STORY posted on February 10, 2010 by dawn
Pre-Olympics Vendor Crackdown Continues
Street economy in Downtown Eastside under threat
Chili Bean, second from left. Pigeon Park, Vancouver // Photo by Dawn Paley
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As the Olympic spectacle draws nearer, concerns around policing and an increasing criminalization of the poor in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are turning into reality.
"I heard a long time ago, through the grapevine, that the [Vancouver Police Department] was cracking down on vending, which means selling personal or stolen items on the sidewalk," said Chili Bean, herself a vendor and long time resident of the neighbourhood.
"They're giving out tickets and during the Olympics and if you have not paid your ticket, they're going to send a warrent for your arrest and then put you in jail for a lot of time of the Olympics if you can't pay it," she said in an interview this morning at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre.
Chili Bean explained that a woman who lives in hotel was arrested in mid-January, after failing to pay three outstanding vending tickets worth a total of $900. She was held in jail for three nights.
"She got thrown in jail; it was a Friday; she didn't come back until Monday," said Chili Bean. "She's never been to jail in her life." Three other vendors were detained that weekend due to unpaid vending tickets.
In the run up to the Games, local cops have pursued ticketing as a "proactive" policing strategy. In their 2009 business plan, released last January, the Vancouver Police Department set a target of a five per cent increase in "the number of charges, warrant arrests, street checks and traffic tickets completed by Patrol officers."
"Ticketing has happened before, but it's escalated," said Harsha Walia, an organizer with the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. Prior to the arrests of four vendors in January, Walia said she wasn't aware of anyone being arrested and held for unpaid vending tickets.
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Comments
Promise not to give homeless people fares out of the city..right
Being an ex vancouverite and moving here to Nanaimo a year ago, I've seen quite a few people that use to live on the DTES living on the streets here in Nanaimo. I thought that Vancouver wasn't going to do that...giving tickets to Nanaimo. Well there not, what there doing is giving them tickets to Victoria and then up to Nanaimo. Expo all over again. I'm totally against the Olympics as it's only for the @#&!! rich and wealthy and not for the working class people nor for the less fortunate person. Who can afford aproximatly $1000.00 for a ticket to watch Canada play hockey? Not your average joe
So, they're enforcing laws
So, they're enforcing laws that already exist, that they were historically slack on?
It makes perfect sense to me, I mean people are going to flock to the street to sell things to tourists, they need to find a way to stem that before it gets out of hand.
I can certainly sympathise, but let's not start decrying a police state just yet.