Pamela Post
Vancouver — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday,
Jul. 26, 2010 11:00PM EDT
Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2010 5:00AM EDT
It’s a Tuesday afternoon and Constable Linda Malcolm is patrolling the streets of the Downtown Eastside in street clothes. Today it’s a Beatles T-shirt and beige pants.
A police uniform, says the sex industry liaison officer for the Vancouver Police Department, is a huge barrier to building relationships with people down here. Her badge and gun are discreetly concealed. On the streets, Constable Malcolm is regularly approached by women who know her simply as Linda, who hug her before launching into a litany of woes and grievances.
One, whose face is badly disfigured, speaks urgently in the breathless staccato of the drug-addicted, telling the officer about being hauled in by police. Constable Malcolm listens carefully, offering assistance – before the woman runs off, propelled by the force of what seems like the unrelenting daily drama of life here.
"She was savagely gang-raped," the officer says afterwards. "Caught up in a dispute between two sets of drug dealers. They cut her with a knife, they disfigured her."
Constable Malcolm, 51, has become something of a legend on the streets of the Downtown Eastside – the cop more likely to bake cookies for women than bust them. She often works on her days off, takes bad-date calls in the middle of the night from the WISH Mobile Access Van that patrols the streets, buys countless lunches and dinners for sex workers out of her own pocket. She makes crafts for them, drives them to a detoxification clinic, takes them on ferries to rehab, accompanies women going to court against predators, and finds ones who have dropped out of sight.
For the rest of the article go to:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/linda-malcolm-offers-a-different-kind-of-policing/article1652671/
Vancouver — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday,
Jul. 26, 2010 11:00PM EDT
Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2010 5:00AM EDT
It’s a Tuesday afternoon and Constable Linda Malcolm is patrolling the streets of the Downtown Eastside in street clothes. Today it’s a Beatles T-shirt and beige pants.
A police uniform, says the sex industry liaison officer for the Vancouver Police Department, is a huge barrier to building relationships with people down here. Her badge and gun are discreetly concealed. On the streets, Constable Malcolm is regularly approached by women who know her simply as Linda, who hug her before launching into a litany of woes and grievances.
One, whose face is badly disfigured, speaks urgently in the breathless staccato of the drug-addicted, telling the officer about being hauled in by police. Constable Malcolm listens carefully, offering assistance – before the woman runs off, propelled by the force of what seems like the unrelenting daily drama of life here.
"She was savagely gang-raped," the officer says afterwards. "Caught up in a dispute between two sets of drug dealers. They cut her with a knife, they disfigured her."
Constable Malcolm, 51, has become something of a legend on the streets of the Downtown Eastside – the cop more likely to bake cookies for women than bust them. She often works on her days off, takes bad-date calls in the middle of the night from the WISH Mobile Access Van that patrols the streets, buys countless lunches and dinners for sex workers out of her own pocket. She makes crafts for them, drives them to a detoxification clinic, takes them on ferries to rehab, accompanies women going to court against predators, and finds ones who have dropped out of sight.
For the rest of the article go to:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/linda-malcolm-offers-a-different-kind-of-policing/article1652671/
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