The police crackdown began Apr. 7, 2003, and reportedly involved the redeployment of 50 additional officers to the DTES.18 For the primary analyses, we compared the behaviour of active IDUs residing in the DTES who were interviewed in the 3 months before the crackdown (group 1) and those interviewed in the 3 months after Apr. 7, 2003 (group 2). Data on age, sex and ethnic origin were statistically analyzed to ensure no differences between groups 1 and 2. Active drug users in VIDUS who resided outside the DTES were used as a control group.
Table 1 compares the intensity of drug use in groups 1 and 2 and perceptions about the effects of police presence. Although after the crackdown there was a significant increase in reporting that the police had affected the types of drugs available, a marginal decrease in reported ability to acquire drugs and a significant change in the reported quality of drugs, we found no difference in the reported extent to which police affected the quantity of drugs used, the buying of drugs or which drugs were used. This finding was supported by the lack of change in the reported daily use of heroin, cocaine and crack.
The Downtown Crackdown 3-D
There are several limitations to our study. As previously discussed,16 the subjects in VIDUS are not a random sample, although they are believed to represent IDUs in Vancouver.9 In addition, although we followed a statistical protocol defined a priori, the number of statistical comparisons was large. Sampling from the periods before and after the crackdown may have been affected by the drop in number of visits between the 2 periods, although we noted a similar pattern in the same 6-month period in 2002, which suggests that the reduction in visits was more likely due to the cyclic nature of the study. Although we tested for potential confounding due to differences in the 2 study groups, it is possible that unmeasured confounding existed. An additional limitation is that, because exchange and disposal statistics were available only on a monthly basis, the period Apr. 1 to Apr. 6 was included in the postcrackdown period, which would reduce any enforcement-related differences. Finally, the restricted sample size meant that there was insufficient statistical power to evaluate outcomes in HIV risk behaviour, such as syringe borrowing; however, previous studies have consistently shown police crackdowns to be associated with elevated HIV risk behaviour.5,23,24,26
One councilman who has made evident progress is Kevin de León, who is running for mayor. Outreach workers in his district have succeeded in removing camps from some of the areas now designated as off-limits, including parts of Eagle Rock, El Sereno and downtown.
A number of foreigners from several companies were swept up in the 2011 crackdown. Another Canadian, Sarkis Yacoubian of Tri-Star Caribbean, was released earlier this year and returned home after serving 2 1/2 years of a nine-year sentence in Cuba.
@Jennifer, not that rare. When I moved here decades ago, I was amazed to have been pulled over in my convertible JUST because the CHP liked the way I looked! He was quite insistent that we get together privately. Just to get away from him I suggested meeting in a restaurant where I figured I'd be safe. As I nervously drove away, he used his bullhorn? to say how eager he was for us to get together and how it was ok for me to speed up. After much debate about what to do since he knew my identity, I just didn't show up, figuring he'd hassled so many women he'd have forgotten. It was so routine for the cops to pull over the oldest car at traffic lights late at night that I had to start plotting my way home from Los Altos Hills to PA to avoid them when I was working late on a project. One of the reasons our nightlife here is so pathetic is that they used to stake out restaurants. The former owner of the Los Altos Bar & Grill used to announce "There are X cop cars in the back lot, Y in the front. If you're worried about your sobriety, I'll pay for your cab home tonight and other in the morning to pick up your car." He ultimately closed the Main St location and sold its name to the place on San Antonio.The same nonsense happened all over downtown PA. I can cite lots of other examples if you'd like including recent encounters with the PAPD.
More than two months later, the impact of the police crackdown is beginning to come into focus: Court records show many of the 75 who were arrested were jailed for days while they awaited arraignments. More than a quarter have yet to be charged despite being held in jail. In at least a few cases, prosecutors dropped charges that were the impetus for the 17th Street arrests but decided to pursue other cases against those arrested, like for earlier drug charges.
To find Guts, you will have to make your way to Memorial Park, located outside of Arasaka Tower in the downtown city center of Corpo Plaza. The quickest way to get there is by first traveling to either the Metro: Memorial Park or the Arasaka Tower fast travel stations.
Almost 11,000 people have been detained and cars, yachts, guns and drugs seized since Colombian President Virgilio Barco Vargas announced the crackdown Aug. 18 after a judge, a police chief, and a leading presidential candidate were assassinated within 48 hours. It includes the confiscation of drug traffickers' property and a promise to extradite major cocaine barons to the US for trial.
Most likely, only leading drug czars will be sent to the United States if captured. If this crackdown produces arrests, Colombian judges will hold responsibility for trying the drug barons, hit men, front men, lower-level middle men, and squadrons of hired killers. Most do not fall into the category of extraditables.
The most hardcore among them have stayed all night up on the square helping to keep the police from storming the focal point of this historic Ukrainian eurolution. A friend told me about a grandmother who had walked three hours from the distant eastern suburbs across the Dnieper river from downtown Kiev to defend the Maidan on the night of February 18th. She had supposedly thrown Molotov cocktails at the police, and been on the frontlines of the violent protest. With the metros closed, she had to dip into her savings to pay for the expensive taxi ride home that morning. Still, she planned to go back the next night and the night after. 2ff7e9595c
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