Stanley Park and beating them. In a report on the January, 2003, incident, the young recruit who blew the whistle on his colleagues said one kicked a victim’s head “like a soccer ball.”
Those details were much more vicious than the facts the six agreed to in court when they pleaded guilty to common assault. Calling it “a situation of mob mentality,” Judge Herb Weitzel gave them sentences ranging from 60 days’ house arrest to an absolute discharge.
Just a week before Graham delivered his verdict, British Columbia’s police complaints commissioner, Dirk Ryneveld, called for an inquiry into the case of Frank Paul, 47. The aboriginal man, who was drunk, froze to death in December, 1998, after police allegedly dumped him in a downtown alley on a cold, rainy night. B.C. Solicitor-General Rich Coleman this week rejected the call for an inquiry, saying there was no new evidence since 2001 when he refused calls for a coroner’s inquest.
The force is also being criticized over the death of Jeff Berg, who died from a blow to the neck that caused an aneurysm and a heart attack. The officer arresting him after a home invasion in October, 2000, was found to have used reasonable force and no charges were laid, although witnesses have said Berg was beaten while trying to surrender.
The case is to be the subject of a public hearing in June as well as a coroner’s inquest.
Meanwhile, the RCMP is probing more than 50 complaints of alleged misconduct by officers in the downtown eastside. They were pursued by an area advocates’ group.
Vancouver police also face a lawsuit — and a public hearing — after two people say they were beaten leaving a riot after a rock concert was cancelled in November, 2002.
And, all the while, the force remains under fire for its handling of the investigation into prostitutes missing from the downtown eastside. In that case, now Canada’s largest serial murder probe, Robert William Pickton faces 15 first-degree murder charges.
Given all the black marks, there was, no doubt, great frustration among Vancouver police brass when allegations of more brutality surfaced last week in connection with a Feb. 29 incident in which a group of people clashed with officers outside a downtown nightclub.
Witnesses claimed officers pepper-sprayed and used their batons on seven men and women who were arrested and charged following the scuffle that began when police responded to a call from a limousine driver who said a drunk woman jumped on his car.
They have filed a report with the B.C. police complaints commissioner and may sue.
Facing these latest allegations, police this week decided it was time to fight back. Deputy Chief Constable Bob Rich took the unusual step of turning to the court of public opinion to plead his officers’ case instead of waiting to leave it to a judge in a court of law.
At a news conference, Rich spoke at length about the incident and displayed steel-toed boots he said were used to kick officers and photographs of marks on their trousers from where they were kicked. He also played tapes of two 911 calls from the limousine driver, which challenge the assertion police were the aggressors and make clear they needed backup.
Rich said that as the third police car arrived, the officers were still losing the street battle.
“I would far rather this was handled in the courts,” he said of his unusual news conference. “But somehow, the public has to have a balanced picture.”
It’s hardly surprising there are two distinctly different versions of events that night. But the fact the Vancouver police felt compelled to get their version out quickly, before the case gets to court, shows how bruised and battered they feel their image has become.