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It's Business Class Or Bust For London Bobbys

After this news, there’s definitely a London Bobby or two getting the corporate credit card taken away. Apparently, many Metropolitan police officers thought it was a great idea to start buying business class tickets for all of Scotland Yard’s travel needs. Not surprisingly, the spending spree didn’t go unnoticed, and now taxpayers are about £12 million in the hole.

Trying their best to be proper shoppers, officers booked business class flights to destinations across the globe including Australia, the United States, and South Africa. Let’s just hope they remembered to enter their frequent flyer numbers.

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Tags: Violence / Crime / Police / Anarchists / → All Tags

Anarchist Riots in Athens, Thessaloniki Keeping Tourists On Their Toes

We've been to Greece and just love it to death, but what we don't know about contemporary Greek society could fill a warehouse. Who knew that the capital of Athens and the northern port city of Thessaloniki were hotbeds of disaffected youth gangs and violent left-wing extremism? The cities have been in the headlines this weekend as riots erupted in response to the shooting death of a youth by a police officer on Saturday near the National Museum in Athens. According to the police, two officers were attacked by thirty stone-throwing youths in the central district of Exarchia, "an unruly haven for far-left youths, including anarchists." Anarchists! The officers responded with superior firepower, fatally wounding one of the youths and touching off riots that have extended into a second day. According to the International Herald Tribune, hundreds of black-clad youths smashed up banks and storefronts, set fires, and harassed cops, who responded with tear gas. It's scary stuff, and we'd advise visitors to keep a low profile until things cool down. As is often the case, the violent demonstrators represent only a small minority of an otherwise peaceful and bohemian segment of society. Unfortunately, it only takes a couple of violent people to set off a maelstrom. As for the police shooting, it's being investigated and the officers involved have been suspended. Be careful out there.

[Photo: International Herald Tribune Europe]

Related Stories:
· Police Shooting Sparks Riots in Greece [International Herald Tribune]
· Violence Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Olympics / Beijing Olympics / Beijing Olympics 2008 / Police / Segways / → All Tags

Chinese Cops More Handy with Segways than Guns

Chinese police in Sichuan province were hosting a press conference about their successful anti-gun campaign when a confiscated weapon accidentally discharged, sending a reporter to the hospital with chest and leg wounds. Two others in the room suffered lighter injuries.

The homemade pistol was packed with pebbles, turning it into a low-rent, shotgun-style gun for hunting birds. Another reporter on the scene described the incident:

One officer picked up a confiscated pistol and demonstrated it to the journalists. [Then] white smoke was rising in the room and crushed stone-like things were scattered all around.

Maybe these guys should stick to their Segways!

Related Stories:
· Gun Briefing Backfires [BBC]
· China Clearly Prepared to Handle the Olympics [Jaunted]
· China Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of Jianling River Bridge in Nanchong: People's Daily Online]

Tags: Olympics / Beijing Olympics / Beijing Olympics 2008 / Police / Segways / → All Tags

Segway Travel: China Clearly Prepared to Handle the Olympics

All your doubts about Beijing's readiness for the Olympic Games? These Segway-ridin' police will crush them!

Security forces recently held an "anti-terrorist drill" in Jinan, in Shandong province south of Beijing, to practice riding these truly terrifying electric scooters. The demo also gave cops an opportunity to show off their martial arts skills, flamethrower handling and mob dispersing techniques. Watch out, nightclub owners!

Related Stories:
· Anti-Terrorist Drill in Shandong [China Daily, via]
· Philadelphia Airport Cops Get Segways [Jaunted]
· Beijing Olympics coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Knife Tricks]

Tags: Cheese / Crime / Police / → All Tags

Different Ways to Get Mozzarella in Italy

We're always interested in how to bribe police officers in foreign countries. Not that we're planning anything sinister; it's just in case we mess up. So we're happy to tell you about the latest scheme in Italy: In the Campagnia area, police officers have been pulling cheese delivery vans over, inventing some rule drivers have violated and demanding either a hefty fine or some mozzarella.

We think there are easier ways to get your cheese in Italy. Apart from the obvious plan of visiting the supermarket, there are also tons of small mozzarella factories to visit. Any number of tour planners can hook you up with a lesson in making mozzarella, and the Delicious Italy website gives the independent traveler tips on where the best cheese can be made, bought and eaten.

But if you want to go the adventure travel way, just try dressing up as an Italian cop and pulling over a cheese delivery van. Give us your money or your mozzarella!

Related Stories:
· Italian Police Busted for Mozzarella Bribes [Ananova]
· Delicious Italy [Official Site]
· Cheese Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: blisseau]

Tags: Airport Security / Animals / Police / → All Tags

Dog Swap on Mexican Flight

Watch what you check on a flight out of Mexico City: someone might pull a tricky switch on you. A top Mexican police dog--star of many a good drug bust--named Rex IV was mysteriously kidnapped this week on a flight from Mexico City to Mazatlan.

When handlers unloaded the dog cargo at the Mazatlan airport of Sinaloa, Belgian Malinois Rex IV had disappeared and been replaced by a small black puppy. Quite why the thieves bothered leaving the puppy in Rex IV's place isn't clear, but perhaps they just wanted to ease their consciences. Maybe on your next flight your YSL suitcase will be replaced with a K-Mart shopping bag, so keep an eye out.

Related Stories:
· Thieves Switch Mexican Police Dog [Reuters]
· Travel Stories in Mexico [Jaunted]

[Photo: SoozieQ]

Tags: Airports / Police / → All Tags

Philadelphia Airport Cops Get Segways

Philadelphia International Airport just became the latest airport to utilize Segway Personal Transporters, joining places like Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam (where HotelChatter editor Juliana Shallcross witnessed them on her field trip), and O'Hare in Chicago. PHL has purchased four Segways (at $5,000 a pop) for police to use to patrol and/or procure donuts more effectively. But there's only room for one on a Segway PT, so you won't be able to hitch a ride anytime soon.

Americans may never look as adorable on scooters as the Dutch, but you can witness a bit of the action at PHL here.

Related Stories:
· Airport Taking Security To A New Height [CBS 3]

Tags: Museums / Police / Crimes / → All Tags

Police Museum Explores Canadian "Crime"

Come on, now. Do they even have crime in Canada? Ever since we realized that the Canadian government gives bands money to film music videos and go on tour, we've refused to believe there is a single bad thing about that country. Yes, we have pissed off at least a couple of Canadians who swear it's not a total utopia up north.

If you believe this farce about "crime" in "Canada," you can try living the dream at the Vancouver Police Museum. For $7, the museum will teach you about some of Canada's most famous "criminals," and the "police" who stick it to them. You can sit in a police car, study firearms through the ages, and view a collection of all sorts of bizarre confiscated weapons as well as a morgue exhibit. There's The museum also offers a summertime "Sins of the City" walking tour that will expose you to the city's "edgier" side, including the evolution Vancouver's drug and sex industries. Unfortunately, no tribute to the Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen exists.

Discover Vancouver says it's the only police museum in Canada, which makes sense given our suspicions.

[Photo: Precious Roy]

Related Stories:
· Vancouver Police Museum [Official Site]

Tags: Crime / Police / Strange Things / → All Tags

Fake Police of Vienna

Oh, how we love Vienna. And oh, how pissed we are that we didn't see any of these for ourselves when we were there. They're probably not in the center city, but in the outer districts.

There are some life-sized photo cut outs of cops set up around town and in the 'burbs, meant to scare hooligans enough that they'll think twice before doing anything illegal. Some are used to spook speeding motorists. Does this mean that someone, somewhere, actually has enough faith in people to trust his or her fellow Austrians to obey a cardboard cop? How sweet.

[Photo: ioerror]

Related Stories:
· Vienna by night [Jacob Appelbaum via Metroblogging Vienna]
· Pic Pick: Straight to the Point in Vienna [Jaunted]

Tags: Art / Cities / Police / → All Tags

Giving Taggers the BNE-fit of the Doubt

Public Enemy Number One in San Francisco is not BALCO labs or George W. Bush (we're as surprised as you are). No, it's a graffiti artist, who is tagging BNE stickers all across the city. Mayor Gavin Newsom has posted a $2,500 award for his capture; we can only assuming that he's hiding in a cave somewhere in the hills of Berkeley, if CIA intelligence is to be believed.

Actually, we were most entertained by the quotes from the man tasked with catching the BNE tagger, who is (we're not making this up) named Officer Putz. According to the Times, Officer Putz is consumed with his duties:

Officer Putz, who has been on the graffiti beat since 2001, takes his work seriously; he will not allow his face to be photographed and he gives his age merely as "in my 30's," for fear of tipping his hand. "It's a chess game," he said.

Sure, San Francisco has a big homeless problem, and  there's that whole earthquake thing. But stickers? Now that's a chess game.

[Image via EndlessCrillSmoke/Flickr]

Related Stories:
·   New Front in Graffiti War [NYT]

Tags: Nightlife / Police / → All Tags

Bangkok Is Dead to Us -- or Not

Carding in Bangkok? Who knew? Prolly the whole lot of you, but we're surprised. Because of a "social order" campaign first launched in 2001, bars and clubs have been becoming more and more careful about IDs and about enforcing a bar time of just 2 am (at the latest). Even better, there are police raids, some of them "accompanied by local TV crews. Exits are barred, music grinds to sudden silence, lights flash on. Confused and scared patrons who a moment before were partying down are suddenly confronted by brown-uniformed police officers who demand to see their ID's, frisk them or occasionally force them to urinate in a cup to test for drug use." Nothing says party like peeing in a cup! "Bangkok is a dead town," says one of the club owners who are hanging on. "It was one of the most fun places in Asia."


But wait! The Times is often a little behind the times -- hence the name. Could it be that Bangkok is actually a Sodom on the Chao Phraya again? Could someone get back to us on this before we go there in a few months?

Related Stories:
·   'Social Order' Takes the Life Out of Night Life [NYT]
·   To Be Young and Hip in Bangkok [NYT]
·   Kids Are Alright in Bangkok [Gridskipper]
·   4 noble truths of Thailand [Denver Post, cached]