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This ts the Clemens Story

as related in evidence at the coroner's inquest

a

On. July 19, 1952, Clarence Clemens, a Negro tong-}

shoreman, was arrested by two Vancouver city policemen,
Robert Wintrip and Dan Brown. The following morning*he
was taken to Vancouver General Hospital for an examina:
tion, but was discharged the same day. Freed on $50 bail,
he remained at home in bed until July 28, when he lapsed
into a coma and was again rushed to Vancouver General
Hospital. He died on Christmas eve, December. 24, without
ever having regained full consciousness. fo

- Five days before Clemens died Constable Dan Brown
started libel proceedings against the Pacific Tribune on the
basis of stories this paper published dealing with the Clemens

Case. :
On January 6, 1953, an

inquest was held at the Van-

couver coroner's court before Dr. ]. D. Whitbread, Coroner.
The jury’s verdict stated that Clemens died “an unnatural
accidental death as a result of injury to the spinal cord caused
by. an old injury which may have been aggravated by his
strenuous struggle while resisting arrest by the Vancouver
City Police Force officers at approximately 2.30 a.m. July
19, 1952, in the normal.course of their duties and we further
wish to commend the doctors of the Vancouver General
Hospital for their thorough treatment and care of the deceas-

ed as a staff patient.”

The verdict has aroused wide dissatisfaction. As a pub-

lic service, the Pacific Tribune is publishing important ex-|

cerpts from witnesses’ statements made under oath at th

inquest.

PC Daniel

Brown

PC 204 Daniel Brown testified,
in part: :

On July 19 after leaving the sta-
tion being paraded out and on in-
structions from our inspector that
Constable Wintrip and I were to
work together Beat No.’6 and 7,
Section 2 in the City of Vancou-
ver which is the area on Main
Street from the CNR to First Ave-
nue. We were instructed to work
together Friday and Saturday
night in view of the severity of
the people we have to handle and
our first job was to go to the’ New
Station Cafe and our usual routine
was Wintrip would walk around
the cafe and I would stand at the
door and in this instance I would
say that I saw a Negro man I
know as Jack Bowden, walking up

. and down and I told him to sit

down because I could see he had
been drinking. He said he was
mad at a fellow named Clemens
sitting in the rear booth with a
gray-haired lady. I told him to sit
down which he did. ;

Wintrip was checking other peo-
ple in the booths and during my
conversation with Bowden he told
me Clemens was a bad actor, he
had done time for a knifing and
he was going to knife Bowden.

Mr. Nemetz: You knew this of
your own knowledge. ,

A: Yes. I gave this information
to Const. Wintrip and we left the
cafe and went about our business.

“Shortly before two o’clock we

went to Pini’s Cafe in the 700
block Main Street for lunch and
about 2.20, our ringing time was
2.15, Wintrip went down to make

- our ring as ‘we ring every hour. I

did not quite finish dinner so I
told him I would be down in a
minute or two.

Approximately 10 minutes later
I left Pini’s and went down on
Georgia Street and saw Const.
Wintrip at the corner of Georgia
and Main and what is now the

.. Pacific Hotel with a prisoner in

tow taking him to the call box.

»

He did not seem to be having
too much trouble at that particu-
lar time and they went out of
sight. around the corner. On ar-
riving at the corner I hurried over
to assist Wintrip who was having
difficulty with the prisoner and I
took hold of the prisoner’s right
arm. *

- @. What was the nature of the
difficulty?

A: They weré fighting one an-
other and kicking, and the pris-
oner was making it difficult for
the officer, and I took hold of the
prisoner’s right arm and at that
time the man seemed to go ber-
serk.

He was quite a husky man and
I did not have a very good grab
on him and throwing himself
around I slipped to the sidewalk
and landed on my back pulling
Clemens on top of me and Win-
trip on top of Clemens.

At this time a prowler car with
plain-clothes men in it came up
and Const. Grant of our force got
out of the car and held Clemens
until the wagon arrived which
came almost immediately. Clem-
ens was struggling with the three
of us a few moments. The wagon
came and I got in first and there
was only one man in the wagon
at: that time, the wagon driver,
and I got in and we struggled to
get him in the wagon.

In the wagon I was holding him
and Wintrip got in with me and
Clemens started to fight and I
told him to cut it out. I grabbed
one arm and Wintrip grabbed the

| other and we held him until we

came to the station which is only
four blocks away, a matter of
minutes.

Q: Did you drive directly to the

station? :
‘ A. Directly to the station, yes.
There were no stops .When we ar-
rived at the station the wagon
driver backed to the garage and
Clemens was still struggling
violently and we had quite a time.
getting him into the jail.

We put him in the elevator and
took him to the booking desk
where he stood and Sgt. Walker.
of our foree asked him his name
‘and at that time Clemens slump-
ed to the floor, and Const. Corson,

the assitant jailer, told him to get

up and he said, “TI, can’t.” At this
time I turned to, Wintrip and ask-
ed him what the trouble was and
he said he had been in the cafe
and wanted Clemens to go home
and Clemens started to fight and
I said, “Well, charge him with as-
sault on a PC.” And Clemens
was booked and left with the jail-
ers.

Juror: Were you in the course
of your duties not going to the
asistance of this Officer Wintrip?

A. Yes sir. ,

Q: Is it customary when a wait-
er or a proprietor of a. cafe asks
you to remove a man if he is only
sleeping to do so?

A: That cafe and other cafes in
this area like to have an officer
come around and we have an
agreement -with some of these
cafes where the proprietors have
asked me to walk through and
keep this place in order and it
was not uncommon to go through
at all. :

Q: What type of cafe was this?

A: What do you mean?

Q: Would you take ‘your wife
and children there?

A: Never.

Q: Then what type is it. .

A: I would say it is a hang-out
for undesirables during the even-
TNE ees

Mr. Dohm: It is true, is it not,
Const. Brown, neither you or
Const. Wintrip used any more
force than necessary to subdue
the man and protect yourself?

A: Absolutely not, sir.

Q: Did either one of you take
him up the alley or mistreat him?

A: Not a bit.

Q: Was he handcuffed at any
time? ee

A: No sir.

Mr. Stanton: Can you suggest a
reason why Clemens fought so
long and furiously? ©

A: I think he is the type of man
who would fight long and furious-
ly. He had no love for the Police.

Q: Did you hear the word “nig-
ger” used during the night?

A: I never use it, sir.

Q: Did you hear it?”

A: I never noticed but it could
have been used. It is a common
expression down there.

Q@: Around who? -

A: The people that stay around
there.

PC Donald
John Grant

PC109 Donald John Grant, one
of the prowler car officers, testi-
fied that he saw the fight from the
car, got out and assisted Wintrip
and Brown until the police wagon
arrived. .

Juror: May I ask a question? Is
it not customary when two or
three officers are making dn ar-
rest ‘of a» man who is causing
trouble to handcuff him at the
earliest possible moment before
arrival at. the station?

A: Yes, I can answer that. In
this case there did not appear to
be any particular need for hand-
cufis. They are to my mind to be
used to restrain a man and other
than the trouble Wintrip had in
getting him to walk up Main
Street and up until the time of
this sudden flurry I would say at
that time the deceased man was
berserk and to my mind hand-
cuffs were not needed. There
wasn’t enough to bring me and
my partner out of the car until
then.

The Coroner: Could you put
handcuffs on the man?
A: We could have. °

Line:

PC112 Frank Lines, who drove
the police wagon, testified:

I arrived at approximately 2:45
a.m. and arriving at the scene I
observed two uniform men and a
man lying on the sidewalk.

Mr. Nemetz: Did you get out of
the car? : :

‘A: As a rule I usualy have a
swamper. I am not sure, I think
I opened’ the wagon door.

Q: Did you have a swamper
with you that night?

A: Not that night. The man
was placed in the wagon and the

officers got in the wagon with him.
and I drove him to the station. . . .

_Mr. Stanton: When you. got
there two plain-clothes men ‘and
two uniform men were upright
and the fifth man, the Negro, was
lying down. : :

A: There was one plain-clothes
man standing, another stooping
and it appeared two uniform men
were bending over.

Q: They were all on their feet
but the Negro man was lying down
prone.

A: Holding him down.

Mr. Maitland: Did you make a
statement with regard to this mat-
ter?

A: Yes, I have... .

Q: Do you remember saying you
saw a Negro lying on the sidewalk
handcuffed?

A: No, I don’t remember that.

Q: You don’t. I would like that
produced. . ..

‘The Coroner: The records are
closed at 5 o’clock and it is now
20 minutes to six.
get the statement tonight... .

Assistant Chief Whelan: I would
like to have something to say

We could not }

about the production of this state-

ment. It is a copy of a confidential
department file and I don’t think
it should be produced.

The Coroner: I don’t think it is
necessary. Why not ask the man.

Mr. Maitland: I have already’
asked him: and he says he does
not remember.

The Coroner: Let us take it for
granted then that he did make the |
statement. What difference would
it make to this court. This is not
a preliminary hearing. That is
the point I am trying to bring
Out: 3

Mr. Maitland: This means also
to investigate how, when, where
and by what means.

The Coroner: How he died was
told to you by the hospital auth-
orities. What have handcuffs got
to do with it? We have three,
four or five witnesses saying he
wasn’t handcuffed. I don’t want
to be unfair. I want to be very
fair and not show impartiality
(sic). Can you show to me what
difference it makes whether He is
handcuffed or not.

Mr. Maitland: You say that this
is just an inquiry, but with coun-
sel here from the Attorney-Gen-
eral’s Department I say it is a
little bit different from an ordin-
ary inquiry. Otherwise why would
the Attorney-General have a rep-
resentative here? Because he
wants to know all the details.

(During the supper hour a
copy of the statement signed by

Const. Lines was secured, and
when the court resumed the of-
ficer was shown the statement he

had signed on July 28.)

Mr. Maitland: And so in that
report, I think you mentioned
that you drove up and saw Of-
ficers Grant, Bryce, Wintrip and

The Coroner: Brown.

Mr. Maitland: Brown, and a
Negro gentleman handcuffed; is
that not right? © !

PC Lines: Yes.

: @: And that is, what you report-
ed at that time?

A: I did.

Q. Thank you.

Sa

Clemens Case

The Pacific Tribune, Room: 6, 426 Main Sts Pen 4, B.C.

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in the

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* PACIFIC TRIBUNE| — MARCH 13, 1953 — PAGE 10