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Gang squad


Special Ed

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I don't look or dress douchebag, and can walk around cities like L.A., Montreal, Toronto, Seattle, Phoenix etc all day without recieving any police attention, yet for whatever reason I get stopped and questioned quite often in Vancouver.

I don't bother with local clubs and bars, but I can imagine if I did I'd be hassled by these Training Day wannabes on a regular basis.

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Cops are like trained dogs .. they look for "attitude" as part of their profiling, and then human nature takes over .. IMO, the majority of police in BC are not psychologically suited to their profession .. I base this on personal experience, and from dialogue with several "police-friends" .. best to keep a low profile and try to stay under the radar ..

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I don't look or dress douchebag, and can walk around cities like L.A., Montreal, Toronto, Seattle, Phoenix etc all day without recieving any police attention, yet for whatever reason I get stopped and questioned quite often in Vancouver.

I don't bother with local clubs and bars, but I can imagine if I did I'd be hassled by these Training Day wannabes on a regular basis.

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GS also works on behalf of the owners/managers of establishments they visit. The owners may be actually calling the GS to come check you out based on your appearance. Obviously this is stereotyping, discriminatory, and looks overly paranoid on the owners part but remember the last thing they want is a shooting/stabbing in their businesses, so the caution is warranted. GS is "harassing" you simply to find out who you are. Once they realize you aren't involved in any gang activity and have no connections to gangs, they'll probably leave you alone. So just keep your story straight and consistant when speaking with GS officers and they'll forget about you.

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Gang Squad seems to be blatantly discriminating against a lot of people. This is tough though, because if they get called they probably have to respond. I'm sure if I called the police (never mind gang squad) and said someone outside by home is acting suspicious, I could get a police officer to come and ask them some questions too. So once anyone decides they don't like the look of you, the police's hands are tied. The fact we have such a terrible police force probably doesn't help matters any.

As far as profiling people by their 'look' goes, it is always unfortunate when this happens, but understandable. When I throw on an Iron Maiden or Pantera t-shirt, black jeans, and spike up my hair, it is perfectly understandable someone would look at me and think 'now there's a metal head'.

People are not perfect, and we must accept that we all have limits, some people's minds just don't know how to properly process an encounter with someone they don't know, this is a cognitive weakness to be pitied as much as it is a pain in the bum for anyone who is judged unfairly.

Is it wrong for person A to look at person B and judge them by their looks? Absolutely! However, is it any better when person B then judges person A to be a racist/hatemonger/etc without knowing anything about this person? In most cases, I would argue person A probably just doesn't have the proper cognitive or social skills to deal with other people, that it is a weakness they have that should be understood, rather than vilified.

It seems to be both persons A and B would be guilty of passing judgement based on very shaky information, and showing a clear lack of understanding of people who think differently than themselves.

As an example, I have a serious dislike for spiders, they creep me out. I get very uncomfortable when a big one is around, is this the spider's fault? not a chance, but is it my fault, I think if there was anything I could do to rid myself of these feelings I would, so I would say no to that as well. It is simply a weakness in my brain.

So the next time you are profiled as a dangerous person because of the 'douchebag' look, and I imagine that is a very uncomfortable and unfair experience, just remember perhaps the way you look is scaring or making others uncomfortable, and perhaps they don't actually have control over these feelings any more than your pride allows you to ignore the discomfort with being treated unfairly.

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GS also works on behalf of the owners/managers of establishments they visit. The owners may be actually calling the GS to come check you out based on your appearance. Obviously this is stereotyping, discriminatory, and looks overly paranoid on the owners part but remember the last thing they want is a shooting/stabbing in their businesses, so the caution is warranted. GS is "harassing" you simply to find out who you are. Once they realize you aren't involved in any gang activity and have no connections to gangs, they'll probably leave you alone. So just keep your story straight and consistant when speaking with GS officers and they'll forget about you.

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That is correct, you are not required to identify yourself unless required to by law.

However, in this circumstance of being in a privately owned bar/restaurant, the officers may interpet the unwillingness to cooperate as suspicious behaviour and "flag" you in the bar/restaurant program. This can lead to more encounters with Gang Squad cops or being banned from all businesses that participate in the programs. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

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Visual profiling should be frowned upon just as much as racial profiling.

But then again, everybody wants the cops to do their jobs as effectively and efficiently with as little resources and cost to the public as possible, and going after the guy with the beard and tattoos is perceived to offer better odds than going after the clean cut fellow with the suit and briefcase.

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Visual profiling should be frowned upon just as much as racial profiling.

But then again, everybody wants the cops to do their jobs as effectively and efficiently with as little resources and cost to the public as possible, and going after the guy with the beard and tattoos is perceived to offer better odds than going after the clean cut fellow with the suit and briefcase.

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BTW Mastrop is not the first BC lawyer convicted of involvement with organized crime.

Martin Chambers was sentenced in 2003 after he was convicted in a scheme to launder millions of dollars for a Colombian drug cartel but that was in the US. He was sentenced to 15 years in US federal prison.

Recently Chambers was seeking to have his conviction overturned on the basis that the RCMP officer who was undercover in the sting operation that nailed him was having an affair with the US judge who tried and sentenced him.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/08/22/bc-judge-affair-allegation-chambers.html

Chambers had a history of alleged criminal activity.

Mr. Chambers, 63, has a long history of legal problems. In 1981, he was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine to Vancouver from Miami. A decade later he and Vancouver financier Paul Deyong were involved in buying and selling large quantities of cigarettes though A.H. Riise Ship Chandlers.

More recently, he was described in court documents as the controlling mind behind six real-estate projects that borrowed nearly $27-million from investors in Eron Mortgage Corp., which had its licence frozen in 1997 by the B.C. Securities Commission.

Criminal charges were laid against Brian Slobodian and Frank Biller, the two principal officers of Eron, after thousands of mainly elderly investors lost $220-million.

http://www.investorvoice.ca/PI/168.html

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