Pubdate: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2005, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Mark Hume Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom