I’ve just discovered why I got stopped by the cops for no reason while walking through the Downtown Eastside last month. Turns out it’s all part of the plan — specifically, the Vancouver Police Department’s 2009 Business Plan:

[There is] a “target” in that plan to increase bylaw ticketing in the Downtown Eastside by 20 per cent to “improve livability by reducing street disorder.”As part of their duties, each cop walking the beat will do a “minimum of four street checks” of pedestrians on every block.

… [T]he B.C. Civil Liberties Association and a number of organizations representing people with AIDS complain that this latest police crackdown will simply drive the most vulnerable people in the area further away from health care and cause them to engage in more risky behaviour, including shooting up with used needles.

… The draft plan landed on the police board agenda and was made available to the public on Jan. 21. But the police actually began their latest ticketing exercise two months earlier, conveniently timed to hit the streets while Sam Sullivan was heading out the door and [Gregor] Robertson and his crowd were making plans to move in.

Looks like I was right: to the cops, simply being in the DTES is suspicious behavior. They can’t seem to do anything about the current wave of gang-related violence, but when it comes to harassing poor people, you can rely on Vancouver cops to get the job done.

And don’t expect our new and improved City Council to do much about it. When Vancouverites think about police crackdowns on poor people, we tend to think of Project Civil City, an initiative of former mayor Sam Sullivan. For those who thought that things would change now that Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver are in charge at City Hall, please take a closer look at the article I linked to above. It’s clear that Robertson and Vision are all over the VPD’s odious new business plan.

You can download the VPD business plan here.