"[unintelligible] i'll smack you" says the officer whose badge number ends in 748, then seeing the camera, covers it. as you can see, this is the northeast corner of Columbia and Hastings #DTES
@defund604 @mmeenaakshii @HarshaWalia @TonyeAganaba @christineeboyle

thats the location of OPS, the auxillary health service that prevents death operated by @sarahblyth. she asks

"where do you get off, picking on women?"

"i have no idea what you're talking about. no idea, ma'am. go back to dealing drugs. see ya"

cc @DrMtyndall @jajawoot

here's Deputy Chief Howard Chow last week at the BC Police Act Reform Committee

"We're not criminalizing this," he says
https://www.leg.bc.ca/documents-data/committees-transcripts/20210407am-PoliceActReform-Victoria-Blues

this from the VPD report "Our Community in Need," released the day after the police board requested 21% of the city budget.

as above, theyre insisting here that they not only support harm reduction and decriminalization, they "advocate" for it
https://vpd.ca/police/assets/pdf/reports-policies/our-community-in-need.pdf

the police say they made 16 charges of possession in 2019 and only 4 in 2020 so its like this is the magic land of decriminalization already except there are cops everywhere

do you see how the lack of possession charges has no much to do with "criminalization"? here's an officer threatening to smack the operator of an overdose prevention site while standing at the entrance. he feels this is fine. then he calls her a drug dealer. see ya

#SafeSupply?

do you see how this policing (but no possession charges) contributes to the increase in drug policy-related deaths in COVIDtimes? like any other service, every site is diligent about physical distance, meaning that people have to line up & wait outside.

obviously they cannot.

what are you going to stand there and let them take your stuff? no possession charges, but the police just took your stuff, so what are you going to do?

go somewhere else to use.
https://vpd.ca/police/assets/pdf/foi/2020/seized-illicit-substances-may-17-2019-to-june-9-20.pdf

policing the access to an overdose prevention is the act of criminalization itself, which in turn causes a very real health hazard, according to this, the BC Public Health Act, by the willing creation of a barrier
https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/08028_01#section15

criminalization is a process
a crime is a specific event/action at a point in time

laying charges takes time, and paperwork, and they "advocate for decriminalization" but they do want to keep on criminalizing

(if you give'em trouble, they'll charge you with trafficking anyway)

this is the deliberate creation of a barrier between you and the only type of health service created by provincal order to save your life, ie revive you from death (because theyre Death Prevention Sites) and this is a public health emergency

(ministerial order, dec 2016)

like the false and fatal COVID governmental belief that there's way to *balance public health and the economy*

the overdose response is built on finding "the balance between public health and public safety*

rather than, say, having the goal of not letting everyone die

if the province doesn't care, we will, and bring our claim that the VPD is in violation of the public health act to the govt

the remedy is to #decriminalize people who use drugs

like this (option 2, pg 38) ⇩ ↝ with a new Police Act
cc @BCGreens
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/about-bc-s-health-care-system/office-of-the-provincial-health-officer/reports-publications/special-reports/stopping-the-harm-report.pdf

wednesday is five years of emergency. this is one thing we want, so lets bring it to the provincial government loudly

dont demand They do *something*
we need them to do exactly this.

their laws are preventing us from trying to stay alive

tell them
#DecriminalizeYourself

tell them right here https://twitter.com/BCLegislature/status/1370387086302322696?s=20