Surrey RCMP Accused of Beating Woman in Distress

 A recent Facebook post (December 2, 2020) describes an assault by Surrey RCMP on a young woman experiencing mental distress. The post begins:

“Don't get the Surrey RCMP to do a wellness check on your friends if you can't get to them right away. They'll come by just to beat the ever living shit out of you.”

 

Written by a friend of the victim who, along with another friend had called 911 seeking a wellness check when it became apparent their friend was in crisis, the post outlines the violence that police delivered instead of the assistance sought. It describes a harrowing ordeal:

 

“Depressed and suicidal? Phone them, so on top of all your existing problems you can have badged goons break into your home and break your face for free, take you away and drug you up for three days straight like a lab rat and drop you off on the street with amnesia.”

 

They wanted help for their friend, but cops are not about health or wellness. They are about violence and control. In their words:

“We wanted a reply, we just wanted to know our homie was still alive and kicking it. Apparently they do what cops usually do and scared the shit out of her, beat her and dragged her out of her own suite. We didn't hear anything from her for three days man.”

 

The post concludes:

“No support, no help. No justice, no peace.”

 

This is policing. This is the RCMP. We need real social supports, real health care. Not cops, violence, and repression. This is one example of why police in Surrey need to be defunded. Why they need to be abolished.

The RCMP are leaving city policing in Surrey. Good. The new municipal police force needs to follow them out the door.

The original post can be read here:

https://www.facebook.com/shwblr/posts/10216982662630304

 

Meet the New Boss…Comes from the Old: Norm Lipinski Named Surrey Police Chief

The Surrey Police Board is planning to "move on" from the RCMP to a new municipal police force in the city by hiring a former assistant commissioner of that same RCMP. On November 19, 2020, they announced that they have tabbed Norm Lipinski to be the first chief of the city's new municipal police force. Lipinski is currently the deputy chief of the Delta Police Department and before that spent years with the Edmonton Police Service before becoming assistant commissioner with the RCMP’s E Division (British Columbia).

The announcement comes the same day a major report details systemic abuse and the toxic culture of the RCMP. Nice timing.

Under Lipinski’s term in Delta, two Delta Police officers were disciplined following a five-month long investigation into a complaint of workplace and sexual harassment. Sounds familiar.

Speaking of multiple killer RCMP Monty Robinson, then assistant commissioner Lipinski said: "he won’t be fired outright, now that he's a convicted criminal, because he's still entitled to due process as a police officer under the RCMP Act."

Lipinski was embroiled in a controversy when civilian Kiran Sidhu was sprayed with a water hose by Lorraine Dubord, spouse of Delta’s police chief Neil Dubord, outside the couple’s house in June 2020. Lorraine Dubord allegedly hurled insults at Ms. Sidhu. Police decided not to lay charges against Lorraine Dubord and there was some concern about Lipinski’s role in that decision.

Getting rid of the RCMP in Surrey was a good step. No need to bring any of them back. And now the next step is to defund and abolish the new force.

Cops Invade Campus: KPU Traffic Court

 

Connections between cops and campus, between carceral and educational, take many forms. All involve the further diversion of public resources (for non-carceral uses) into policing functions. In the case of cops and campus it means the diversion of already limited educational resources (infrastructure, space, labor, materials, thought) into already over-funded carceral agencies and institutions.

In many cases the forms are familiar—co-op and practicum placements with carceral agencies, cops in classrooms, campus policing arrangements. In others hey take less familiar, stranger, forms. Ones that might give the unsuspecting observer pause.

During the period of COVID19 Kwantlen Polytechnic University has taken the opportunity to up its already substantial commitment to the carceral campus and turning public post-secondary resources, space, and infrastructure into serving policing functions. With reduced activity on campus by faculty, staff, and students, KPU has literally transformed the campus and its building into a penal institution—a courthouse. The university has given over its Cedar Building, site of its conference centers and gym, as a traffic court (not strictly “given” since they are no doubt making money off the deal).

Showing up to campus to be confronted by multiple police vehicles and officers from several forces (RCMP, Delta Police, court services/sheriffs) is not specifically a warm welcome for the community or for current or prospective students. Especially given that KPU students regularly discuss being racially profiled by police, particularly in traffic stops. Does KPU really want students to more closely associate the institution with police power and support for systemic racism?

One might well ask how this relates to the targeting of critical faculty in the Criminology Department at KPU who have faced harassment for academic work that focuses on systemic racism, colonial violence, and class inequality in relation to policing and who speak out in defense of criminalized people against carceral agencies and practices.

Given the historic mobilizations against police power and systemic racism in carceral structures, this is a deeply disturbing development.