The video has been shown over and over on television news channels and on the Internet: A rookie cop shoves a defenseless woman to the sidewalk in the Downtown Eastside.
The cop’s name is Taylor Robinson, a constable with the Vancouver Police Department who graduated from the Justice Institute six months earlier.
The victim’s name is Sandra Davidsen, a woman with cerebral palsy and muscular sclerosis who lived at the Lux social housing building at 65 East Hastings.
More than four years after the incident outside the Lux, Robinson remains on the job and has yet to learn what type of a penalty, if any, he will receive for his actions on the afternoon of June 9, 2010.
But that day is coming.
Robinson is expected to learn his fate Oct. 17 when an adjudicator presiding over a public hearing returns to courtroom 109 in the Robson Street courthouse to decide on a penalty.
The adjudicator is Wally Oppal, whose name is well known in the Downtown Eastside after he presided as commissioner over the Missing Women Commission Inquiry. One of his recommendations was that police receive training to recognize the special needs of vulnerable people.
Now retired from the bench, the former judge of the B.C. supreme and appeal courts will consider the range of discipline requested by lawyers who outlined their arguments Monday at a one-day hearing.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner wants Robinson, who was present in court dressed in a dark suit, suspended without pay for up to 10 days. Davidsen’s lawyer, Douglas King, requested 15 days while lawyer David Crossin, acting on behalf of Robinson, argued for a two-day suspension, saying it was a “fit and proper” penalty and in line with what a VPD superintendent concluded in a separate investigation.
The police complaint commissioner’s office announced Oct. 3 that Robinson admitted to the allegations of abuse of authority and neglect of duty under the Police Act related to shoving Davidsen, whom he claimed was going for his gun. She was shaken but not injured, according to a case summary of the incident.
The video, which was obtained by the Lux’s security cameras and replayed in court Monday, showed Robinson walking three-abreast with two other officers along a busy sidewalk on East Hastings. As the trio approached Davidsen, who is seen walking with an unsteady gait, she appears to step to one side in an attempt to avoid colliding with Robinson. In doing so, she attempts to walk through a gap between Robinson and a fellow officer.
That’s when Robinson pushed her to the ground and then stood over her. In a statement to police investigators five days after the incident, Robinson said he told Davidsen “don’t touch my gun” followed by “never touch a police officer’s gun.”
Davidsen, who denied going for Robinson’s gun and was not present in court Monday, was left on the sidewalk as the three police officers continued down the street. The video shows a street vendor coming to Davidsen’s aid and a witness approaching Robinson. Robinson told the witness Davidsen tried to grab his gun.
Robinson wrote two letters of apology to Davidsen, who told her lawyer she didn’t believe them to be genuine because the first one wasn’t signed. She said the letters provided more of a justification for shoving her than an apology.
Crossin said Robinson wanted to initially apologize to Davidsen in a face-to-face meeting but she rejected his offer. He noted the first letter of apology wasn’t signed because the VPD’s internal affairs section sent the letter to Davidsen without first getting Robinson to sign it.
Crossin described Robinson’s decision to shove Davidsen as an innocent but serious mistake. Had Robinson and the two other officers “paused, showed some grace,” helped her up and apologized, there would have been no need for Monday’s hearing, Crossin added.
“He had no real experience with the Downtown Eastside and, as you know, it’s probably the last place a [rookie] constable should be,” he told Oppal.
Though the focus of the hearing was on Robinson, Oppal heard concerns from Davidsen’s lawyer, who works for the Pivot Legal Society, and police complaint commissioner lawyer Mike Tammen about training and policing practices in the Downtown Eastside. Tammen pointed out the video shows how pedestrians make way for the trio of officers walking side by side along the sidewalk. Davidsen is the only person in the clip who attempts to walk between the officers.
“So your position, at the end of the day, is what the officers are doing is not exactly a good way for officers to foster good relationships with the community?” Oppal asked Tammen, who replied: “Absolutely.”
In delivering a penalty Oct. 17, Oppal is also expected to make recommendations to the VPD or Vancouver Police Board, or both, that relates to policing practices in the Downtown Eastside. Oppal also invited Police Chief Jim Chu to make any comment or recommendations before he delivers his decision.
