Indian women get ready to kick ass...

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hats off to them. Fielding a unit like this takes guts,

If they are a success I volunteer to buy them all a beer !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6314263.stm

[Chris Boonzaier]

Another link...

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?Story...18-054851-7795r

[leigh kitchen]

But just why do you need an all female police unit?

To gain the trust of and deal deal with female / child victims of crime (not a politically correct role in western society because we're all equal regardless of sex, but let's cater for the customers in less enlightened parts of the world & if it's what they need to deal with their situation, then female police officers it is) or to wheedle & manipulate their way in a non-threatening & non-confrontational way around male problems?

Do the male population of Liberia have any respect for women, or do they view them as so many societies do, as second class citizens anyway?

There are enough UN policemen who find it difficult to show any respect or trust in policewomen, because of the attitude to women within their own countries, I recognise that & I'm a dinosaaur in modern policing terms.

Edited March 3, 2007 by leigh kitchen

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi Leigh,

Different countries and different cultures. Here (in my little part of Ontario, Canada) I have found that female officers deal with a lot of crimes against women and children. Whether they are better at dealing with these victims than the male officers I can not say. I can say that the victims quite often would rather talk with a female officer, given that the antagonist is usually male. We like to think that everyone is equal regardless of gender but in the real world it is not always that clear cut and polical correctness takes a backseat to getting the job done.

Maybe in the distant future our high ideals will become reality, we live in hope.

Cheers

Brian

[Ed_Haynes]

For the most part -- and there are always exceptions -- female Indian police officers are a pretty good and professional lot (especially BSF sorts), in many ways a substantial cut above their male counterparts.

To what degree police belong on peacekeeping operations is debatable and to what degree police should pretend at being "military" is another issue, but has little to do with gender or nationality.

[leigh kitchen]

There is a role for police in UN missions etc if it's safe enough for them to operate, but I don't understand why it's necessary to have an all female unit.

As I said above, perhaps to deal with what are traditionally (but in the western world no longer) the female preserves of domestic violence & child abuse, etc, but still, why an all female unit?

Many police in UN missions & the like are in effect "military" - eg Dutch military police, Italian Carabineri, German border guards, some Indian personnel, French gendarmes & certain Argentine units.

Many of the civilian police contingents are no strangers to automatic weapons & military style tactics, but of course some are.

The police are not employed to missions to act as miltary - they are police, with or without executive powers, firearms, batons, pepper spray, handcuffs, to impose & maintain law & order, train local police & monitor activities of local police, judiciary, prisons ministries etc depending on the mandate of the particular mission.

Perhaps these female police officers are to operate as a units within displaced persons camps & the like?

[Ed_Haynes]

Maybe the problem is that the BSF are not "police" as you are thinking of the term, Leigh?

[leigh kitchen]

Could be.....

And I think I'm perhaps getting the wrong end of the stick. I think of military units & civian police "riot units"being allocated to missions as battalions etc, but of civilian police being allocated as a national contingent comprised of personnel from different forces within a country. the personnel from that contingent being split up into ones & twos & allocated various roles in different locations across the mission.

Maybe these female officers are going into mission as a unit but will not operate as a unit but be split up & operate as individuals.

Anyway, not important & good luck to them.