Vancouver Police Dispense With Homeless Individual's Belongings

I saw this over on Matt’s blog and thought I should write about it too. Captured on digital film is the Vancouver police department tossing a pile of someone’s belongings into a garbage truck. The person who filmed the footage is David Eby, the Executive Director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

No doubt, police officers have a difficult job. They are asked to protect, to serve, and to make real-time decisions that are never easy. That being said, given the current conditions in the lower mainland with respect to violence and gangs, one has to question the actions of these officers, literally tossing the belongings of some of Vancouver’s less fortunate into a mobile trash can.

Last night I watched a repeat of Michael Moore’s sicko on TV. One phrase that stands out is the assertion that you can judge any society not by how it treats those who are the best off, but on how it treats those that are the worst off. So with that in mind, how would you rate the city of Vancouver, and in particular the actions of the Vancouver Police Department?