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A police crackdown ticketing activities like spitting, panhandling, jaywalking, and curbside vending in the Downtown Eastside will be used as an excuse to get the poor off the streets ahead of the 2010 Games, poverty activists alleged yesterday.
“There’s a big crackdown,” said Chili Bean, who is an activist with the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre’s Power of Women Group. Bean helped organize a protest/yard sale yesterday on the sidewalk outside Vancouver Police Department building on Main Street.
“As the Olympics get closer, the tickets will be summoned. And if you can’t pay the fine … you are going to go to jail,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Vancouver Police Department could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Bean alleged that people in the Downtown Eastside are being given tickets for infractions like spitting and selling items on the sidewalk and will be thrown in jail because they cannot afford to pay.
According to organizers of the event tickets for violating the Safe Streets Act jumped to 467 last year, up from 202 tickets in 2007.
Police also wrote 133 Trespass Act tickets in 2008, up from 95 in 2007. Bylaw infractions increased to 439, up from 247 in 2007.
Not paying the tickets will result in “no-go” court orders to keep chronic offenders out of certain areas, said organizers in a press release.
“They’re picking on the Downtown Eastside,” said Karen Lahay, one of the organizers. “They haven’t been ticketing anywhere else.”
“There’s a big crackdown,” said Chili Bean, who is an activist with the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre’s Power of Women Group. Bean helped organize a protest/yard sale yesterday on the sidewalk outside Vancouver Police Department building on Main Street.
“As the Olympics get closer, the tickets will be summoned. And if you can’t pay the fine … you are going to go to jail,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Vancouver Police Department could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Bean alleged that people in the Downtown Eastside are being given tickets for infractions like spitting and selling items on the sidewalk and will be thrown in jail because they cannot afford to pay.
According to organizers of the event tickets for violating the Safe Streets Act jumped to 467 last year, up from 202 tickets in 2007.
Police also wrote 133 Trespass Act tickets in 2008, up from 95 in 2007. Bylaw infractions increased to 439, up from 247 in 2007.
Not paying the tickets will result in “no-go” court orders to keep chronic offenders out of certain areas, said organizers in a press release.
“They’re picking on the Downtown Eastside,” said Karen Lahay, one of the organizers. “They haven’t been ticketing anywhere else.”
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