The Vancouver Police Department is Lying

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Mislead the public? Leave that up to the VPD.

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uploaded by jasonklym

How would you feel if you were strolling down the street and saw an image that reminded you of yourself in the window of a police department? Now how would you feel if that likeness were being used to portray the person so called ‘upstanding citizens’ shouldn’t be associating with? I would guess that you’d be quite upset! 

Every day innumerable people walk by this poster in the window of the West-End Coal Harbour Community Police Centre in downtown Vancouver. Some may subconsciously absorb its message with just a peripheral glance while others may stop to investigate it or record the website address. Now how many of these people do you imagine take the time to consider the message that it’s sending? Since the image is still in the window, I have to figure very few. What exactly is that message? With just a cursory glance I can tell you that the Vancouver Police Department would like you to believe that all people who wear black clothes, and are bald and tattooed, are not positive members of society. And that is where the problem lies. 

I cannot be the only white male with a shaved head and visible tattoos who is disturbed by the complete lack of respect, for my demographic, that the VPD shares. Not only does the Vancouver Police Department instill this prejudice in its officers, but with its choice to graphically depict and publicly display the discrimination, it’s forcing its false profiling on society as a whole. As a result, instead of tearing down stereotypes, the VPD seeks to reenforce them so that children will learn to, and adults will continue to, hate the tattooed, bald, and fashionable.  

Now if the image were of a minority instead of a tattooed, white male, their would be a public outcry, a Human Rights hearing, and ample legal precedent to have the image removed and a public apology made. However, because the tattooed person is not considered a minority, and discrimination based on body art is an apparently acceptable practice, I will have to continue to tolerate this poster until such time as a human being is granted the right to do what he or she wishes with their own body, and society accepts that not everyone wants to look like everyone else. 

In the mean time, I can’t help but conclude that the Vancouver Police Department is lying when it prints “respect for all” on its poster. Clearly they meant to say “respect for all [with the exception of those who are tattooed, bald, or fashionable]”.