This cover-up has been another
VPD/OPCC co-production
Looks like the OPCC helped Vancouver cops
cover up an especially troubling assault.
Yet the B.C. government wants the OPCC
to run the new Independent Investigation Office
July 28, 2010
Nearly seven weeks after the VPD assault on a disabled woman, an outside police force has begun an investigation and the cop has been reassigned out of the neighbourhood. This is the very least the VPD should have done on June 9, the day of the assault. Vancouver police were obviously hoping to cover it up.
Moreover the ex-cops at B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner still haven’t explained why they failed to make a public statement prior to July 22, when the B.C. Civil Liberties Association released the video. The OPCC refused to answer further media inquiries after issuing its brief July 22 statement. Stan Lowe and his crew must surely have colluded with the Vancouver police cover-up in one of two ways: Either the OPCC knew about the assault all along but helped the VPD keep it quiet, or the OPCC didn’t know until July 22, but falsely claimed the VPD had informed them on June 9.
The July 22 before-and-after contrast once again shows how Vancouver Police Professional Standards and the OPCC deal with complaints. It all depends on whether they get publicity, support from an influential group or caught on video.
The OPCC’s collusion results from B.C. delegating police oversight to people very close to the police. Every member of Stan Lowe’s crew is a product of police culture. Some of them were hired directly from the police forces they supposedly oversee. Some of them are blatantly dishonest.
They answer to nobody — absolutely nobody at all.
And these are the people who could end up in charge of B.C.’s proposed “civilian” investigation unit.
Read more about the Stan Lowe/Rollie Woods/OPCC cover-up
of VPD constable Taylor Robinson’s assault on a disabled woman
Read more about B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner
Read more news and comment about police accountability in B.C.