Dawson Creek Drug Bust

Well this is good news. Eleven people - eight males and three females - have been arrested and face charges after a three-month drug-bust investigation in Dawson Creek.

"This is the second undercover drug project to take place this year in Dawson Creek," said Cpl. James Rutledge. "The first one, which took place last spring, was a joint effort with the North District Drug Section from Prince George and successfully targeted the highest level drug traffickers in Dawson Creek."

Three cheers for the Police! Clearly not all police are bad. When we heard about the death of Natasha Dostal in Dawson Creek as well as the double murder there and the drug related violence that some claimed was connected to the Hells Angels we began to be concerned. A big gang can paralyze a small town.

Knowing that the Hells Angels control the drugs in neighbouring Prince George would indeed make them prime suspects if not persons of interest in Dawson Creek. Well a local cabbie has also heard rumours that the Hells Angels are responsible for the drug related violence in Dawson Creek. Let's hope this becomes a regular place for the gang squad to visit. Cheers.

CJ Spoon

Well CJ Barroby strikes gain. Do I think you're sexy? No I do not. Do us all a favor and put your shirt back on. Please. And your pants. I guess your friend was right, this photo will be on the Dirty soon. In Fact CJ links to pictures of him on the Dirty. He loves the attention.




Do ya wanna spoon with me? Dude, when this hot young lady invited me up to her room, spooning with you is NOT what I had in mind.




Oh well, here's to CJ Spoon. I guess what they say about him on the Dirty is true. He drops his pants for almost every occasion.




Pants on the ground, pants on the ground. Looking like a fool with your pants on the ground. Just ask DeStorm and the General Larry Platt.




Even when shopping with his new boyfriend.




The ladies are just paid for the show.



Dude what is up with that lip stick?



Does he where it everywhere he goes?



Now that is a face only a mother could love.



Randy Jones has way more class than that. Too bad he contracts out the sleaze to such an idiot. Any high school geek can make a facebook group contacting strippers. Ladies have a little self respect. This guy is dirty. He's even on the dirty and I wasn't the one that put him there.

The Woodwards Squat

Affordable housing is a huge concern in Vancouver. Many on the right are afraid of the word social housing. I am not. The idea behind renting a flat for one third of your monthly income is a good one. Welfare rates aren't enough to live off. That is why so many people live on the streets.

The working poor are in the same situation. Minimum wage has been frozen for many years but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Wages have changed. Look at the grocery industry. Woodwards in Guildford used to sell groceries. Now huge grocery chains like Safeway and Save on Foods have changed. Superstore came in and under sold everyone so everyone had to take huge cuts. Now if you work in the grocery industry you make a lot less that you did 15 years ago yet the cost of land and housing has increased significantly. Times have changed and it hasn't been for the better.

I met a guy from England yesterday. I have some ancestors that came from the same part of England as where he was from. They came over on ships to Canada in the 1700's. On the passenger list their reason for leaving England and coming to Canada was the same as most other passengers on the ship. Taxes and rent were too high so they came looking for a better place to live. I joked about how we are now seeing ourselves in the same situation with taxes and rents being so high only we have no place left to go.

In England you have more squatters rights than you do here in Canada. Instead of owning land in England it is more common for someone to buy a 100 year lease on a home for the same price. The only difference is that when the lease expires you can't leave your home or land to your children as an inheritance. As a result, in London there are many abandoned buildings. Since homelessness was a big problem there too, the slogan was don't let houses rot, squat. It kind of made sense. The Crown had all these abandoned buildings no one was using. If someone wanted to move in they could. Until the owner got a building permit and was ready to do something with it.

Such was the case with the Woodwards Squat. The old Woodwards building hadn't been used for many years. A group of people decided to move in while they were waiting around trying to decide what to do with the building. Those people were physically evicted from the building and forced to camp outside on the sidewalk.



The rains came and the sanitary and health conditions of the outdoor squat began to deteriorate. Then they said it was an eye sore and were preparing to move in and crush the crowd. That was when the ruthless NPA were in power in Vancouver City Hall who adapted the policy of kicking the homeless out from under bridges and stealing their personal belongings. Three cheers for First United in providing storage containers for the homeless.

The NPA were wiped out in the next civic election and Larry Campbell, Vancouver's own da Vinci saved the day. His response was far more compassionate and far less confrontational. He said they were going to find housing for the squatters before they dispersed them and moved them all on. I will clarify that they were physically removed from the squat in the very beginning and forced to camp outside on the sidewalk which isn't really a squat.

Nevertheless Larry Campbell was to be commended for having the decency to help the homeless. Unfortunately, Gordon Campbell's huge cuts to pay for his huge raises and pension have seen homelessness rise exponentially.

The point I'd like to make is a simple one. When reading over some statements from the squatters I recently saw an affidavit that said the squatters weren't just being harassed by the police. They were getting it from both sides. The drug dealers across the street were complaining about their presence and wanted them moved because the squat was reducing their sales.

"Drug dealers across the street, on Hastings, insist that they are losing $2000-$5000 per day in the trade of crack cocaine. If this was true it would lend credibility to the remark made by Jon Stovell, president of the "Gastown Business Improvement Society," that area business is suffering. This morning dealers attacked members of the squat kitchen crew in an attempt to steal food. Additional support from the community is required during the early morning hours (midnight-8am) to ensure safety at the squat."

Larry Campbell did wonders in raising the bar for humanity by showing a little compassion for the homeless. He promoted the Four Pillars. Others exploited that program and turned it into a one legged horse by only using one pillar and completely ignoring the other four which made the program fail miserably.

Enforcement is one of the four pillars. You can't have harm reduction if you don't have enforcement. That doesn't mean beating up the addicts. It means arresting the dealers. Yes it's frustrating to see the dealers get out of jail so fast in our revolving door judicial system. Yet al lit takes for evil to triumph is for good people to remain silent and do nothing.

We can't stand by idly and let the drug dealers sell crack in public. As long as we do that there will be gangs fighting over the profits and addicts getting beaten by the dealers and thrown out of windows. We stop the violence by enforcing the law and not letting the dealers sell crack in public. That would include East Van.

Sons of Anarchy

On the flip side, today I felt like I woke up in the land that time forgot. I see these two guys walking around in what looked like support gear. Then I get up close and one looked like support gear but the other was a patch on the back of a hoodie that said Sons of Anarchy British Columbia. The guy looked about 50 years old.

I'm like what the hell is that? Sons of Anarchy is a freaking TV show. It was the same name but the bottom rocker said British Columbia. OK maybe the guy just had worked on the set and was wearing a hoodie from the TV series. Surely you wouldn't have a grown man wearing a patch for a new puppet club named after a TV series. That wouldn't even be mid life crisis that'd be just plain dumb.

The Dark Side of the VPD

This is both sad and revealing. We were shocked when the police responding to a domestic abuse call went to the wrong door and gave the wrong guy the boots. We were encouraged when Jim Chu announced that he felt investigations into police misconduct should include public civilians. We were saddened once again when the Delta investigation into the incident proved to be a farce.

Now it appears the police are going out of their way to rationalize the Delta police's investigation with a bizarre story that just doesn't make sense. Proving that not only was the Delta investigation a farce but that something is very wrong with not only the process but with the VPD.

Without trying to burn every conceivable bridge possible I will clarify that there is not a doubt being a police officer is a very hard and often thankless job. Not every profession requires a person to put their life at risk every day. That is to be commended. As is the fact that there are more good people out there than bad and that includes Police. There are more good police than bad police. However, that doesn't mean we should lie for the bad ones or for the good ones who just make an honest mistake.

Today the Vancouver Sun ran an article showing that the police's version of events are very different from the victims version. Someone is lying. Let's give the police the benefit of the doubt for a minute and assume they aren't bending their version of events at all and are telling the truth. Their story is that they were responding to a domestic violence call. These kind of calls are dangerous and urgent. It is understandable that the police would have a sense of urgency finding the assailant and subduing him.

It's 2:25 AM. Two plain clothes police officers knock on the door. Without trying to distort the event one could conceivable visualize that the police banged on the door yelling open up, police!

So here we have a guy woken up out of bed in the middle of the night, groggy, to the sound of banging on the door with two frantic plain clothes police officers yelling open up police! My first reaction would be yeah right let's see some id. They flash a badge through the peephole and I'd be like what is that? Knowing full well that home invasions have occurred with people pretending to be police.

Let's give the police the benefit of the doubt. Let's say they did "identify" themselves as police banging on the guys door in the middle of the night by yelling open up police. My father once had a concern about police wearing balaclavas. He used to say that if he had a member of the emergency response team dressed in army fatigues wearing a balaclava hiding their face come pounding on his door yelling open up it's the police, "Like hell I'm opening the door. For all I know they could be terrorists."

I am of the understanding the ERT don't wear balaclavas any more which is a good thing for many reasons. The point is they were plain clothes officers banging on the guys door in the middle of the night. They woke him out of bed.

The other perspective is that it's an urgent situation. Someone has called 911 because they are getting assaulted. A delay in opening the door could mean the victim could die. The police are furious with the delay. When he finally opens the door they give him the boots for "not obeying their command."

Their claim that he pushed them just doesn't make sense. He delayed opening the door and they're pissed. That makes perfect sense. Now they have two reasons to give him the boots. First he's a wife beater. Second he delayed in obeying their command so they give him the boots. However, neither reason is just cause for the use excessive force and cave the guys face in. It wasn't just a mater of they took him down and he bumped his head which caved his eye in. No way.

They admitted Florkow employs three unsuccessful "close-handed tactical strikes" to Wu's upper shoulder. Wu continues to resist and Florkow employs two more "close-handed tactical stuns" to Wu's upper back. "Close-hand tactical strike?" Kinda like the Victoria officer who gave a few tactical strikes with his boot when the guys were on the ground? That sounds more like it. We have seen that done before. On more than once occasion.



My point is, even if the guy was accused of beating his wife, they did not see it happen and they got the wrong door. Even if he delayed in opening the door, those are not reasons to give the guy the boots once he's down on the ground and we are told it happens all the time. That's not what John McKay taught them. That more like something Jeffrey Klassen would have taught them.

I got in an argument about police brutality with a protester from East Van once. They went on and on about Pivot's legal affidavit listing testimony of police brutality in East Van. I was like yeah right from a bunch of crack heads. Not very credible witnesses. He asked me if I would read it if he sent it to me. I said yes.

The first witness was an undercover RCMP officer. I was shocked. The RCMP officer was under cover and a couple of VPD officers yell at him for jay walking. He's under cover so he gives the cops the finger. They take him aside and beat the crap out of him. One of the officers was a boxer. True the guy shouldn't have fingered the cop but that does not give the police just cause to beat the crap out of the guy.

Reasonable force means you use physical force to stop an attack and subdue and assailant. Not to punish him by beating him up after the fact. Now I know there's small beef between the RCMP and the VPD which could include hidden agendas. Yet the fact that the first witness in their affidavit of police brutality was an undercover RCMP officer to me says that was a credible witness.

Which brings me back to the article in the Vancouver Sun. The police made a mistake. People do that. Apologize. Accept responsibility for your actions. Don't lie and deny it. That's like the RCMP saying they were afraid for their life when the guy they tasered at the airport was armed with a stapler. That doesn't make sense.

It's like Peter McKay lying and saying he never referred to Belenda Stronach as a dog when they were arguing in parliament when he was caught on tape. Think about it. Belinda broke his heart. They were in a relationship.

She lost the leadership bid to the Conservative party so she left early from a night out with McKay only to go and visit Paul Martin afterwards and make the stunning announcement the next day. She was breaking up with Peter McKay, she was leaving the Conservative party and crossing the floor to join the Liberals. McKay was shocked.



So they're debating the clean air bill and a back bencher from the liberals cat calls over to Peter McKay saying this clean air bill would be good for everyone. What about your dog he sarcastically shouts out. Then Peter McKay jokingly points to Belinda's empty seat now on the other side on the house and says "You already have her."

It was hilarious given what she had done. Why lie about it? Instead of admitting he said it and apologizing he denies he said it and everything's OK. Lying isn't OK. Stronach was named as the adulteress when Tie Domi's wife sued him for divorce. Ah but I digress. My point is we all make mistakes. Let's admit them and rise above them. Let's not lie about them and perpetuate them.

The VPD backing this bizarre story means there is something wrong other than two good cops making a mistake. The VPD appears at times to be an unapproachable and impenetrable old boys club that has been regularly accused of using excessive force on the disadvantaged. That's not even getting into the Woodwards Squat eviction. Don't get me started on that.

The point is simple. Jim Chu is right. Investigations of police misconduct need civilians from the public because the RCMP would be just as quick to cover up a mistake as would any other police force in the county.

Swollen Members live at Gotcha's

Well, well, well. Here I thought Shane Bunting moved out of Kelowna. Glad to hear he's over his three year Viagra and Oxycontin addiction. I wonder who supplied him with it anyways? He admits to being friends with the Hells Angels. Looks like the Swollen Members played at Gotcha's night club in Kelowna on September 16th. They say Gotcha has new owners and they are changing the name of the club to Sapphires. Shane Broesky seems pretty solid (well relatively speaking) but who else is involved? People are saying this is supposed to be the new Liquid Zoo in disguise but I can't see a connection. Shane looks as clean as Martha Stewart. Well almost. As long as he keep arms distance from Bunting an his buddies he'll be fine.

Cranbrook murder tied to Hells Angels associate

LeaAnne MacFarlane and Jeff Taylor were gunned down May 29 2010 in their newly rented Cranbrook home. It was previously rented by a former drug dealer. They were killed by mistake.

Police announced Wednesday that four people - Lonnie Adams, Colin Correia, Lorne Carry and Chad Munroe - have each been charged with conspiracy to commit murder for allegedly plotting a hit on rival drug trafficker Doug Mahon.

Doug Mahon had earlier been charged after a shooting in front of the Sam Steele Hotel on Oct. 29, 2009. The victim was Munroe, who once was convicted of causing a disturbance at Big White along with Mission Hells Angel Jason Arkinstall.

So here we have someone shoot at a Hells Angels associate. Then we have that Hells Angels associate accused of plotting with three other guys to murder the guy who shot at the Hells Angels associate. Only they murder the wrong people by mistake.

This is first degree murder. When you plan to kill someone and end up killing an innocent person by mistake, that should carry a greater punishment than just killing a rival drug dealer.

In Ontario the Hells Angels were not only convicted of drug trafficking, they were convicted of using violence to take over the drug trade in smaller cities. That clearly appears to be what we are now seeing in British Columbia.

The Guardian Project

Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu announced a new "Guardian Project" Monday to help women in the Downtown Eastside who face disproportionate rates of "violence, injury and death."

Chu, who braved a wave of anger from Eastside residents Oct. 8 about Ashley Machiskinic's death and mounting violence against women by drug dealers, promised the Guardian Project will hold regular "town hall meetings."

The project also has set up a phone tip line at 604-215-4777, which will be staffed by E-Comm "female civilians" but offer anonymity to tipsters.

Sharon Strongarm, Ashley's step-grandmother said "I know that in the city people are afraid to speak up because they're scared of the gangs and drug dealers, but if I knew about a death, I would speak up.

Why are people so afraid to speak up? In the Town Hall meeting at the Carnegie Centre people claimed they didn't trust the police in East Van. Some claim they had reported incidents in the past but the police didn't act on them.

I see two problems. One is the gang that the drug dealers sell for. "The Boys" are cruel and people are afraid to speak out. The other problem is public trust in the police.

When we saw the police officer push the disabled woman to the ground on the security camera video we were shocked. We were also shocked that the other police officers did nothing and thought nothing of it. Residents were interviewed and said they were not surprised because they see that kind of thing happen in East Van all the time.

We were shocked when we heard the VPD gave the boots to a guy when answering a domestic abuse call. They made a mistake and got the wrong door which means they beat up the wrong guy. Yet even if it was the right guy, reasonable force means you stop someone from beating someone not you give someone the boots and punish them for beating someone after you have stopped the assault. Especially if you didn't see it.

The people trust Jim Chu. I remember an East Van resident cautiously and sarcastically ask why so many of the VPD are seen socializing with members of the Hells Angels? Now that could be a complete fabrication. Yet if a police officer had to walk the beat in East Van every day, and if the drugs sold in East Van were supplied and controlled by the Hells Angels, one would think that the police walking that beat would want to make the peace with the Hells Angels so they're not in daily conflict and danger.

Project Breakpoint ended without prosecution, much to the frustration of police investigators angered by the decision to terminate a wiretap intercept warrant just days into the authorization.

If some in the VPD were concerned that the security of the Attorney Generals office may be compromised with regards to a Hells Angels under cover operation, logic would question whether or not there were also security breaches within the VPD. We know there has been within the RCMP.

Getting civilians involved in the Guardian Project is important as is confidentiality of informants. Yet we already know the problem and why people are afraid.

California rejects legalization of marijuana

Well this vote was closely watched in BC. Tuesday voters in California voted on Proposition 19 which was a proposal to legalize small quantities of marijuana. 55% of voters were against it while 45% of voters were for it. Consequently it failed.

“There’s no way to reverse this. The momentum is on our side,” said Vancouver resident Jodie Emery, wife of activist and self-styled “Prince of Pot” Marc Emery, who is serving time in a U.S. prison for selling marijuana seeds online.

Yeah that's right. We're gonna keep re voting it until we get the answer WE want. That makes perfect sense in a democratic world. We want our rights, not their rights. I see. The results aren't very surprising.

Although we watched the results closely as the yes side did have a strong support base, it was hard to conceive that the State that just voted to ban gay marriage would vote to legalize marijuana.

What I see from this is that we need mandatory minimum sentences for selling crack or meth not for possession of pot. That would only make sense.

Delta police investigation a farce

Two Vancouver police officers who faced an allegation of abuse of authority have been cleared by Delta police investigating the incident. Cameron Ward, a lawyer for Wu, called the investigation a “farce.”

Ward said his client did nothing wrong and the findings are shocking. “This investigation was a farce,” he said. “It provides yet another example why police should not be investigating other police.”

I have to agree. Jim Chu is right. The complaint process into police misconduct must include public civilians. Anything less is a shameful disappointment.