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3 - Sunday, May 6, 1990 - North Shore News

NEWS photo Neil Lucente

LOWER LONSDALE merchants are making a clean sweep in their neighborhood. The group urges North Shore resi-
dents to participate in Pitch-in Week scheduled from May 7-13 and help make cur community beautiful. Pictured are
(left to right) Model Shipyard owner Ken Bassam, Marion Barling of Sharli Gaiiery, North Van City Ald. Stella Jo
Dean, Nick Vavros of The Great Greek, and Dennis Watson of Tuppence Ha’ Penny Antiques and Gifts.

Teens say police over- reacted

RIOT SQUAD CAi.LED IN TO BREAK UP WEST VAN BASHES

TEENS WHO attended last week’s Picadilly North birthday
bash in West Vancouver claim police over-reacted when
called in to disperse an estimated crowd of 300 youths
gathered at the home of an 18-year-old West Vancouver

High School student.

Fifteen-year-old West Van High
student Joel Shick said he was
among the first to attend the party.
He watched the crowd build and
then witnessed the action street-
side.

Police ordered people to leave
the area at about 1) p.m.

Said Shick, ‘‘They came over the
loudspeaker and said, ‘We now
have enough people te bring in
reinforcements.’ Everybody
shouted back and stuff and no-
body listened. A lot of people did
move out though. I went to a
house where I could see
everything. .

“At around 11:45 ... I have
never seen so many police in one
place in all of my life. The over-
reaction started when they read the
riot act all over the area. Basically
it just states that you lose al! of
your rights and privileges as a citi-
zen. The riot cops came in with
shields and billy clubs and helmets
on and they stuck into a tight circle
and anyone who went anywhere
near them was just beaten down,”’
he said. “I watched three or four

NORTH Shore News managing
editor Timothy Renshaw ...paper
will continue to evolve.

By MICHAEL BECKER
sNews Reporter

guys get smacked over the head
and over the shoulders. The police
were chasing guys through the
woods everywhere. There were
people running by and swearing
and stuff.’

But Kyly Killam, the party host,
said the police didn’t over-react.
Killam estimates about 500 people
showed up in her neighborhood
the night of the party.

Said Killam, ‘‘They (West Van-
couver Police and North Van-
couver RCMP) turned away 200
before they even got near the
property. There was also a youth
gang there of Orientals and stuff.
One of the constables there said
they were a gang out from East
Van — The New Boys.

“The police had to call RCMP
in and police had their billy clubs
and people were beat up. To begin
with they over-reacted by not giv-
ing people enough time to move
out of the premises. But then they
had to do something because the

‘*..the suggestion that
our people were clubbing
people with batons...
Had that happened, there
would have been some
pretty serious injuries.’
— West Vancouver
Deputy Police Chief
Jack Ross

situation just got out of hand,
There were fights all over.’’

Killam agrees with the idea of
considering party rules as outlined
in a May 2 News story that
chronicled the party-turned-riot.

West Vancouver Deputy Police
Chief Jack Ross, who was not at
the scene the night of the party,
sai he found it hard to believe
that police were striking people
with clubs.

“‘The batons are never used in
an offensive manner,’”’ he said.
“Our people are all instructed in
the proper usage of these at the
academy. We don’t strike people
with them.”’

Ross said the 30-inch hardwood

batons are generally used to ‘‘push
and propel people along.

‘In an extremely violent situa-
tion, they have been taught certain
moves, that I won’t go into, to
subdue people with a minimal
amount of physical damage,’’ he
said.

Added Ross, ‘‘Some of these
stories, | found from experience,
are embellished. One is trying to
outdo the other one about
atrocities. But the suggestion that

our people were clubbing people |

with batons ... Had that happened,
there would have been some pretty
serious injuries."'

But said 18-year-old Grant
Lawrence, past student council
president at West Van High,
“Three or four nice policemen
could have cleared that out. If you
go in there and start becoming
yahoo cowboys then my house is
wrecked. It’s like the West Van
Police don’t get a lot of action. My
assumption is that as soon as they
get something like this, it’s ‘Let’s
go get em — troopers ho! It seems
they make a party when they show
up and arrest kids.’”

$2,000 police radio, which
went missing the night of the par-
ty, was found in a bush area by
Lawrence and friends and returned
to police.

Renshaw named Wews managing editor

THE NORTH Shore News has officially appointed Timothy
Renshaw as the newspaper’s new managing editor.

Renshaw, 35, has been the
newspaper’s acting managing edi-
tor since the departure of former
News managing editor Barrett
Fisher at the end of January.

Fisher, who had been the news-
paper’s managing editor since
September 1986, left the post to
become the director of promotions
and advertising with the Whistler
Resort Association.

Renshaw has been with the News
since March 1985, when he took
over writing the newspaper's Table
Hopping restaurant’ review col-
umn.

Since then he has worked as a
reporter for the News covering all

Major news, sports, community
and entertainment beats.

Renshaw, who has lived on the
North Shore since immigrating to
Canada from England in 1957, has
won nine editorial awards in news,
column, feature and opinion writ-
ing during his career with the
News.

He was the newspaper’s senior
reporter immediately prior to tak-
ing on the position of managing
editor.

Renshaw said he was
**delighted’’ with the opportunity
provided by his new position.

Various changes have been made
at the News thus far this year, in-

cluding the addition of such col-
umnists as Gary Bannerman, Paul
St. Pierre, Norm Severud and
Eleanor Godley and the addition
of such features as Ecoinfo, North
Shore High Tech, Quotes of the
Week, Spiritually Speaking,
Roadblocks, Municipal Affairs
and Kids’ Stuff, and Renshaw said
the newspaper will continue to
evolve and grow.

Future changes, he said, will aim
at keeping the North Shore News
at the forefront of the North
American suburban newspaper
pack.

“We will continue to look at all
aspects of the newspaper to make
sure that it remains the vital voice
of the North Shore,’* Renshaw
said,

Doctors
to set up
MASH
unit at
protest

A MASH-style medical unit
will be set up Tuesday to
serve patients while North
Shore doctors meet at North
Vancouver’s Centennial
Theatre in a four-hour study
session called to back their
demands for higher B.C.
Medical Services Plan fees.

Army tents with cubicles will be
erected so that a group of doctors
will be able to serve patients with
minor ailments such as_ colds,
earaches and cuts, said Dr. David
Gray.

The unit, he said, will help
telieve pressure on the emergency
unit at Lions Gate Hospital during
the study session.

“The main thrust of it is that
patients won’t be inconvenienced
at all,’’ Gray said.

As chronicled in the May 4
News, more than 200 doctors from
North and West Vancouver are
expected to attend the meeting to
discuss fee hikes with the B.C.
Medical Association and the pro-
vincial government.

Gray said the doctors also take
issue with some media reports that
the four-hour study session is a
strike.

“It is not a strike,’ he said.
**We are not withdrawing services.
The point of this study session is to
inform North Shore (doctors) of
the process and to provide alter-
natives in dealing with the gov-
ernment.’*

The provincial government has
offered doctors a 2.5 per cent fee
increase. The doctors are demand-
ing a 6.1 per cent fee increase and
$400 per doctor to cover increased
liability insurance costs.

Located on the southeast corner
of 23rd Street and Lonsdale, the
medical unit will be staffed Tues-
day by approximately 10 doctors
from li a.m. to 3 p.m.

Gray said patients should con-
tact the nurses at their doctors’ of-
fice for advice on whether to go to
the LGH emergency ward or the
temporary MASH unit.

Business .............. 38
Classified Ads..........43
Cocktails & Caviar......18
Comics................37
Fashion ............... 13
Horoscopes ............ 37
lifestyles..............33
Sports ................ 23
Travel ................ 42
Vintage Years..........40
What's Going On........17

WEATHER

Sunday mostly cloudy.
Monday, mostly cloudy with
Showers. Tuesday, mostly
sunny. Highs near 16°C.

Second Class Registration Number 3885