VANCOUVER—The Vancouver Police Department is refusing to identify two officers at the centre of growing complaints about police harassment in the Downtown Eastside.

Pivot Legal Society and the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) held a small rally next to the DTES Market on Tuesday, handing out flyers with photos of the two officers in question and collecting stories of people who say they’ve been harmed or harassed by the two men.

The situation came to a head over the weekend, after the two officers seized marijuana and other cannabis products from the High Hopes Foundation dispensary at the DTES Market on Friday. The High Hopes Foundation distributes cannabis to help people get off opioids.

After OPS co-founder Sarah Blyth posted video of the encounter on Twitter, there was a massive response from the community, according to Pivot’s homelessness lawyer Anna Cooper.

“There was an explosion of sympathy in regards to that seizure. There also was an explosion of comments in regards to two specific officers involved in that incident,” Cooper said.

“These two particular officers are apparently notorious in this community for being aggressive, belligerent, harassing people and making people feel small and unsafe.”

Pivot has also circulated photos of the officers on social media.

“No one is going to trust the police or talk to or work with the VPD on their investigations if this is the way they are going to treat people,” Cooper said.

When reached for comment, Vancouver police spokesman Jason Robillard said the force is aware of the allegations against the officers but would not identify them. He did not say whether the force is investigating the behaviour.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Robillard referred questions about the complaints against the officers to the province’s Police Complaint Commissioner, though how those questions could be asked without the officers’ names remains unclear.

Over the course of an hour Tuesday afternoon, dozens of people filed past a table set up on East Hastings Street by OPS. Nearly everyone who stopped by recognized the officers and had concerns about them.

Mark Desjarlais said he is trained to respond to overdoses and works as an overdose responder with OPS. He said that earlier this summer, he was responding to an overdose in a nearby alley with an oxygen tank and a Naloxone kit when one of the officers in question grabbed him by his shoulder and dragged him away.

“He said, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing, get out of here.’ I repeatedly tried to help the victim, and he stopped me at every turn.” Desjarlais said.

Desjeralis said the person experiencing the overdose was revived by another member of the prevention society, but the response was slowed because of the officer’s behaviour.

John Betts said he witnessed one of the officers slap a man in the face after he lit a joint near Pigeon Park earlier this summer.

“He hit his nose and started swearing at him, calling him all kinds of names. He never once read him his rights,” Betts said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Betts said that when he approached and asked what was happening, the officer put his hand into Betts’s face and pushed him away.

Rebecca Mattiuz said she had a run-in with the two officers when she was headed to the DTES Market with a friend. Mattiuz said her friend, who is a former field hockey player, was planning to sell an old field hockey stick of his to make extra money.

The two officers approached her and her friend, she said, and without saying anything snatched the field hockey stick from him.

When her friend protested and explained that he owned the stick and planned to sell it, Mattiuz said, one of the officers shoved him and called them both offensive names.

“We were totally disrespected,” Mattiuz said. “It felt like we didn’t have any rights at all.”

Read more about: