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West Vancouver police rehire violent criminal Griffin Gillan

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Ex-Vancouverite, Jan 1, 2012.

  1. Ex-Vancouverite

    Ex-Vancouverite New Member

    West Van police officer pleads guilty to assaulting newspaper delivery man
    http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/...aulting+newspaper+delivery/1801491/story.html

    West Vancouver police rehire violent criminal Griffin Gillan
    http://bcpolicecomplaints.org/griffin_gillan3.html

    Regarding this news story, I have this to say:

    Most Vancouver residents don’t know that the people who deliver their newspapers have not had a pay increase in more than 15 years. At the same time as the minimum wage in B.C. was frozen for more than 10 years – which is to say that it was effectively cut each year by the increase in the cost of living. At the same time as the social safety net was gutted to make way for massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

    The stark truth is that the wealthy residents of West Vancouver already practice economic violence on people like Firoz Khan. So why not throw in a little physical violence from time to time? It can only help keep them in line, let them remember their place. In this context, Griffin Gillan may be just the sort of fellow the residents of West Vancouver are looking for in a police officer – provided, of course, that he only beats up on low-income people of colour.
     
  2. galeleo

    galeleo Guest

    What an insane thing to say about West Vancouver residents, who usually give rather large tips to newspaper delivery people at various times of the year, for example, at Christmas! I am appalled at your attitude. I grew up in West Vancouver. At one time, all newspapers were delivered by children and teenagers. At around 12 years old, I delivered newspapers in West Vancouver. My brother also had a newspaper route. I always got big tips at Christmas. So you think all newspaper carriers are foreign immigrants? Wrong. So you think all West Vancouverites were born with golden spoons in their mouths? Wrong. What you are claiming is a blatant, hate-filled lie.
     
  3. Kids have not been employed to deliver the major newspapers for several decades, you must be amazingly out of touch if you think that has any relevance to today's situation. I was delivering the Sun and Province in the late 1990s when they were acquired by mogul Conrad Black - later convicted of stealing, but not before cutting the pay of his poorest workers. He promptly turned those jobs over to contractors and they all but did away with tipping by taking it away from the payment form; previously I was pulling in close to $100 per month in tips, that quickly dropped to almost nothing. Add that to frozen wages for more than a decade, that's a drastic pay cut. I'll bet a lot of carriers now don't even make minimum wage, and they have to maintain a car to do that job. I call that economic violence. To say nothing of the horrors that have taken place in terms of kicking people off welfare and out into the streets to pay for massive tax cuts for B.C.'s wealthiest citizens.

    It's well known that West Vancouver is Canada's wealthiest community, and I do make a connection between the economic violence which many of its wealthy citizens have committed against the poorest Canadians (or which have been committed on their behalf and for their benefit), and the physical violence committed by their employee Mr. Gillan.

    At first glance it may seem insane that such a person should be allowed to remain a police officer, but this becomes more understandable when we consider the bigger picture. Maintaining an unjust society is actually a big part of why we have such a highly paid police force in the first place, to keep them loyal (most cops in Canada "earn" six figure salaries after a couple of years on the job).
     

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