COPE Executive Arrested For Theft, Assault & Mischief At Pidgin Restaurant Protest (feat. Kim Hearty)

Handcuff marks after Kim Hearty's arrest...

Handcuff marks after Kim Hearty’s arrest…

Yesterday I broke the story about The Case of the Disappearing Pickle– a fake pickle mascot that protesters left unattended at the door of the Pidgin restaurant. The pickle was taken by away by someone at the restaurant, yesterday the Vancouver Police confirmed that the pickle was being held in their custody. It turns out I was correct speculating there would be consequences-  one of the alleged pickle culprits was taken into custody on Monday morning.

Most of the reports in the media didn’t indicate the name of the person who was arrested- the VPD’s official statement was that they would not name the person who was arrested until the Crown Council had approved the charges. But, people on the side of the person arrested were not so discreet- they’ve now published that the arrestee was Kim Hearty, a member of the executive of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE). The CBC has also reported this fact.

This is going to be very interesting…

COPE was founded in 1968 be a group of far-left activists, unionists and people from political parties including the NDP and the Communist Party of BC. The modern incarnation of COPE has brought together many of the most radical people connected to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside poverty industry. People on COPE’s board include Tristan Markle of The Mainlander, and Tim Louis- a man who thinks it’s okay for people to engage children in illegal activities.

Hearty’s biography on COPE’s webpage also indicates she’s a member of the notorious Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council- an organization led by the notorious Marxist bully Ivan Drury. Drury recently resigned from his position at the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) over the Pidgin protest after Vancity (and others) threatened to withdraw funding. Wendy Pederson also resigned from CCAP due to the scandal. Despite having resigned, it was reported by the Gastown Gazette that Drury and Pederson are still active participants in CCAP meetings.

Hearty is also an employee of the Portland Hotel Society. Curiously, the now deceased leader of PHS Jim Green was a COPE city councillor. Green was considered by many as being the godfather of the DTES poverty pimps.

Wendy Pederson published a media release about the arrest on her Facebook page this evening. The release states that the charges against Hearty are based on ‘false allegations’ and that the charges are ‘pathetic’ and ‘absurd’. And, just as I mentioned in my article yesterday, the press release inflates the price of Pidgin’s pickle plate to being $6 (it’s really $5). The release also makes a very ominous statement:

“As a response to the the VPD working with gentrifying businesses to criminalize protest and poverty, picketers are promising to not only continue the Pidgin Picket, but to expand it to other high-end restaurants that are opening in the neighbourhood.”

Of course, the charges weren’t made “to criminalize protest and poverty”, they were made because a small group of individuals (who don’t represent the DTES community at-large) have decided that they don’t like the presence of the Pidgin. Their protest has often crossed the line into criminality- this is the second arrest.

Postings on Facebook by people connected to the Pidgin protest indicate that during the arrest, the VPD also took custody and searched Hearty’s computer and mobile phone. This indicates the police are looking for evidence of communications with other activists, and discussions of criminal activity. If this is true, and the VPD found useful information, it’s possible other Pidgin protesters could be facing criminal prosecution.

DTES radicals have already begun to rally the troops to protest Hearty’s arrest. Notorious Twitter bully Rachel Goodine put out a post this evening calling for people to organize:

This woman is dangerous...

This woman is dangerous…

Very dangerous...

Very dangerous…

Fake hunger striker Homeless Dave (who has a home) has also joined in on the rallying, comparing the VPD’s arrest of Hearty to an incident where a DTES resident was run-over by a car today:

homeless-dave-pidgin-park-accident-speeding-car

Homeless Dave’s posting is further evidence that we can’t trust what he (or his comrades) have been telling us. According to a report in the Vancouver Sun the car’s driver wasn’t speeding, wasn’t drinking, and the man who was hit by the car was jaywalking and not at a crosswalk. This sort of misrepresentation is exactly the problem with DTES activists, they throw out so many lies and misinformation that it’s impossible to believe anything coming out of their mouths.

The next few weeks are likely to be very dangerous times for the people of Vancouver. People in the activist community have been progressively increasing the criminality of their actions- it was only a couple of weeks ago that anti-gentrification ‘activists’ claimed to have burned down a house. What happens next is anybody’s guess.

As for COPE, it has become increasingly clear that the party’s executives have been openly promoting (and allegedly engaging in) criminal tactics. Vancouver’s problem isn’t the city is ‘criminalizing dissent’- the reality is that the dissenters have begun to engage in criminal activities. The people of Vancouver should pay close attention to how COPE reacts to the situation- if they continue to promote such criminality, it’s time for their party to be shut-down…

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