Still no police complaints four weeks after riot: Eby
Posted Jul 13, 2011 08:04:01 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Today marks four weeks since the Stanley Cup riot in Downtown Vancouver, a night that saw police overwhelmed by vandals and looters.
David Eby with the BC Civil Liberties Association is surprised his office still hasn’t received a single complaint, especially given the scale of the event and the amount of policing involved. He points out there were numerous complaints after the APEC riot in 1997, the Riot at the Hyatt in 1998, the Guns N’ Roses Riot in 2002, and even during last year’s Olympics.
Eby figures people are too ashamed to admit they were there.
“I think that as soon as you put your name on a complaint saying [I know] a police officer used force on me downtown during this riot, people will ask well, what the heck were you doing downtown?” Eby explains.
“I think the public attitude around the riot has probably caused people to be reluctant to file complaints,” he adds.
Eby thinks that is understandable, saying that ultimately, police should be praised for displaying remarkable restraint on June 15.
Mounties and the VPD won’t speculate about the lack of complaints – they prefer to let the provincial government’s independent review speak for itself.
