I was walking through Chinatown looking for anything interesting to shoot and what did I see? I saw horses. Yes, the mounted police were hanging out in an alley just off of Main and Hastings, the heart of the DTES . This is in fact the poorest neighborhood in Canada , and probably the most crime-ridden. At first, I thought the police were questioning a suspect in the alley, but as I walked closer, I realized that they were conversing…about horses!! As I took pictures, at least a dozen people, residents of this poor area, who usually shy away from the police, were actually approaching them willingly and interacting with the boys in blue (and their trusty horses). They were no longer the symbol of the heavy hand of the law. They are immediately transformed into cool guys with horses! I spoke with Constable Conrad Van Dyk of the VPD Mounted Unit and he agreed how the horses added a dimension to their presence that is immediate and profound. He said when the police patrol this neighborho
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