Opposing the City of Vancouver, VPD & Park Board in the daily displacement of unhoused people from public spaces (i.e. street sweeps).
stopsweepsvan
@gmail
.com
Every day, the
@parkboard
sends a squad of Rangers to raid the CRAB Park Tent City. They take tents, backpacks, chairs, bikes, tools - whatever they want.
It is a war against unhoused people and their community.
Here is some of what's happening (a 🧵):
1/
This morning the
@ParkBoard
sent rangers to CRAB Park. They raided a resident's tent. They took two coolers. During a heatwave. From unhoused people.
What level of cartoonish villainy does this have to reach?
People who are unhoused use wooden pallets to keep their tents and homes lifted off the ground. That way when it rains, they are off the ground and can stay drier.
This morning, Vancouver Park Rangers forced a woman to give up her pallets right before a rain storm.
1/
UPDATE FROM OPPENHEIMER PARK: Rangers continue stealing perfectly good tents in the rain. With snow still on the ground. In the cold.
Every time belongings have been thrown out by the city, we've been told they were "soiled"?
Cop: "they're just doing their job"
Resident "Two Dogs": "what? stealing my stuff?"
Unhoused resident stands up for his belongings in Oppenheimer Park this morning.
Rangers took 3 tents and tarps intended for community members during heatwave, ongoing toxic drug crisis.
OPPENHEIMER UPDATE: VPD & rangers aggressively drag an Indigenous man away from his belongings and proceed to tear down his tent.
He is never even given the chance to retrieve essential belongings.
A supporter is then arrested for peacefully observing.
The
@ParkBoard
sent Rangers to take the tent & belongings of a resident of CRAB Park who just gave birth and is staying at the hospital.
The resident is Squamish. They did this on "Canada Day."
The intersection of colonialism, unhoused hate & misogyny is on full display here.
NEW FOOTAGE FROM YESTERDAY’S OPPENHEIMER PARK DECAMPMENT:
Lead Park Ranger Andrew Don pushes over an unhoused Indigenous man.
We call for his immediate removal from the Vancouver
@parkboard
Park Rangers.
1/
When asked if an exception could be made for this person, rangers responded "there are no exceptions in the by-law."
How can
@parkboard
justify enforcing a by-law that endangers people's health and safety? How cold does it have to get before exceptions are made?
/end
Shelters across Vancouver are full.
People are being turned away, in the middle of an intense cold snap, days after the city forcibly decamped & stole tents from folks sheltering in Oppenheimer.
BREAKING: Vancouver Police attacked and arrested two unhoused Indigenous people and a legal observer at CRAB Park this morning.
One man was on the ground unable to breathe while three police held him down.
This is the most violence we've witnessed at a decampment.
1/
@ParkBoard
do you throw out YOUR belongings when they get wet, dirty, or broken?
Of course not. You dry them, clean them, or fix them. So let unhoused people have the chance to do the same!
Rangers are giving NO impoundment notices and NO way for residents to reclaim their belongings.
This is theft.
“That’s my bed” says our friend, as his belongings are stolen by rangers.
UPDATE AT OPPENHEIMER: Horrific day at the park. Another legal observer arrested, two tents stolen so far with hundreds of pounds of belongings. One Indigenous Elder assaulted and held back by VPD while rangers took his tent and possessions.
OPPENHEIMER PARK: They're back at it, telling folks to pack up their tents in the rain on Sunday morning. Snow and slush everywhere.
@ParkBoard
is this really the best use of public money?
🚨 Rangers & VPD continued their violent efforts to evict everyone sheltering in Oppenheimer today.
Temperatures are below zero and shelters across the city are full.
And while peacefully protecting a resident's belongings, Stop the Sweeps supporter
@ryansudds
was arrested
At Oppenheimer Park this morning,
@ParkBoard
rangers continued targeting this resident and stealing his belongings, even though he was in the process of packing up.
Rangers threatening residents: "Well you know what happens when you don't pack up."
Disgusting use of police intimidation and violence against residents sheltering, once again, IN THE RAIN.
STOP THE SWEEPS is demanding an end to decampments, evictions and daytime sheltering bans over the winter.
We've seen too many people's belongings and homes stolen in the cold and rain so last week we held a press conference demanding a moratorium:
1/
Park Rangers continue to harass unhoused people at Oppenheimer Park.
This time a ranger tells someone "if this [is native land], why don't you respect the land & keep it clean?"
The implication here is that the existence of unhoused people in a park is not clean.
1/
The
@CityofVancouver
&
@VancouverPD
have issued a $100 fine to Hastings St. resident Jason for having a "tent/structure on sidewalk."
Jason is on a housing waitlist & has been for months. This fine is cruel & unjust.
Join our call to DROP THE TICKET:
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Park Rangers are conducting daily sweeps in CRAB Park. Yesterday, they brought along Global News for a biased and sanitized look at these sweeps.
This morning we attended the sweep of CRAB Park. Here's a more accurate news story about what's happening:
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Oppenheimer resident who was dragged from his tent last Friday just had his replacement shelter stolen AGAIN.
When will
@CityofVancouver
and
@ParkBoard
stop wasting money harassing and stealing from people just trying to survive!?
CRAB PARK DECAMPMENT UPDATE THREAD:
Residents who were not home when fences were put up to cutoff the tent city are not being allowed in to collect their belongings. This is a tactic to destabilize people's lives and displacement (again, this is not about cleaning).
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CRAB PARK UPDATE:
@CityofVancouver
@ParkBoard
@VancouverPD
have put up fences around the CRAB Park Tent City.
Legal Observers and advocates not allowed in (under threat of arrest). Media not allowed in. Residents still in their tents. City has begun destroying homes.
1/
Today CRAB Park residents and volunteers will be building their first Tiny Home for people to shelter. To provide safer, warmer homes.
Park Rangers and Police are on scene saying "our job is to tell them no." 😡
We call for
@ParkBoard
to deescalate and let these home be built.
This morning Vancouver Park Rangers tell an unhoused woman they will leave her alone so long as she's working to get into a shelter. They then hand her a list of shelters.
One problem – according to the list they handed her, all of the shelters are full or data "N/A"🤦♀️
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🚨 Another leaked document contains more evidence that the
@CityofVancouver
plans to tear down homes at CRAB Park - starting today.
First column: “collapse/cut all tents and structures on the first day (to avoid re-occupation)”
Enough lies about ‘clean-up’ - this is decampment
CRAB PARK UPDATE:
@CityofVancouver
@ParkBoard
@VancouverPD
have put up fences around the CRAB Park Tent City.
Legal Observers and advocates not allowed in (under threat of arrest). Media not allowed in. Residents still in their tents. City has begun destroying homes.
1/
"You'd better check your attitude."
It is unacceptable for
@ParkBoard
rangers to speak this way to unhoused residents.
Residents have every right to be upset. Rangers who don't understand this have no business interacting with them at all.
Mark had his tent, sleeping bag, mattress, chair, medications, and survival gear stolen by park rangers. Several others also had their homes torn apart and stolen.
And they are currently continuing to move in to decamp other residents in Oppenheimer.
Why is Global running stories about the CRAB Park Tent City where there only quote is from ABC Councillor Peter Meiszner?
Also missing from the story - the mass of pain & trauma this "cleanup" inflicted on unhoused people.
And also their perserverance.
Also, $400k!?!?!? Shame.
Solidarity with unhoused residents [and their supporters] who are facing mass evictions and displacements in dangerous temperatures in Edmonton.
There is a campaign to attack unhoused people across this so-called country.
VIDEO: Violent scene as EPS break up the encampment at 95 St and Rowland Rd. Camp resident and Elder Roy Cardinal is seen with blood in his mouth and is led away in handcuffs after being taken to the ground and handcuffed. This sweep was done at -22C, -30C with windchill.
🚨BREAKING: A Freedom of Information request shows emails between ABC Councillors, ABC Park Board Commissioners, and the Gastown Residents’ Association (GRA).
These emails suggest that the
@ParkBoard
plans to fully decamp CRAB Park Tent City - despite existing legal protections.
@ParkBoard
More villainy:
@PeterMeiszner
hears about
@ParkBoard
stealing coolers from unhoused people and his response is "I'll ask them about it."
You're a city councillor. Your party has a majority in. Look in the mirror then go buy some replacement coolers.
UPDATE FROM OPPENHEIMER: Rangers are cutting tent structures apart and confiscating them.
We've seen the owners of this tent every single day. What are they going to do when they come back today and find nothing?
MEDIA ADVISORY:
@CityofVancouver
Sanitation workers and
@ParkBoard
rangers are currently stealing belongings of residents in CRAB Park.
CRAB leadership received notice LAST NIGHT that workers would be carrying out a clean-up that was supposed to happen "in the next few weeks"
OPEN LETTER IN SUPPORT OF CRAB PARK:
Over 200 community members, advocates, lawyers, academics and supporters have joined the call for the
@cityofvancouver
&
@ParkBoard
to stop the destruction of the CRAB Park Tent City.
You can add your name here:
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"Until there is an adequate supply of affordable housing that meets the needs of all our neighbours, we implore the city to stop bullying unhoused people out of the only safe spaces they have."
"When there are no more shelter beds and items like tents and sleeping bags are taken and trashed, how does the city expect people to survive?"
Staff
@BurrowsAmanda
and
@kkoncan1
question the city's priorities regarding decampment
14 park rangers and 4 cops arrived at CRAB Park tent city this morning. They took 3 potted plants and 2 chairs (chairs are not allowed in the "designated area").
This happens every day.
We ask the
@ParkBoard
to issue statment to explain why chairs are illegal in CRAB.
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FREE PREMIERE Documentary Screening: STOP THE SWEEPS Part I. Check out the trailer below.
2pm June 24th at the Japanese Language Hall.
The film documents police & city workers terrorizing a community and the people who fight back.
RSVP Here:
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Rangers physically blocking advocates from entering the park with building materials for tiny homes.
This is pathetic.
@ParkBoard
LET THEM BUILD THEIR HOMES
CRAB PARK DECAMPMENT UPDATE: City's "balanced approach" to destroying tent city involves invading people's homes while they're gone & ripping holes in them.
Rangers claimed they had permission for this attack. When the resident returned he confirmed they did not.
1/
By this time next week, temperatures will drop to -25 degrees in Edmonton.
Throwing away people's belongings and survival supplies, mid-winter, with no adequate housing options, is social murder.
We see your crimes
@edmontonpolice
@CityofEdmonton
This morning Park Rangers at Oppenheimer Park forced people to collapse their tents. A couple were too sick to leave & had to collapse it on top of themselves.
Rangers also told them "your well being is first & foremost".
Behind the rangers were 8 police. This is not care.
NEW DECAMPMENT: Ministry of Transportation using Trespass Act to evict small community on SW Marine Drive.
As of Jan 31, people on this land may be considered trespassing and subject to arrest.
Why is the BC Government threatening to arrest unhoused people?
1/
Residents of CRAB Park sick of waiting for politicians to meet and listen to them have come to the BC Legislature.
Will any MLA come speak with the people whose lives they freely use to score political points? We really hope so.
Jan 10 2024: With temperatures set to fall well below freezing,
@ParkBoard
rangers and the VPD prepare to throw more tents in the garbage at Oppeinheimer for the second day in the row
Shame on
@ParkBoard
and Park Rangers. What did you accomplish today?
When
@CityofVancouver
falls short on housing it's up to residents to safeguard themselves against the cold.
This is state-sanctioned violence against the unhoused.
Park Rangers take people's belongings every day, but the
@ParkBoard
takes great pains to explain people can retrieve their items.
We've been trying to get a resident's bike back for a month. 2 case files. 20 calls. Still nothing.
Here a ranger admits it's not a priority.
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1/ CRAB PARK UPDATE: Park Rangers have been telling Residents this morning that they have until noon to pack up all of their belongings or they permanently forfeit their spot in Vancouver’s only legal daytime sheltering area.
This morning,
@ParkBoard
rangers at Oppenheimer took a resident's tent and storage bins as punishment when he refused to pack down due to rain.
Though rangers could have simply moved the bins to the area they have designated for daytime storage, they confiscated them.
MARPOLE DECAMPMENT UPDATE: The final resident of the tent city was evicted on Monday.
He was told by VPD that he could setup across the street in Eburne Park as long as his tent was down during the day. So he did this.
Then the
@CityofVancouver
stole his tent and blankets.
1/
This morning we interrupted
@KahlonRav
at the
@BCNPHA
#HousingCentral
Conference.
We were there because our unhoused friends are being killed by his Government's violent policies.
We asked for people to stand for moment of silence. Many did not.
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@AF6503305739433
@Steven_Zmchk
@ParkBoard
we would like to remind you that this thread started with someone saying "probably full of drugs and alcohol" . . . which is both speculative, prejudice and simplistic.
We demand the resignation of Ranger Superintendent Uultsje DeJong and Lead Ranger Andrew Don who ordered violence against unhoused people & refused to deescalate.
They must immediately be removed from their positions for the safety of the community.
6/
Free screening of STOP THE SWEEPS Sunday August 6th at Red Gate (1965 Main Street).
This is a masks mandatory screening and the documentary will be screened with captions.
Donations for replacing tents & survival equipment can be sent to our friends
@distro_disco
E-transfer distrodisco1312
@gmail
.com or drop off supplies on Thursday at Oppenheimer from 11:30-2:30.
CRAB Park Decampment Alert: Under the guise of cleaning, the
@ParkBoard
is planning a decampment of the CRAB Park Tent City next week.
All residents will be moved out of their current area while all structures and homes that cannot be moved will be destroyed
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OPPENHEIMER PARK UPDATE:
Supplies have arrived to build a Tiny Home in CRAB Park. They are immediately give a ticket for stopping on the road.
Again, we call on the
@ParkBoard
and
@VancouverPD
to back down and let this home be built.
Today CRAB Park residents and volunteers will be building their first Tiny Home for people to shelter. To provide safer, warmer homes.
Park Rangers and Police are on scene saying "our job is to tell them no." 😡
We call for
@ParkBoard
to deescalate and let these home be built.
Hiding this eviction continues the city's attempt to disguise this eviction as a "cleanup" necessary for "health & safety"
But cleaning doesn't take 14 police and 14 park rangers.
Which is why they're now blocking observation. They have to keep deceiving people.
3/
The
@ParkBoard
staff have removed the gathering tent from the designated area of CRAB Park. It is an OPS, a living room, and a memorial for friends and family who have passed away. It is the height of cruelty to deny this shelter to residents.
"This is about restoring our parks to the gems they once were."
Given Ken Sim's brutal attack on unhoused people living on the street, this decision could have very dangerous consequences for people living in parks.
We're no friend of the Park Board, but this could be very bad.
Park rangers tell us that "we're not evicting people, we're just enforcing a bylaw."
@KenSimCity
says he'll take a "compassionate approach."
@Dave_Eby
uses his DTES credentials to prove he "gets it."
Meanwhile, two unhoused people are in jail and their home destroyed.
7/
Marpole Decampment Update: After residents, Stop the Sweeps & Marpole Mutual Aid Network (
@movementauntie
) spent days asking residents to get more time before eviction, they got it!
We will continue to resist displacement and sweeps, but this extension is a win for residents.
MARPOLE-MARINE DR DECAMPMENT UPDATE:
On site with long time advocate & neighbour
@movementauntie
, residents asking for more time, call the Ministry of Transportation at 250 387-3198 to demand they stop the enforcement of their trespass order & don't arrest residents
NEW - The BC Government is banning the use of hard drugs on beaches, in door ways of businesses and public spaces and in front of community centres. The sweeping changes are part of the province’s ongoing Decriminalization pilot.
#bcpoli
As ABC councillors vote against extending leases for occupied temporary modular housing until replacement housing is available, speakers in the chamber chant "shame".
#vanpoli
DECAMPMENT: The Vancouver Park Board has announced that it plans to sweep and evict all remaining tents and residents from the hillside of CRAB Park.
14 tents are setup on the hillside, outside of the "designated shelter area." All of these tents are at risk.
1/
City of Vancouver staff knew there weren't enough shelter beds when they did a mass eviction of the Hastings Tent City?
Of course they knew. They've been evicting people for months without enough shelter space and housing. We can prove it. We have the receipts:
More great work by Park Rangers: after promising to leave this tent alone, Rangers dropped it when the resident was away.
They ripped four large holes in the tent and then apologized for their mistake.
Is the
@ParkBoard
willing to compensate the resident for their mistake?
The Park Board should leave people living in tents alone. Let them stay where they need to.
Winter is coming. People need tent cities to provide food, warming centres & other necessities.
Tent cities save lives. The Park Board,
@KenSimCity
&
@Dave_Eby
should accept that.
/end
Scene outside St. Paul's hospital where city crews have erected fences to evict people living in tents here.
Spoke with one resident who moved his belongings to the other side of the street. He was told by VPD that he needed to leave there or city crews would take his stuff.
1/
Today, rangers at Oppenheimer told a resident that by 8:30AM tomorrow, he can't have any of his belongings unpacked or near him, or they will take them from him.
One final note: Rangers do not want to be recorded doing this work (as shown at the end of the video).
This is because it allows the public to see their colonial, disrespectful, disparaging and blatantly racist and classist approach toward unhoused people.
/3
Blocking media, legal observers and advocates allows the City, Park Board and Police to treat unhoused people indiscriminately. It hides the violence of eviction.
This exclusion zone has become a common tactic for
@KenSimCity
.
2/
As usual, the resident was not offered shelter he deemed to be suitable (he wants housing) & there were no outreach workers on scene.
Vancouver's unhoused population is facing increased pressure to disappear.
Meanwhile, Ken Sim is hanging out on yachts.
/end
UPDATE ON OPPENHEIMER PARK DECAMPMENT:
@ParkBoard
begins enforcement in -3 temperatures. People are being forced to pack up their belongings and move to the north side of park. Their belongings have to be mobile.
Police are on scene.
MEDIA RELEASE: Rangers create daily “exclusion zones” around CRAB Park Tent City.
Volunteers and media have been blocked by police from documenting sweeps while residents are subjected to daily brutal and rights-depriving enforcement activities by the
@ParkBoard
.
What happened this morning at CRAB Park is in violation of:
•UNDRIP
•Memorandum of Understanding on Support for Unsheltered Residents
•Charter Rights
Most significantly, this violated a simple request from two unhoused people: "please give us space while we pack up"
5/
A delegation of CRAB Park tent city residents came from so-called Vancouver with an open invitation for MLAs to speak with them. Two have shown up.
While that’s good, every MLA should have come. Particularly
@KahlonRav
. Unhoused voices are absent in politics & continue to be.
In the face of unprecedented violence from the
@ParkBoard
, three community members resisted decampment. Meanwhile, the people that assaulted them walk free.
Park Board,
@VancouverPD
&
@CityofVancouver
we call on you to end the violence. Moratorium on decampments NOW!
/end
Oppenheimer Park resident Mark who was pushed down by Ranger Don is doing okay despite everything.
His thoughts about what happened “[they’re] using bylaws to take away our human rights.”
/end
On Nov 15 Ranger Don also engaged in anti-Indigenous violence.
While evicting 2 Indigenous people from their tent, he began a 60 second countdown for them to leave. They asked for more time and didn't get it.
His refusal to deescalate led to them being assaulted & arrested.
2/
Vancouver Park Rangers this morning engaging in high settler colonialism:
when explaining to them why shelters can be traumatizing for Indigenous people (it reminds some people of residential schools), a ranger said "I wasn't a part of that so you can't bring that up."
1/
Park rangers (with cops) continue to tell residents that people "don't have to leave. They just have to comply with the by-law" but threatening someone's home with 6 police present is an eviction, no matter how they try to spin it.
2/