police
Paliyans Given Government Assistance in India
Government officials have recently gone out of their way to be friendly and helpful to the residents of a Paliyan village in the forest of South India. A news story in The Hindu on October 5 provided details. The setting for the story is the village of Kalaimaan Nagar, located near the Karuppanadhi Dam in […]
Police Officials Support Yanadi Kids
District officials in Machilipatnam, a small city in Andhra Pradesh, have mounted a campaign to convince Yanadi parents in a tribal colony to encourage their children to attend a local government school. A news report in The Hindu last week described the work on behalf of the Yanadi children by the Assistant Superintendent of Police, […]
Police Work on Tristan
On June 8 the Tristan Islanders posted on their website an ad for a position in the government of the island for a “Police Assurance Officer.” In the course of the ad, the island administrators preparing it didn’t mind expressing—modestly of course—their pride in the fact that the place is still relatively free of crime […]
Piaroa Still in Jail
The three Piaroa young men who were arrested by the Venezuelan police on January 23 are still languishing in jail in Amazonas state and the courts are not allowing them to be released. On March 14, El Pitazo, a Venezuelan news website, released a story with updated information about the condition of the three men […]
Piaroa Protesters
On Wednesday January 23, the political crisis in Venezuela deepened when Juan Guaidó, leader of the national assembly, declared himself to be the interim president until another election could be held. He maintained that the earlier presidential election had been corrupt and that the victory President Nicholas Maduro had declared for himself was therefore invalid. […]
An Uproar over Sexual Harassment
Leh, the town that serves as capital of Ladakh, was in an uproar last week because some policemen sexually harassed a couple female students. The heavy-handed response by police officials attempting to cover up the crime and their repressive approach to the complainers prompted outrage among many Ladakhi women. The incident was described in the […]
Yanadi Flee, then Protest, Police Brutality
An investigation of a rape and murder in Andhra Pradesh became nasty for the Yanadi recently when the police rounded up and then roughed up some villagers. But unlike the tacit avoidance of conflict with authority figures that has characterized them in the past, these Yanadi protested to higher authorities. After the police began picking […]
Piaroa React to Violence with Violence
On June 13th, the news media in Venezuela reported that violence had occurred in a Piaroa community: the famously peaceful people had burned a local post of the National Guard. The news reports provided somewhat conflicting details, but the basic ingredients of the story were consistent. El Universal, a major news source for the nation, […]
Tristan Policeman Has Quiet Job
The sole policeman on Tristan da Cunha rarely if ever uses the tools of his office—a truncheon, handcuffs, pepper spray, a jail cell—nor does he make arrests. He hasn’t had to. The Guardian last week included an article about Conrad Glass, Tristan policeman for 22 years, who was in England for a training course on […]
Amish Men Held by Submachine Gun
The seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that an Indiana police officer used excessive force when he pointed a submachine gun at some Amish men, and others, during a routine search. The court upheld a district court decision that the officer is not entitled to qualified immunity in such an incident. The problem […]
