Victoria Police Strappado: Definitely Not Bravado
by Janine Bandcroft
My friend Don studies a lot of history, and he told me that there were hundreds of tents surrounding Fort Victoria when the gold rush was on. In those days tents were a sign of prosperity, but nowadays tents are evidence of the failure of capitalism and those proponents of an increasingly failed economic system are too big-headed to admit it so they continue to punish the victims.
Yesterday, while Don and I were sipping on coffee and matcha in a warm welcoming coffee house, some brave souls were contributing to the history of homelessness in Victoria. They had camped the night before next to City Hall.
They represent the 1500 other homeless people who have been identified. Not surprisingly our brutish out-going mayor, Alan Lowe, had them all arrested and later in the day I watched the corporate media’s account of the story.
The corporate media spoke of ‘David Johnston’s group,’ in a flagrant attempt to label and identify a single perpetrator. I know that these are all individuals who are fighting, peacefully and non-violently, for the rights of all homeless people everywhere. Unfortunately, the corporate news attempts to pander to the lowest common denominator, the thug mentality. They would prefer we celebrate the theft of citizens’ money to ‘bail out’ a failed economic system, at the same time denouncing its victims as criminals.
The method Victoria’s police used to haul Tavis Dodds (Street Newz writer and candidate for City Council) away was identified during the Spanish Inquisition and it’s called ’strappado.’
Basically they handcuffed Tavis’ hands behind his back (not sure if they used Oak Bay’s senior friendly cuffs or the real metal kind) while he was laying on his stomach, then they lifted him by the cuffs. Another officer held his legs. His back was bowed, his arms stretched unnaturally upwards behind his back. There’s information about this particular torture method at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strappado.
I was wincing while watching Tavis who must have been in extreme pain. If our little local war were recognized as such, the police officers could be charged with a war crime, in violation of the Geneva Convention, for this tactic. And it’s essentially illegal to film this, and humiliate their victim, though if they hadn’t filmed it and aired it on television, we wouldn’t have seen. Strange, too, that Alan Lowe is speaking the very same words they’re hearing from Seattle’s mayor Greg Nickels who claims that the folks living in Nickelsville, one of Seattle’s tent cities, are not actually homeless.
(You’re full of shit, Alan Lowe, and your American minded police are violating international conventions. You’re completely missing the point. There are a small handful of your homeless community, the community you’ve watched during these nine years of your development minded administration grow from essentially nothing to now over 1500, who have a clear understanding of why homelessness exists and who its victims are and how evil it is for you to sit on your fat ass and laugh while people die. Those people are in your face with it, lest you forget. And now you’ve endorsed Dean Fortin to carry on with your death-affirming policies ….)
For God’s sake folks, and I don’t even believe in the patriarchal deity, but for Heaven’s sake, for the Goddess’ sake, for all our sake… don’t vote for more ego-driven maniacal police inspired leadership. There’s a clear choice here – are you in favour of helping, in a small way, society’s most vulnerable? Not with more rhetoric about education and housing first policies, but immediately, now, with the establishment of a tent city?
To any and all who would argue its merits, I say Portland’s Dignity Village and no, I don’t trust you anymore.
I realize that in recent posts I’ve described myself as an anarchist, mostly because I cannot stomach the idea of endorsing politicians who vote, for example, without asking my opinion, to appeal perhaps the first supreme court decision that has been argued in favour of homeless peoples’ rights. In light of this war we’re waging, peacefully and non-violently, with the enemy clearly defined as those who would deny people tents through yet another Canadian winter, who would do absolutely nothing to help people establish even the most rudimentary self-security, I’m going to take a big risk and endorse Steve Filipovic in the November 15th municipal election.
I’ve known Steve for many years and his values and principles remain consistent. He is reasonable, educated, compassionate, and I believe he can offer leadership that will bridge the gap, whether it’s illusory or as real as we’ve been led to believe, between the local business community and the growing number of capitalism’s victims.
Steve listened carefully on Thursday night as lawyers Irene Faulkner and Cathie Boies Parker explained the history of the legal suit, and the judge’s verdict.
There’s introductory information from Rose Henry, also a candidate for councillor, and it’s all unedited and online at http://relativenewz.ca in the podcast section.
A ten minute summary is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV-BtkAD0WY.
Last night I wandered over to the Oak Bay fire department bonfire. I talked to the people dressed as Fire-fighters, asked how they protected the ground from the big bonfire. Sand, I was told. And what are we burning? Palettes, was the reply.
We can’t find a little piece of land for people to pitch tents, or build small structures for themselves (of course not, the mayor’s an architect), but we can burn perfectly usable palettes. They cut down the forests, and they throw them away. Kinda like what they do with people who refuse, or are unable, to participate in their little capitalistic circus.
Steve for Mayor.
Filed under: Anti-poverty, Homelessness, activism, local, tent city
