Profiling the Poor as Terrorists

[William Prest]

Despite the $900 million spent on Olympic security, the RCMP thinks that this is inadequate. They mention that "criminals" are planning protests to disrupt and terrorize the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Winter Olympics. They claim a ten minute search on the internet has revealed a host of planned criminal attacks being organized against the games. So they justify cordoned "free speech zones", censorship, suspension of human rights, 900 cameras, seven thousand police and 5 thousand private security and 4,500 soldiers to pre-empt the attacks. They claim to have uncovered;

Olympic Mascots carrying Molotov cocktails
The Olympic rings with Nazi swastikas
Masked protesters in abundance
Burning tire barricades blocking major highways
A "photograph" showing the "Spirit Train" being overturned off the tracks by criminal protestors
Images of beheading and the quote "Elementary to the art of war, cut off the head and the body will die."
A banner reading "Riot 2010"

Anyone who is critical of the Olympics, is in line to be profiled as a terrorist including the author for writing this article, although the author has not highlighted the Olympics because there are far more serious issues afoot such as the state of the world economy, accelerating unemployment, homelessness, hunger, disease and divisive manipulations in Iran and China in order for the International bourgeoisie to orchestrate a take over as well as escalation of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Meanwhile, the police have been rioting on the poor and ethic minorities well before the Olympics. Firoz Khan was attacked and robbed by three off duty cops. The off duty police were arrested by Vancouver police and were temporarily suspended with pay. Firoz Khan was doing his job delivering papers to the Hyatt Regency Hotel when attacked without provocation and robbed of $200. He has an extemporary work record according to his employer. He was working with his wife who witnessed the horror. The off duty drunken cops hurled insults like "We don't like brown people." Sixteen hours later, the police held a mini victory parade on Robson St. chanting "You have heard it told, Police wings are solid gold." as an obscene gesture of victory over minorities and human rights. After the attack in Feb. 2009, neither Firoz or his wife have returned to work as of Jul. 2009.

Police have issued over 1,000 tickets since the beginning of 2009 to mostly poor and homeless people in downtown Vancouver, primarily in the DTES at an average of $125 each. The total cost to the poor is $125 thousand, a cost they can ill afford with low or now welfare income. Many make a living recycling or begging (a fining or jailable offence). When they can't pay, they spend thirty days in jail for crimes such as spitting, begging, sleeping in the streets. riding a bike without a bell or a helmet, jaywalking and the like. Vancouver has recently closed some homeless shelters due to NIMBY reaction and has destroyed 700 social housing units in a bid to beautify in time for the Olympics.

Police have been witnessed attacking Iranian and Iraqi individuals 15 on one, racing to the scene in high speed squad cars, lights flashing and sirens wailing from all directions and them throwing them to the ground and beating them senseless in the heart of the financial district at 2 AM near the entertainment district.

Police have also been witnessed arresting people without charge or giving an explanation when requested in deference to the Canadian Charter of Rights as required under the criminal code of Canada in reading charter rights to arrestees. Perhaps this is the extension of the Patriot Act, Homeland Securities Act and the Oct. 2006 suspension of Habeas Corpus working its way into Canadian sovereignty.

And then there are the seemingly endless incidents of tasering. One prominent example among many stands out. Almost every one in North America is familiar with the taser death of Robert Dziekanski on October 14th, 2007, at 1:28 AM who was attempting to find help when he arrived at the Vancouver Airport and got lost. He did not speak any English and flew to Vancouver form Poland to see his mother in Vancouver. In a bid to find help without anyone who spoke Polish, he became increasingly distraught and agitated and started to act in what became interpreted as a threatening manner, overturning furniture in frustration to get help in his plight. He was mistaken to be in a rage by people at the airport, who called in security and the police. The result of the breakdown in communication was that he was shot with tasers more than once by the RCMP. In fact, videos under review in the courts show him being tasered some five times over a 31 second period. He screamed in agony until the final taser shots finally killed him. There are dozens of other incidents in Canada and some of them fatal. Though some are being removed from the field, some are still in use.

Most of this is not reported in the media. Two of the incidents were witnessed by the author and the author wonders what is going on that is not witnessed. The number of poor is now dramatically rising due to the collapsing world economy, adding much more fuel to world wide tension to the mix. The only solution to cop brutality of all forms is to make a world wide proletarian revolution and smash the bourgeois state apparatus according to what Lenin Stated

[William Prest]

Somewhere in this group of sites is a commentary on the destruction of social housing priror to the 2010 Olympics. Within that post there is a comment on the destruction of housing while people are still living inside. As of Nov. 11th 2009, an arsonist "possibly an inside job" set the remains of the coplex ablaze while four families were still living in one of the buildingw while the rest are being cleared for the building of a new tower by the new property owner. While the buildings were being buldozed down, someone entered the site by night and set a fire. As of now there is no word on the fate of the last tenants. Meanwhile, there are tough new laws to deal with the homeless.