LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Two groups of youths were pulled in by police, one in Vaud, the other in canton Valais, in connection with separate series of robberies and vandalism. Police in Valais are also warning of a rise in house break-ins, and they are asking people to be vigilant about locking their homes and keeping an eye out for suspicious individuals on their property.
Lutry, Pully boats vandalized by group
Seven young men, six of them minors, were taken in for questioning Saturday 14 May in Lausanne in connection with a series of vandalism in and around the ports of Lutry and Pully, the nights of 10-11 and 12-13 May. Several boats were damaged, with some of them broken into and goods stolen. One of the youths was caught by police after a boat owner surprised him, with his friends, breaking into the man’s boat. The boy jumped into the water to escape but was caught by police, who had been called to the scene.
Police in Lausanne the same night picked up another youth on a stolen scooter. The two were questioned about a number of thefts, including several stolen bicycles, and police were able to identify the larger group. Among the crimes they are accused of: cutting the cable of a professional fisherman’s boat, which later sank. The group of 15 to 18-year-olds has been turned over to juvenile court authorities.
Police in canton Valais also pulled in a group, four Roms who are part of a Roms community currently based in Grenoble, France, ages 18-23, after a series of 20 robberies in the first half of May. The four were caught in possession of goods and money that had been reported stolen. In some cases homes that were left unlocked had been entered clandestinely. The thieves pretended to be deaf and mute and asking for charitable donations, in other cases where they were surprised by the homeowners.
Four tips from the Valais police:
- call 117 if you find people on your property under suspicious pretexts
- never let anyone you don’t know into your home
- don’t keep large sums of money in your home
- lock your home if you’re going out, even for a short time.
©2010 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s Rom population has received support from the canton’s justice system in its ongoing fight with the police over begging in the city. An appeals court Thursday 17 December upheld an earlier decision that a group had been arrested illegally, and their fines have been overturned. In some cases the fines had been turned into jail time, when those caught begging did not have the money to cover their fines.
The ruling could affect thousands of other fines, 20 Minutes was told by Mesemrom, a group that represents Rom interests in Geneva.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in Geneva Thursday morning rounded up 26 Romanians who were begging in the streets, public radio RSR reports, in a sweep of the city that involved four police vans and 30 officers. The move was linked to the upcoming federal vote, 8 February, on extending the free movement of people to Romania and Bulgaria, in an effort to reduce a popular negative perception of traveling people, notably Roms, and some other groups from these countries. Also Thursday, the Federal Council in Bern issued an unusually strong statement against racist overtones in political advertising for the 8 February vote.
