Aussie police command wobbled by sexual harassment claims

Sydney, Sep. 15 (ANI): Female police officers at an Australian police command have alleged that they were sexually harassed and intimidated by their male counterparts apart from being told that their place was in the home.

According to a complaint filed by a senior female constable at the Goulburn Local Area Command, five of her male colleagues sent sexually explicit emails to her and asked her to join a threesome.

Another three officers at the same command’s Bowral station have told their local MP they were “demeaned” due to pregnancy or because they were mothers, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The alleged harassment of the senior constable and sergeant began two years ago.

During one sleazy exchange in the police station, a senior colleague told the female constable that a threesome was “every man’s dream” and then suggested she “have a go” with the girlfriend of another officer.

The policewomen have also alleged that a local man was assaulted during an arrest in the middle of 2007 and that it was never investigated, despite his family attempting to make a complaint.

The senior constable said the arresting officer told her: “That guy’s a piece of s…, he was carrying on like a f…..t and mouthing off, he got what he deserved, we flogged him, he got pile-driven into the ground head first.”

A police spokesman said the women were the subject of a 181D action and faced a loss of confidence of the Commissioner.

“Their reward for a combined 37 years of dedicated front-line service is to be subjected to systematic bullying by male officers because of their gender and because they had the courage to stand up and complain about their treatment,” Hodgkinson said.
The two women have paid dearly for their service, with the senior constable needing surgery to fuse her spine last year and the sergeant suffering a broken back on duty. (ANI)

Rawalpindi cops enjoy watching women being eve-teased

Islamabad, Sep 14 (ANI): A number of women shoppers in Pakistan have come out with complaints that eve teasing is on the rise in markets and bazaars, and that the police enjoy watching it happening.

With Eid just around the corner, the markets and bazaars are crowded with shoppers, but there are hardly any policemen to control the crowd, and to see that men visiting the areas are accompanied by females.

A majority of eve teasing and purse-snatching cases have gone unreported, as families dislike visiting the police stations not only to save their reputation, but also to save themselves from police harassment.

According to the police data last week over 20 women were deprived of handbags and shopping bags.

Young men start walking with families in the crowded Moti Bazaar and tease women, especially young girls, who felt shy to bring such incidents to the notice of their family members.

Tench Bazaar had already been encroached by the stallholders and the Eid rush had added to the problems of the Eid shoppers.

“A group of young men gathered around a stall of fake jewellery and bangles at Commercial Market, Satellite Town, and harassed girls, and this is a common practice,” the Daily Times quoted Adeeba as saying.

She said if someone wanted to lodge a complaint, they had to search for the police giving enough time to the eve teasers to escape from the scene.

A woman shopper, who was visiting a Bank Road shopping centre, complained that male police officials deployed at the bazaar and markets also enjoyed seeing women teased, chased and harassed.

A police official said that City Police Officer (CPO) Rao Muhammad Iqbal had directed the Cantonment Police Station to set up a public complaint cell on Bank Road for quick action on complaints.

He said three policewomen had been deployed at each gate of Moti Bazaar to check the entry of men, however, the plain fact was that not a single policeman was seen at any gate. (ANI)

Gay community stages rally in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, June 28 (ANI): People belonging to sexual minorities staged a rally in Bhubaneswar demanding their rights.

Gays, lesbians, transgender and bisexuals put up plays and also took to streets to participate in the ‘Rainbow Pride Walk’ to make people aware about their plight.

“The reason for organising this rally is that people look down upon us in the society. There is a stigma attached to sexual minorities in our society. We want to live with respect,” said Tulu.

Members of the sexual minority community said they wanted the society to treat them with respect and wanted equal rights like any other citizen.

“The purpose is to make people aware that the society in India, in Orissa, in Bhubaneswar, – wherever lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender are, – every where, they have equal rights like any other citizen of this country. India is a democratic country. We have the right to express our problems, our concerns to larger society and we expect the civil society, the private sector and even the NGO sector to understand our problems better,” said Pawan Dhall, organiser of the march.

The ‘Rainbow Pride Walk’ held annually aims to draw sexual orientation, gender identity and associated sexual health issues into the larger human rights movement in the country.

It draws its inspiration from the Stonewall Riots held in New York, USA in June 1969.

The riots occurred as a mark of protest by sexual minorities in the US against police harassment that was a daily feature of their lives in those days and sparked off what can be said to be the modern movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the West. (ANI)

Egyptian police kill Bedouin tribesman in shootout

EL-ARISH, Egypt, April 11 (Reuters) – Egyptian police shot and killed a man on Saturday in an exchange of fire with armed Bedouin men on a truck in north Sinai, security sources said.

Two police vehicles tried to stop the truck, but it rammed one of the vehicles and police opened fire, prompting Bedouin in the truck to fire back, a security source said .

One Bedouin man was killed in the exchange, and police were searching for three others who escaped after abandoning the truck, the source added.

Similar incidents of police killing Bedouin men have in the past escalated into full-blown hostilities between armed tribesmen and police, with violent protests and attacks on police and police outposts.

Security sources said the truck had no licence plates and contained stolen electrical cables and ammunition. Police have called in Bedouin tribal elders to try to identify the dead man, they added.

Northern Sinai is home to about 200,000 formerly nomadic Bedouin. It is one of Egypt’s poorest areas and unemployment is high. Bedouin say they are shut out of jobs in the lucrative tourism and petroleum sectors in Sinai.

Tensions between north Sinai Bedouin and police have never entirely subsided since Egyptian police detained thousands of young Sinai men several years ago when a series of bombings shook south Sinai’s tourist resorts. Most of them were freed without charge after months in custody, but many Bedouin complain of police harassment and abuse. (Writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni, editing by Tim Pearce)