Saturday night in the Downtown Eastside callers to 911 were told by police operators to stay inside and lock their windows and doors (if they have a home). Downtown Eastsiders watched as a non-resident protester wielding a camera with a huge lens chanted “lawyer up if you can afford one”, “you're not from here” and “get a condo” while waving his lens at people gathered outside the Pidgin Restaurant. Police stood by comparing overtime pay stubs while the angry Gastown Gazetteer stopped and chanted outside.

It is clear to the majority of Downtown Eastsiders a complete leadership vacuum (at city hall) is to blame for this situation. We no longer find any of this the least bid amusing. These are not social justice protests. These are direct threats on our well being and lack of property.

As one extremely frightened young woman who witnessed the gestulating gentrifier marching by her on the sidewalk told The VMC: “We’ve have had enough of this shit! Unsubstantiated quotes? Attacking community centres? Condo owners?”

So The VMC asks: where is our mayor?  Where are our leaders? Who said you could use our photos?

(see original anonymous Gazette story  Mr. Robertson: Soon There Will Be Blood)

The people gathered outside the Pidgin responded with watermelon and a rousing rendition of:

Saltydarity for Pickle by Ralph Gerkin

When the pickle's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
But the pickle makes us strong.

CHORUS:
Saltydarity for Pickle,
Saltydarity for Pickle,
Saltydarity for Pickle,
For the pickle makes us strong.

Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would push us out to Surrey and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the pickle makes us strong. <CHORUS>

It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made;
But the pickle makes us strong. <CHORUS>

All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own.
While the pickle makes us strong. <CHORUS>

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the pickle makes us strong. <CHORUS>

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the pickle makes us strong. <CHORUS>

See Joesph Jones' story for context on the Pidgin protests