300 arrested at Occupy protests in Oakland

After clashing with police, demonstrators break into City Hall and burn a U.S. flag. Mayor Quan calls on the movement to "stop using Oakland as its playground."

About 300 people were arrested Saturday during a chaotic day of Occupy protests that saw demonstrators break into City Hall and burn an American flag, as police earlier fired tear gas and bean bags to disperse hundreds of people after some threw rocks and bottles and tore down fencing outside a nearby convention center.

Dozens of police officers remained on guard outside City Hall around midnight following the most turbulent day of protests since November, when Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment. An exasperated Mayor Jean Quan, who faced heavy criticism for the police action last fall, called on the Occupy movement to "stop using Oakland as its playground."

"People in the community and people in the Occupy movement have to stop making excuses for this behavior," Quan said.

Protesters clashed with police throughout the day, at times throwing rocks, bottles and other objects at officers. And police responded by deploying smoke, tear gas and bean bag rounds, City Administrator Deanna Santanta said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-mew-occupy-oakland-20120130,0,5086659,print.story

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Police Seek Help On Drugged Driving

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The federal government should help police departments nationwide obtain the tools and training needed to attack a rising scourge of driving under the influence, two U.S. senators said Sunday.

Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Mark Pryor of Arkansas proposed that federal funding in a pending transportation funding bill be used for research and to train police. They said police have no equipment and few have training in identifying drugged drivers, who don't show the same outward signs of intoxication as drunken drivers do, such as slurred speech.

"Cops need a Breathalyzer-like technology that works to identify drug-impaired drivers on-the-spot — before they cause irreparable harm," Schumer said. "With the explosive growth of prescription drug abuse it's vital that local law enforcement have the tools and training they need to identify those driving under the influence of narcotics to get them off the road."

Schumer says drugged driving arrests rose 35 percent in New York since 2001, but he says that's a fraction of the cases.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=146050566

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South Carolina

York police aim for community presence

Outreach includes neighborhood meetings, regular walking patrols

YORK -- Pounding the pavement and pressing the flesh are among recent efforts by York police to strengthen relationships with city residents -- and, hopefully, reduce crime.

York Police Chief Andy Robinson said he is encouraging each of the department's four shifts to "adopt" an area of town and meet regularly with residents.

The first meeting was with residents in an area from California Street to the S.C. 5 Bypass. "We want to let them know we're not just here to make arrests - we're here for the whole community," Robinson said.

Police Lt. Dale Edwards, whose shift has adopted that part of town, said his shift officers also have had success by walking the area to talk with people.

http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/01/29/3699063/york-police-aim-for-community.html

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Jan 28, 2012

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35 pounds of cocaine found in U.N. mailroom

What's more, the sacks had no return address, or even an addressee. Package handlers at a U.N. mail room ran the bags through an X-ray screener.

Inside were 14 hollowed-out textbooks, each containing a little more than 2 pounds of cocaine, New York police told The Times on Friday.

U.N. security officials notified the New York Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency, which seized about 35 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $440,000, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Alleged Utah school bomb plot: 2 charged; teen girl praised as hero

A teenage girl who received an electronic warning was being praised as a hero Friday for tipping off authorities in Utah about what they believe was a plot by two students to blow up a high school during an assembly then steal an airplane and flee to safety.

Two students, who seemingly had a fascination with the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, were arrested this week in connection with the alleged plot at Roy High School in Roy.

Dallin Morgan, 18, was released Friday after posting bail of $10,000, Roy police spokeswoman Anna Bond said in a telephone interview. A 16-year-old boy, whose name is being withheld because of his age, was also charged.

Officials were not releasing the name of the girl who first approached school administrators, but there was no mistaking the admiration.

“It was the work of a very courageous student who came forward,” Bond said Friday. “It could have been a disaster.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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California bill seeks to limit detention of arrestees facing deportation

Legislation would counter Secure Communities program by limiting local law enforcement's role in holding people for immigration authorities.

A bill being drafted by a state legislator would limit local law enforcement from holding arrestees on behalf of immigration authorities seeking to deport them.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) said he is finalizing amendments to a bill that would be the first statewide measure to counter the Secure Communities enforcement program, which requires law enforcement agencies to forward to immigration authorities the fingerprints of all arrestees booked into local jails.

If those authorities identify a candidate for deportation, they can issue a detainer, which asks the agency to hold them beyond the time when they would normally be released so immigration agents can take custody. The program has come under fire because many of those ensnared have never been convicted of crimes or are low-level offenders.

"States have their own ways of fighting back," Ammiano said. "We can't stand by and let innocent people, food vendors, etc., be caught up in sweeps, assume they're guilty of some violent offense and then deport them and separate them from their families."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immigration-law-20120128,0,3775946,print.story

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Stop me if you've heard this one before, but there were these cops …

Reality TV show to look at how humor defuses tense situations

Think kidnapping is bad in Somalia? It's worse in Mexico

Somalia and Kenya together ranked ninth in the world for kidnapping foreigners from October to December of last year, with two kidnappings a month, the Britain-based company AKE found. (Somali waters, where piracy has been a persistent problem, ranked fifth, with 13 crew members taken a month.)

It may seem surprising that a private company is gathering these statistics. Taryn Evans, an analyst at AKE, said that governments do release data on kidnapping, but they are often skewed for political reasons. Even if governments don't fudge the numbers, many kidnappings are never reported.

The results from official sources aren't so believable: Canada had the highest kidnapping rate in the world as of 2009, according to the most recent United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime data. So to get better information, the British company uses on-the-ground experts to track kidnappings.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/01/kidnapping-bad-somalia-mexico.html

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Gang violence is less related to drugs than thought, CDC says

Using data from 2003 through 2008, the analysis looked at gang-related killings and other homicides in large cities in 17 states and found the highest level of gang homicides in five cities. Three were in California -- Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland; the other two were Oklahoma City, Okla., and Newark, N.J.

The finding that drugs played less of a role than previously thought by the public could be important for policymakers, because it could shift the focus in how society attempts to prevent gang deaths.

“Violence -- including gang homicides -- is a significant public health problem,” Linda C. Degutis, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said in a prepared statement. “Investing in early prevention pays off in the long run. It helps youth learn how to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence and keeps them connected to their families, schools and communities, and from joining gangs in the first place.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Curbing Section 8 harassment

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors has approved measures designed to thwart alleged harassment of blacks and Latinos who hold Section 8 vouchers in those cities.

Officials in the Antelope Valley cities of Lancaster and Palmdale have been under fire for months for allegedly harassing minority residents who receive public housing assistance. A civil rights lawsuit filed last June accused authorities of trying to drive blacks and Latinos who hold Section 8 vouchers out of the area through overzealous inspections of homes by housing officials and sheriff's deputies. In many cases, according to the plaintiffs' lawyers, inspectors would search for violations of Section 8 rules or criminal activity even though no complaint had been made.

Now, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved measures designed to thwart any such harassment. In a closed session Tuesday night, the board agreed to stop funding extra housing investigators for the two cities; critics had argued that the investigators' main role was to target minority Section 8 residents and terminate their housing privileges. Investigators will no longer be able to take armed sheriff's deputies with them on compliance checks unless there is a documented threat to the investigator's safety. And the county housing authority will no longer routinely provide names and addresses of Section 8 residents and their landlords to municipal and law enforcement agencies simply because they ask for them.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-section8-20120127,0,3982933,print.story

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Pentagon shooter pleads guilty, agrees to 25 years

A Marine veteran from Virginia pleaded guilty Thursday and has agreed to serve a 25-year prison sentence on charges that he fired a series of overnight pot shots in 2010 at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps museum in Quantico and other military targets as part of what prosecutors called a campaign to strike fear throughout the region.

Prosecutors also revealed Thursday new details about Yonathan Melaku's intended next target: Arlington National Cemetery, where he was arrested before he was able to carry out a plan to deface gravestones there.

As part of Thursday's plea deal, Melaku, 24, of Alexandria, pleaded guilty to destruction of U.S. property, use of a firearm in an act of violence and intention to injure a veterans' memorial, namely the cemetery. Prosecutors and Melaku's lawyer agreed to a 25-year sentence as part of the deal, and U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said he would agree to the sentence as well.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/26/accused-pentagon-shooter-former-marine-melaku-pleads-guilty/

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Troubled veterans pose special risk for US police

WASHINGTON: The US government is funding an unusual national training program to help police deal with the increasing number of volatile confrontations involving highly trained and often heavily armed combat veterans.

The Department of Justice, which is developing the program, said there was an ''urgent need'' to defuse crises in which police faced tactical disadvantages against mentally ill suspects who were trained in modern warfare.

''We just can't use the blazing-guns approach any more when dealing with disturbed individuals who are highly trained in all kinds of tactical operations, including guerrilla warfare,'' said Dennis Cusick, the executive director of the Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute.

''That goes beyond the experience of SWAT teams."

http://www.smh.com.au/world/troubled-veterans-pose-special-risk-for-us-police-20120126-1qjq1.html

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Jan 26, 2012

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Sterilized by North Carolina, she felt raped once more

Elaine Riddick was only 14 when the state decided that she was not capable of mothering children and quietly cauterized her fallopian tubes. The $50,000 now offered to her only makes her angrier.

Elaine Riddick was a confused and frightened 14-year-old. She was poor and black, the daughter of alcoholic parents in a segregated North Carolina town. And she was pregnant after being raped by a man from her neighborhood.

Riddick's miserable circumstances attracted the attention of social workers, who referred her case to the state's Eugenics Board. In an office building in Raleigh, five men met to consider her fate — among them the state health director and a lawyer from the attorney general's office.

Board members concluded that the girl was "feebleminded" and doomed to "promiscuity." They recommended sterilization. Riddick's illiterate grandmother, Maggie Woodard, known as "Miss Peaches," marked an "X" on a consent form.

Hours after Riddick gave birth to a son in Edenton, N.C., on March 5, 1968, a doctor sliced through her fallopian tubes and cauterized them.

"They butchered me like a hog," recalls Riddick, now a poised and determined woman of 57.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-forced-sterilization-20120126,0,7728754,print.story

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Suspected Mexican Mafia, gang members held in San Diego

Street gangs are targeted as authorities make more than 100 arrests in a wide-ranging investigation into alleged racketeering, firearms trafficking and drug distribution.

Authorities arrested more than 100 suspected gang members and associates throughout San Diego County on Wednesday morning as part of a wide-ranging investigation into alleged racketeering, firearms trafficking and drug distribution coordinated by the Mexican Mafia.

Among those charged are two suspects believed to be high-ranking members of the Mexican Mafia, who are accused of overseeing the criminal activity, and 117 suspected members and associates of street gangs, who allegedly paid "taxes" to the prison-based organized crime group.

The charges were detailed in 17 indictments and eight criminal complaints filed by the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego. In early morning raids at homes throughout the county, federal and local officials arrested 104 of the defendants, including the suspected Mexican Mafia members. Fifteen suspects remain at large.

The arrests mark "one of the largest single takedowns in San Diego FBI history," said Keith Slotter, the FBI's special agent in charge in San Diego.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gang-sweep-20120126,0,6160499,print.story

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Death row inmate to North Carolina: 'Kill me if you can, suckers'

He also happens to live on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C. But that's not a bad thing, he wrote in a taunting letter to his hometown newspaper, the Gaston Gazette.

In fact, Hembree wrote, the state of North Carolina has taken the "death" out of death row.

"Kill me if you can, suckers. Ha! Ha! Ha!" Hembree gloated in his letter, portions of which were published by the Gazette on Tuesday.

Hembree, 50, was sentenced to death in November for suffocating a 17-year-old girl in 2009, and is also accused of killing two other North Carolina women. But no one has been executed in the state since 2006 because of legal challenges over lethal injections and whether a physician must oversee executions.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Connecticut

Police to start walking beats

Two months into his tenure as New Haven Police Department chief, Dean Esserman released his plan for returning New Haven to a community policing model in a meeting Wednesday evening at the Wexler-Grant Community School in Dixwell.

Esserman explained to a crowd of Dixwell and Newhallville residents that his community policing plan will include officers walking beats in the city's neighborhoods by next week, two new officer training programs — one conducted in Meriden and the other in New Haven — later this spring, and the addition of 40 to 50 officers to the police force by the spring. Along with Esserman, the NHPD's Newhallville and Dixwell district managers and other officers were present. Aldermen from Wards 19, 20, 21 and 22 also spoke to the crowd.

“There is real excitement around the idea of community policing coming back to New Haven,” moderator Scott Marks, co-founder of the New Haven-based nonprofit organization Connecticut Center for a New Economy, said. “In the 1990s, when community policing was in effect, there was a 40 percent drop in crime. A relationship needs to be built between the police and the community.”

In a press conference after announcing his new role as chief in November, Esserman hinted at his aim to return to Elm City to a community policing model of law enforcement. Esserman's plan draws on the strategy he helped craft in New Haven in the 1990s, which fell out of favor by the 2000s. Since then, many residents and city officials have publicly lamented the demise of a community policing model.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/jan/26/police-to-start-walking-beats-by-next-week/?print

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New Jersey

Camden chief outlines policing plan

Thomson wants foot, bike patrols

CAMDEN — Community policing — with officers patrolling on bikes and walking beats in the same area every day — is a central aim of the metro police proposal, Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson said Wednesday.

Speaking at the first of a series of public-safety meetings with city residents, Thomson said he plans to assign 63 percent of all uniformed officers to community policing, should the plan go forward. The city currently has no officers assigned to community policing, although a 40-member quality-of-life unit deals with neighborhood issues on a citywide basis, he said.

Thomson also said he expects the proposed metro division would have 420 sworn officers. The current police force, hit hard by layoffs last year, typically can muster around 240 officers, the chief said.

Having more officers would change the way the short-staffed department works, said Thomson. He said his officers now are too often “clerks in squad cars” who take reports after crimes have occurred, rather than preventing them in the first place.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20120126/NEWS01/301260015/Camden-chief-outlines-policing-plan

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Louisiana

Failure to tell police about child abuse would be a felony in bill

Failure to report an act of child abuse would become a felony crime under legislation filed for the March 12 session of the Louisiana Legislature by a New Orleans lawmaker.

Senate Bill 4, by Democratic Sen. J.P. Morrell, would set a maximum fine of $10,000, a jail sentence of five years or both for violators.

Morrell said his bill is an outgrowth of the ongoing investigation of sexual abuse involving former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who is accused of abusing young boys for years without being reported.

"There is no judgment call here," Morrell said. "If you know about it and don't report it, you can be charged with a felony."

State law now requires teachers, counselors, clergy, social workers and others to report suspected child abuse to police or face up to six months in jail or a $500 fine. Senate officials said Morrell's bill is the first statute that would apply to any citizen who witnesses abusive acts and fails to report them.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/01/failure_to_tell_police_about_c.html

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Jan 25, 2012

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U.S. helicopter raid frees two aid workers from Somali pirates

Jessica Buchanan, a 32-year-old American, and Poul Hagen Thisted, 60-year-old Dane, both from the Danish Demining Group had been kidnapped in October in the central Somali town of Galkayo, which until then had been considered relatively safe for Westerners.

Early Wednesday, the Danish Refugee Council, of which the demining group is a part of, confirmed the successful rescue operation of the two aid workers.

The overnight raid was carried out by U.S. military hellicopters and Navy seals operating out of an American base in the tiny east African nation of Djibouti. After the mission, they returned to the Djibouti base with the two.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/01/us-military-rescue-somalia-pirates.html

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Accused serial arsonist pleads not guilty to 100 charges

A 24-year-old German national entered a not guilty plea Tuesday in connection with 100 arson-related charges stemming from a series of fires that terrorized Los Angeles over the New Year's weekend.

With the addition of 63 new counts, Harry Burkhart now faces 100 felony charges related to 49 blazes set between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2. Most of the fires began in automobiles but often spread to homes in Hollywood, West Hollywood, Sherman Oaks and surrounding areas.

Burkhart appeared in court wearing a yellow jailhouse shirt and pants and shackled at the waist. The judge set bail at $7.5 million.

Burkhart faces 75 counts of arson, 19 counts of arson of an inhabited dwelling, two counts of arson of an uninhabited building, two counts of attempt to burn and two counts of possession of flammable materials. If convicted of all charges he faces more than 80 years in prison.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/01/serial-arsonist-not-guilty-plea.html

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'Barefoot Bandit' calls authorities 'fools' and 'swine'

It was a contrite, remorseful Colton Harris-Moore who told a Washington state judge in December how sorry he was for his two-year crime spree as the "Barefoot Bandit." Then he apparently went back to jail and said what he really thought -- and the feds, unfortunately for him, were listening.

"Once again, I made it through a situation I shouldn't have," he chortled, referring to the sympathetic judge who sentenced him to 7 1/2 years in prison for the string of airplane, car, boat and equipment thefts that took him from Washington state to the Bahamas.

Calling the prosecutors and police who finally cornered him "swine," "fools" and "asses," the 20-year-old Harris-Moore said the relatively light sentence was "a much appreciated recognition and validation."

What about the earlier letter he wrote to the court when he said he'd learned so much from his harrowing attempt to pilot airplanes with no formal training, an experience that supposedly "pit[ted] me face to face with my own mortality"?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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4 Connecticut officers charged with depriving Latinos of rights

Four police officers from East Haven, Conn., were arrested Tuesday morning on federal charges that they used their authority as cops to harass, intimidate and deprive Latinos of their rights, according to federal officials.

Federal authorities began investigating East Haven police in 2009 after local activists complained that police had abused Latinos. Last month, the Department of Justice released its findings, saying there was a pattern of discrimination at the Police Department.

Officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari and Jason Zullo and Sgt. John Miller, president of the police union, were charged with conspiracy, deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice in a federal indictment released Tuesday morning. The three officers worked the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, often supervised by Miller.

The indictment alleges that the group, “acting under the color of law did knowingly and willfully conspire and agree together and with each other” ... “to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate members of the East Haven community in the free exercise and enjoyment of rights.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Restoring real community policing

Gangbuster

Bringing back what many people call community policing will not cure New Haven's crime problem. Because it never really left.

Huh? Look here, supposedly knowledgeable crime columnist, you might say, it's been well established that community policing in New Haven was dead. Media outlets declared its demise, city and police officials admitted as much and residents mourned its passing. Then Chief Dean Esserman was brought back to the city specifically to revive it. Why, even you, in a column just months ago, urged candidates in the Ward 1 aldermanic election to help bring back community policing.

All true — to a point. The death and revival of community policing has been the dominant narrative for New Haven policing, and a powerful one because it harkens back to the good old days of the 1990s when Esserman first helped implement community policing and sent crime plummeting. Who doesn't want to root for the triumphant return of the good guys? But the narrative is an incomplete and only partially accurate one.

The current perception of community policing is of a strategy that mainly involves building trust for the police in neighborhoods by engaging with the community and solving conflicts before they become crimes. That strategy was indeed developed in the early 1990s, but the rumors of its death have been greatly exaggerated. Each of New Haven's 10 police districts has a manager — he or she gets to know the neighborhood, its officers, its heroes and thugs and is given some measure of autonomy in making the strategy from headquarters match the needs of the district.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/jan/25/ross-restoring-real-community-policingf/?print

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Jan 24, 2012

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Supreme Court says police need warrant for GPS tracking

Justices decide firmly for privacy in their first ruling on government use of digital technology to monitor people.

The Supreme Court confronted for the first time the government's growing use of digital technology to monitor Americans and ruled strongly in favor of privacy.

The court said the Constitution generally barred the police from tracking an individual with a GPS device attached to a car unless they were issued a warrant from a judge in advance. But the ruling could limit a host of devices including surveillance cameras and cellphone tracking, legal experts said.

"I would guess every U.S. attorney's office in the country will be having a meeting to sort out what this means for their ongoing investigations," said Lior Strahilevitz, a University of Chicago expert on privacy and technology.

Even the justices who most often side with prosecutors rejected the government's view that Americans driving on public streets have waived their right to privacy and can be tracked and monitored at will. At least five justices appeared inclined, in the future, to go considerably beyond the physical intrusion involved in putting a GPS device on a car and rule that almost any long-term monitoring with a technological device could violate an individual's right to privacy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-gps-20120124,0,3298858,print.story

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Ohio wrestler Sweet Sexy Sensation gets 32 years for not telling sex partners about HIV status

CINCINNATI — A former professional wrestler was sentenced Monday to 32 years in prison for having sex with women without telling them he had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS.

Andre Davis, 29, was sentenced in a Hamilton County court on 14 counts of felonious assault. Davis, who wrestled using stage names including Gangsta of Love and Sweet Sexy Sensation, was convicted in November.

Prosecutors had said Davis violated state law by not telling a dozen sex partners about his HIV status or lying to them.

Davis told the judge Monday that he was a “sex addict” and that his addiction grew worse when he lost his dream of becoming a professional wrestler after getting the HIV test results.

He said sex addiction is probably the worst addiction anyone could have. “Drugs and alcohol are terrible, but sex is something everybody wants,” he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ohio-wrestler-sweet-sexy-sensation-gets-32-years-for-not-telling-sex-partners-about-hiv-status

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Texas

Seven habits of effective citizens

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/287838

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Jan 23, 2012

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Tobacco Ban Might Be Igniting Ohio Prison Violence

Ohio's prisons have become increasingly violent since March 2009, when the state enacted a tobacco ban, and the state's prison director thinks there may be a connection.

Director Gary Mohr of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction told the Dayton Daily News he is launching a study to determine whether the tobacco ban is stirring problems in the state's prisons, where violent disturbances have doubled.

People are becoming even bolder about smuggling contraband into the prisons, such as tobacco, illegal drugs, and cell phones — including throwing items over fences — and rival gangs are fighting to control the black market.

“Tobacco has become a currency that's used in our prisons,” Mohr said. Mohr is a former Ohio prison official who went to work in private-sector prisons for years but returned as director in January 2011. He said he was “made sick” by the increasing violence. Mohr ordered his research department to investigate disturbances involving four or more inmates, and expects results in three to four weeks.

http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/prison-violence-ohio/2012/01/23/id/425101

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Detroit police say grants modified to save 108 jobs

Detroit — Detroit Police received approval to modify a federal community policing grant to save the jobs of 108 police officers slated for layoffs, Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee announced late Friday.

The police chief said his office had been notified by the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing that the department's request to prevent the layoffs with the grant was approved.

The layoff notices would have been effective Feb. 20.

"I would like to thank the United States Department of Justices' COPS Office and Director Bernard Melekian for approving our amendment to the original awards, which will allow us to retain these fine officers," Godbee said in a statement. "We will continue to be vigilant in our efforts to retain our most valuable assets, our police officers."

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120121/METRO01/201210382/Detroit-police-say-grants-modified-save-108-jobs

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India

Keep pepper spray handy, say police to women

In an awareness programme for women, Delhi police urged them to have a pepper spray handy and use it in cases of eve-teasing or misbehaviour.

The programme was organized by the staff of Vasant Kunj police station, south Delhi on Saturday. It aimed to sensitise women and make them aware of how to handle any unforeseen situation and to improve the community policing in the area.

“No women should tolerate any kind of misbehaviour, eve teasing and must complain immediately to the police. In case of eve teasing, women should not surrender but create a hue and cry so that the culprit can be apprehended and booked,” said Chhaya Sharma, deputy commissioner of police. Police also stressed on the need for safer environments for women to travel at night. Sharma said bus or auto rickshaws should not drop women at isolated places. ‘Be Artsy' organised a street play, as part of the programme, with the help of students from Kamla Nehru College.

“To organize a street play was an effort towards community policing. It aimed at sensitising women about misbehaviour, eve teasing, rape and dis-respect. We hope the play helps the public understand that women need to be treated respectfully,” a police official said. An interaction was held by the student volunteers as well as the police after the programme. Security tips for women were discussed in the session. The public shared their incidents of eve-teasing and how they reacted in the situations.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/221399/keep-pepper-spray-handy-say.html#

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