How did Downtown Eastside
incident get filmed?

A letter published in the Vancouver Sun, July 28, 2010

Re: Vancouver police apologize after officer pushes over disabled woman, online edition, July 22

Vancouver police claim an investigation has been underway since June 9, the day of the incident. If so, why didn’t the VPD and the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner inform the public?

Why weren’t the officers suspended, put on administrative duties or at least transferred to a different neighbourhood? If the VPD is committed to having serious cases investigated by outside police forces, why didn’t an outside force investigate this incident?

This story says, “No one at the OPCC returned calls Thursday,” when the incident came to light. Why not? Apart from the shocking video, this looks like another failure of B.C.’s police complaint system.

Greg Klein
Vancouver

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