Report from the March Against Police Brutality in Vancouver
by Anti-Pig
March 16, 2004
About 100 people marched through the streets of Vancouver on the night of Monday, March 15, 2004, marking the International Day Against Police Brutality. The event was organized in an autonomous way by the "March 15 Organizing Group" and the Vancouver Squeegee Council, without protest marshals, police liasons, media spokespeople or press releases, expressing a radical perspective against the police and the rich elite who they protect. After a free meal, marchers chanted "No more pigs in our communities! Fuck the pigs!" as they snaked through the Downtown Eastside, past the Main Street police station, up Granville Street, and then through Vancouver's yuppie shopping district on Robson Street. Residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside spoke out against the constant harassment and brutality that they face every day, and about 20 masked-up rebels flew red-and-black flags and banged on make-shift drums and newspaper boxes throughout the spirited demonstration. There were no arrests during the march itself, but earlier in the day police harrassed a small group who were leafletting for that night's event and arrested another person in a seperate incident.
In Montreal about 500 people marched through the city, drawing attention to recent cases of police brutality and police-related deaths. Towards the end of the event, a clash broke out with the police, as bottles were hurled at the cops and trash cans were set on fire. The riot squad was deployed and nine people were arrested.
The Brutality of Policing in Vancouver
Reports from Montreal and Winnipeg -
Compte-rendu de la manif du 15 mars 2004 (report on the Montreal march - in French)
Winnipeggers Take to the Streets on the Eighth International Day Against Police Brutality
NDP/COPE Commercial Drive "Community Safety" Forum Disrupted
by Anti-Pig
March 17, 2004
As a follow up to the International Day Against Police Brutality, eight young rebels disrupted a "community safety" forum on March 16 at the Britannia School on Commerical Drive. Completely rejecting dialogue with the class enemy or any kind of political representation, the group heckled the panel of NDP and COPE politicians, yelling "Fuck the police", and calling the NDP out on their opportunistic hypocrisy by shouting about their cuts to welfare in 1996.
A few attendees swarmed the young group and screamed at them to "shut up". After one of the rebels took the microphone to clearly express that they were not there to engage in a "democratic debate", but were instead disturbing the peace of the politicians in open class war, the group stormed out of the meeting, singing "No more pigs in our communities!"
The forum was part of a growing push from the middle and upper class for increased policing in Vancouver. Over the past few weeks the Vancouver Police have initiated a "crackdown" on Commercial Drive, arresting and photographing groups of young people on the street and harassing panhandlers.
The COPE civic party also sent an occupation force of 60 new cops into the Downtown Eastside in April of 2003. Now they claim to want to deal with the displacement of "crime" to the Commercial Drive area by using the same methods - bringing in more cops.
In 1995, the ruling NDP party ordered the RCMP to assault indigenous defenders at Gustafsen Lake in BC, with a "shoot-to-kill" policy. Armored Personnel Carriers, land mines and more than 70,000 rounds of ammunition were used to prevent Secwepemc people from holding a ceremony on their own land.
International Day Against Police Brutality 2003 in Vancouver