The manager of a Vancouver real estate sales gallery has filed a complaint with the police board that alleges she witnessed an officer kick and verbally abuse a homeless man camped outside the entrance of an outlet she manages near Cambie Street and 41st Avenue.
The complainant’s allegations are outlined in a letter she sent to the police board Sept. 22.
“The officer repeatedly kicked at the man’s feet and lower legs and immediately started yelling at him to get up or he was going to jail in five minutes, continued to berate him and insult him, telling him to get a job, to quit being so lazy and entitled, etc.,” the manager wrote of the Sept. 16 incident.
“This man hadn’t yet said a word to the officer when this behaviour started and was laying down as he had been trying to sleep. The man was completely calm.”
The manager’s name was redacted in the copy of her complaint, which is included in the agenda package for the Oct. 19 meeting of the police board’s service and policy complaint review committee.
Glacier Media contacted the complainant, who said she was unauthorized to speak on behalf of her employer. Her complaint relates to an address in the 5800-block of Cambie Street, where there is a row of real estate marketing outlets.
The manager requested the name of the company she works for not be published.
'Don't you think I want to get better'
The woman said she phoned police after suggesting several times to the homeless man that he would be more comfortable at the back of the building, away from traffic and the sun. She needed him to move because the outlet had opened.
The man was sleeping in a makeshift shelter he made and “was not causing a disturbance in any way,” she said, adding it was a “difficult decision” to call police for assistance.
“When police arrived, as I peered through the window, I was shocked at the aggressive stance the officer took immediately,” she said, adding that the man began to cry and allegedly told the officer: “Don’t you think I want to get better, I want to get healthy, but I don’t have a home. I am just trying to get some sleep.”
The manager then came outside and allegedly told the officer, “we don’t need to be disrespectful to this man, we can have compassion for this man. I am not mad at him and he is not a bad person.”
She added: “I again offered for him to go to the back of the building. The officer backed off a bit but continued the barrage of threats until the man got up and gathered his things.”
The complainant did not get the officer’s name or badge number, according to correspondence from the police board included in the agenda package. The information can be found, if needed, by the VPD, said an email from a police board staff member.
In a separate letter from the board, it states that a sub-committee reviewed the complaint and said the allegations, “if substantiated, are troubling.”
The sub-committee has recommended the Police Complaint Commissioner and Chief Adam Palmer be advised that the board received the complaint “and recommend that appropriate action to investigate and deal with it be undertaken.”
The sub-committee further recommended the board provide the complainant with an explanation of the legislation and criteria for the different processes for investigating and addressing complaints.
'Anger management training'
The woman said in her written complaint that her best friend is a police officer.
“I know how much they deal with, but perhaps their day would also be less stressful if they chose compassion over aggression in the situations that allow it,” she said.
“This attending officer should be ashamed of himself as a human and as a public servant. Honestly, I don’t think he should have his badge until he goes for some anger management training.”
The same agenda package before the police board Oct. 19 includes a report from the VPD’s professional standards section and a “compliments report,” which contains excerpts of letters from the public expressing their gratitude for officers’ work on various calls and presentations.
Data from the professional standards section showed 40 investigations into complaints against officers were concluded in the third quarter of this year, with 10 substantiated, 18 unsubstantiated and nine informally resolved.
Two were discontinued and one was withdrawn.
The report doesn’t provide details on the nature of the complaints.
