It wasn’t long ago that Community First city councillor Nadine Nakagawa and her colleague Mary Trentadue (she has since retired from Council and was appointed to the NW Police Board) were arguing to defund the police. They supported a motion that, if passed, would have frozen the NW Police Department budget – which the net effect would have been a budget cut.
“I cannot support any increase to the police budget, recognizing even if it is the cost of increased wages, etc.,” said Nakagawa, who wanted all police staffing and initiatives funded out of its existing budget – reported the Record newspaper.
“This is not an attack on individual police officers…This is an attack on systems that are not serving us and are not serving the marginalized in our community. … The fact is we need a different model, and this is the way to a different model.” – Record Newspaper Dec 8, 2020
Fast forward to today.
The Mayor recently pleaded on X (formerly Twitter) for CKNW’s Mike Smyth to pay a visit to New West. He wanted to discuss an interview Smyth did with Brow of the Hill resident Carmen Dunn. She spoke about the rampant crime and public disorder she and her family are living through – the Mayor had an alternate view of Dunn’s reality.
Unfortunately the Mayor’s request for that tour didn’t go far as in 2018 Smyth had previously blocked him so Johnstone wasn’t getting any messages (see image below). Smyth tweeted out – in response to Mr. Johnstone’s original tweet – that “liars and haters blocked”.
Interestingly, Nakagawa never told the CKNW listening audience that she was NOT speaking on behalf of the entire Council. Apparently NWP councillors have been told by the Mayor they must follow this strict protocol if they do any media interviews.
To listen to the entire CKNW interview as well as hear from the callers who dialed in after Nakagawa’s appearance please click on the image below.
