Friends of Refugees

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Walking through Tel Aviv neighborhood in search of African asylum-seeking “criminals” — finding none

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 21, 2012

Following dire warnings from Israeli government leaders and intense media reporting of rising crime in the south Tel Aviv neighborhood of Shapira, supposedly caused by African asylum-seekers, a journalist set out on a walk through the neighborhood to see for herself the disruption caused by the asylum-seeking so-called “infiltrators”. Yet, she finds the streets strangely calm, the parks clean, and people going about their daily business. Her article is at Haaretz:

A few weeks ago, in a fit of hatred, someone, or some more than one, threw Molotov cocktails at a kindergarten and apartments used by foreign workers in south Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood, “causing significant property damage but no injuries or loss of life,” in journalese.

This week I took a walk in Shapira. It was Wednesday, the day after the demonstrators returned – some protesting government policy on labor migrants, others against the migrants themselves and still others expressing solidarity with them and denouncing racism…

…I am no stranger to Shapira, having visited it on a few occasions to walk around, to check out housing options, to visit friends, but this was the first time I came to see “the other.”…

…The parks are clean. The main park, built after a battle by residents, on the site of a transformer station, is enviable – well-maintained lawns, a beautiful, shaded wood, the latest sports and playground equipment.

“Well, the city makes sure to keep it clean because of the situation, that’s why it’s clean,” a… neighborhood activist says. We’ll call him B.

The park is calm this afternoon, and no one is sleeping on the slide – “You come with your kid and oops, someone’s sleeping there,” says B. It happens in central Tel Aviv, too.

An African woman, smiling and nicely dressed, pushes three sweet, cared-for children. The baby, adorable in a white dress, laughs at her siblings…

…I get on my bike to look for the things that N. and B. mentioned: people living in the street, cooking in the street, urinating and defecating in the street and in parks; people gathering in large groups; people drinking.

I believe N. and B., but I can’t find evidence of such behavior. The neighborhood seems empty, sleepy… Read more here

Yet Israeli government officials and the police claim that the African asylum-seekers account for 40 percent of Tel Aviv’s crimes. Really? According to another article at +972mag police crime data shows that the crime rate among foreigners in Israel stood at 2.04 percent in 2010, compared with 4.99 percent among Israelis:

Several Sudanese and Eritrean nationals were recently arrested in two separate cases involving the rape of Israeli women and the murder of an Eritrean woman. The media extensively covered these horrible crimes, followed by a long line of politicians quoting frightening police claims that Africans account for 40 percent of Tel Aviv’s crimes. Those politicians are led by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who dared to say in an interview this week that most “African infiltrators are criminals.”

The press similarly reported in early May that “asylum seekers are involved in 40 percent of crimes,” relying on police figures recently presented to the government. This statistic is shocking, but not as shocking as the fact that senior Israel Police officers are willing to tell lies in an effort to gain a chunk of the huge budget that the government has allotted to the war against African refugees.

Real police data, presented in a meeting held by the Knesset Committee on Foreign Workers on March 19, indicate that the crime rate among foreigners in Israel stood at 2.24 percent in 2011 (1,223 criminal cases out of a total of 54,497 foreigners)…

The 2011 data on Israeli crime has not yet been published, but according to police data reported to the Knesset, the crime rate among the general population in Israel stood at 4.99 percent in 2010. This figure demonstrates that the general crime rate in Israel is more than double that of Africans in Israel… Read more here

Posted in police, right-wing, xenophobia/nationalism/isolationism | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Denver police say group that killed South Sudanese refugee included gang members

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 18, 2012

Denver police say a group that killed Sudanese refugee Jimma Reat were out on a night of car theft and trouble-making, and included two unspecified juvenile gang members (it was the Latin Kings gang that attacked Sudanese refugees in 2002 in Chicago). The Denver 911 director has now fired a 911 operator for withholding medical assistance from one of the Sudanese callers, who repeatedly asked for medical aid, and wrongly telling him to return to the scene of the first incident, where Reet was then killed. An article in the Denver Post (and here) has updated information on the case:

Denver police believe a group that included two juvenile gang members out on a night of car theft and troublemaking killed Sudanese refugee Jimma Reat.

No arrests have been made in the case. Police are asking for the public’s help in locating witnesses or others involved in the shooting in the early hours of April 1.

Reat, 25, was shot in the back blocks from West 10th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard in Denver, where he and other members of his family were taunted by a group of Latino men driving a stolen Jeep who threw bottles and waved a gun at their vehicle.

After the altercation, Reat and his family went to their apartment in Wheat Ridge. A 911 operator told them to return to Denver, where they were fired upon by the same group that had attacked them moments before.

Denver 911 director Carl Simpson on Tuesday fired the operator for mishandling the call.

“Witnesses say there were four or five parties in the vehicle,” Detective Randy Denison said of the suspects’ car. “What we are looking for is to identify the other possible occupants.”

The occupants of the Jeep didn’t flash gang signs or tout any gang affiliation, but the criminal history of the two teens now suspected suggests they are gang members, Denison said. He said he didn’t know whether one of them — or someone else in the Jeep — fired the fatal shot…

…Reat and his companions didn’t see the Jeep until it pulled up beside them at a light. “There was not much conversation. The brothers say these guys just pull up beside them, and they think they are just saying, ‘Hello,’ and Jimma and his friends just kind of wave. They just think these guys are just giving them the nod,” Denison said… Read more here

Posted in Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Trying to survive the smear of false terrorism charges

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 6, 2012

Last summer three Eritrean refugees were arrested after they tried to board an airplane, at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport going to Des Moines, with a carry-on bag that contained a broken cellphone taped to a tin of helva (a sesame-paste-based food flavored with vanilla). The charges? Having a “hoax device” and “conspiracy” to obtain a hoax device. The three tried to explain that they were just trying to take candy and the old phone to friends. Authorities claimed, however – via questionable reasoning – that the three were attempting to do a trial run to see if they could get a “real bomb” through security, since this was assuredly not a real bomb (helva is not explosive, nor were there any fake wires or a fake detonation device attached). The authorities also deemed suspicious the three traveling in the month of August, being so close to the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, you see – and besides, everyone knows that cell phones are used to detonate bombs. Surely the refugees must have carried aboard a broken cell phone during this “dry run” to fool authorities into thinking that it could not be used to trigger a detonator. But what about that tin of helva, that was suspicious wasn’t it? Well, helva it turns out is an Eritrean ethnic food. Maybe they were trying to trick authorities into thinking the helva was not suspicious since Eritreans are known to eat helva. Plus, some might say it would be nitpicking to point out that federal agents, in first contacts with the Eritrean refugees, used an interpreter that did not speak their Kunama language, thus leading to faulty linguistic interpretations.

Now the three are trying to overcome the false “terrorist” label affixed to them in public opinion. This smear is now an obstacle to employment, nine months later, and months after all charges were suddenly dropped. An article in The Arizona Republic looks at the aftermath of the false charges:

Civil war drove Shullu Gorado from his home in Eritrea, a small country on the Horn of Africa, and landed him — like most Kunama — in a refugee camp in neighboring Ethiopia.

Ethiopia was no kinder to the refugees than their war-torn homeland, but the United States welcomed the Kunama people, promising safety and the opportunity for a new life to the former farmers and shepherds. In four years,Gorado rose steadily through the ranks at a local supermarket, stashing away savings and taking general-education and English-language classes as he worked toward a new future in a new country.

But after being arrested on suspicion of plotting to sneak a hoax explosive device through airport security, serving two months in a federal detention facility, then having the charges against him dropped in December, Gorado and Asa Shani are branded as terrorists in the eyes of many. Among those viewing them with suspicion, they say, are prospective employers who need only perform a perfunctory Internet search to find coverage of their arrests… Read more here

Posted in Eritrean, FBI, Phoenix, police, security/terrorism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Human rights supporters protest hurling of Molotov cocktails at asylum seekers in Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 28, 2012

***UPDATE*** — April 29, 2012, Tel Aviv Police arrest suspect

Attacks on African asylum seekers in Israel continued with a series of Molotov cocktails thrown at apartments where the asylum seekers live, including an apartment used as a daycare center for children, in the Shapira neighborhood in south Tel-Aviv. The government buses the Africans to this disadvantaged neighborhood (site of Tel-Aviv’s bus station) after they have illegally crossed the border from Egypt. Now, some of the other inhabitants of the neighborhood, instead of addressing the government’s actions, are blaming the asylum seekers. In response. Israeli human rights supporters have rallied in support of the asylum seekers. (The goal of the asylum system in Israel under the current government is to reject as many applicants as possible. Those who stay in Israel are subject to confinement and official repression, e.g. targeting by police). An article at Ynetnews.com has the story:

Some 200 social activists on Friday protested in Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood after Molotov cocktails were thrown at four apartments where African asylum seekers reside, including an apartment used as a daycare center for children.

Maya, one of the activists who rallied in support of the asylum seekers, said: “We came here to try to calm the spirits down, and help the victims of these attacks feel that there are other people who do not carry messages of hate.”

Another activist noted that Thursday’s incident “stemmed from a feeling of frustration and helplessness harbored by the residents of the neighborhood, who are rightfully angry at the government for neglecting their neighborhood. But on the other hand there are the refugees, who are also suffering.

“This area is becoming hell,” the activist noted, adding that “the two sides need to level their criticism at those who are responsible, instead of blaming each other. The government needs to give alternatives and address these problems – otherwise the situation will deteriorate,” he said.

Shapira resident Lior Levy said he came out to show solidarity with the refugees. “Many of the residents demand to have them deported, mainly for racist reasons. These are helpless people. This neighborhood was forsaken in the hands of racist groups like the KKK, who wish to terrorize innocent people.

Baso, 26, from Sudan, said he does not believe the police will do anything because “they think in the same manner as the people who did it. They probably think we shouldn’t be here,” he said… Read more here

Also, Haaretz reports that a Molotov cocktail was thrown at African migrants at a Shapira neighborhood park.

Posted in asylees, children, police | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Refugees being attacked at residential complex in Lansing, MI since November

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 26, 2012

“Car break-ins, ’30-plus’ broken windows, an old man getting punched in the face, a young woman…kicked’, and theft.” Those are some of the incidents at Summer Place Townhomes in Lansing, MI that refugees say have happened to them since November. The refugees, from Burma, Bhutan and Iraq, say they have been the target of a group of 10 and 20 local teenagers. Some of the refugees find it hard to sleep at night, while others are taking turns staying up at night to watch for trouble. The Lansing Police Department doesn’t seem to know much about what’s happening though refugees have reported the ongoing crimes. An article at Lansing City Pulse has the story:

…Bo is a refugee from Burma and has lived in Summer Place Townhomes for about seven years…

…since November, Bo and his family haven’t been sleeping due to a combination of fear and duty — they take turns staying up all night to keep intruders away. Several other neighbors in Summer Place report similar situations.

“It’s been quiet, safe, secure,” Bo said, referring to the years leading up to November. Then he rattles off nearly daily instances when he and his neighborhood have been the target of a group of local teenagers, between 10 and 20 of them: car break-ins, “30-plus” broken windows, an old man getting punched in the face, a young woman “about my age kicked by those people,” theft.

So this is why you stand guard overnight. “Yeah, it’s very dangerous. We all worry. You gotta watch out and stay awake.”

Bo fears the worst: that the harassment will turn deadly. At one point, he armed himself with a pellet gun, which he said was subsequently taken by the Lansing Police Department. “We are not shooting for anything. I believe I’m doing the right thing. It’s like I’m security, protecting all people, not just the Burmese.”

As I walk through the neighborhood Saturday before meeting Bo, refugees from Iraq and Bhutan tell similar stories. 

Dozens of young children — from toddlers to teenagers — were playing in the street and courtyards. Adults gathered around, keeping an eye on them. The day before, the group came and broke a car window, said Ammar Mahdi, a 41-year-old refugee from Iraq. Mahdi’s English was broken and, at times, his 10-year-old son, Yousif, acted as a translator.

“We need help. It’s every day,” Mahdi said. “I am not sleeping.”..

…Devi Ghimisey is from Bhutan and about the same age as Mahdi. He lived in a refugee camp in Nepal for 18 years before coming to the U.S. three years ago.

“They come while we’re sleeping. Kids playing football — they come and beat them up. They come and throw rocks,” Ghimisey said.

Recently, the group stole Mohammed Mohahamed’s children’s three bikes. Two weeks ago, they broke his neighbor’s house windows. Mohahamed is 33 and also came from Iraq. “I want to change this trouble,” he said. “I want the street here safe.”…

While this has been going on, arrests have been scarce…neighbors say the response from the Lansing Police Department has been inadequate…

…neighbors say they feel discouraged from calling the police because the trouble keeps happening — even after reports…

…Alfonso Salas, who owns Lansing Athletics sporting goods store…says that while it’s a rough neighborhood to begin with, he thinks it’s racially charged. And he warns that something needs to change, or “it’s gonna get bad.”

“Because of the color of their skin and who they are, they get beat up on,” he said. “I feel for them… Read more here

Posted in abuse, Burma/Myanmar, children, hate crimes, housing, Iraqi, Lansing, Nepali Bhutanese, police, safety | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Many incidents in Denver of South Sudanese refugees being attacked, hassled and threatened

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 10, 2012

In addition to the two recent murders of South Sudanese refugees in Denver, the director of ECDC African Community Center says that there have been many incidents of the refugees being attacked, hassled and threatened in the city. A young South Sudanese man was shot in the neck and paralyzed from the waist down when two men robbed him as he returned to his Denver apartment one afternoon last June. Another South Sudanese refugee reports having been laughed at, called ugly and told to go back to where he came from. A teenage girl once threatened to hit him with a rock, he said, and he believes that the Sudanese have been victims due to their darker color (most Sudanese have skin that is darker than that of the average African-American). An article in the Denver Post gives other details of abusive treatment and crimes against local South Sudanese residents:

Jimma Reat’s murder last week in Denver was one more blow to a war-scarred community of Sudanese refugees still struggling to come to grips with the unsolved shooting death of Reat’s uncle four months ago.

The immigrants from the African country are frequently victims, said Project Education Sudan director Carol Rinehart.

“There are a lot of incidents with Sudanese being attacked, hassled and threatened,” Rinehart said. “They have been through a lot of trauma, and to have this happen to them, it just creates more anxiety.”…

…”This is a community that knows death. That doesn’t make it any easier,” said Jennifer Gueddiche, director of the ECDC African Community Center…

…David Deng, who came to the United States in 2001, was shot in the neck and paralyzed from the waist down when two men robbed him as he returned to his Denver apartment one afternoon last June. When a friend called and told him of Reat’s death, the news hit him hard.

“That is scaring me,” said Deng, 30. “We don’t know why there are a lot of bad things happening.”

His sentiment is widely shared within the tight-knit community of refugees that numbers about 6,000, Gueddiche said…

…”This is huge. They’re just absolutely devastated,” she said. “Imagine coming to a place where you are supposed to be safe. … This is the second random act of violence on this community.”

The recent burst of violence began Dec. 26, when Reat’s uncle, Youn Malual, was shot and killed in the parking lot of his Arapahoe County apartment building.

A father of five, he was returning from his job as a bus mechanic when he was attacked. He had no enemies, said Dengpathot, who thinks Malual’s death was the result of someone’s road rage.

His killer hasn’t been caught. Denver police also are still seeking those involved in Reat’s death. The longer the killers stay free, the more likely they — or someone else — will hurt another person, said Reat’s uncle, Thomas Puot…

…Authorities in Denver and Arapahoe County have said they have no reason to think the shootings of Mulual and Reat are related.

“At this point, we don’t have any indication of a connection, but it is something we will keep open,” said Denver police Capt. Ron Saunier, head of the Crimes Against Persons Bureau. “I don’t want to rule it out.”

The investigation into Malual’s death is active, and investigators are working on “significant” leads, said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.

Saunier said there is no indication that Reat’s death is gang-related.

The assailants, who appeared to be Latino, screamed racial epithets during the attack, said Reat’s brother, Ran James Pal, 25, who was driving that night.

That racial slurs would be part of the assault doesn’t surprise Isaac Bher, 32, who immigrated in 2001 and is now a U.S. citizen. Most Sudanese have skin that is darker than that of the average African-American.

“I know we have been victims by our darker color,” Bher said. “Even the African-Americans are not very happy with us.”

He said he has been laughed at, called ugly and told to go back to where [he] came from. A teenage girl once threatened to hit him with a rock, he said… Read more here

Posted in African Community Center (Denver), dangerous neighborhoods, Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Sudanese refugee shot to death after police dispatcher says to return to place of gun threat

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 9, 2012

A 24-year-old Sudanese refugee in Denver was shot to death while riding in his brother’s car after a police dispatcher instructed his brother to go back to the scene where someone had threatened them with a gun. The dispatcher also failed to send a police officer to the scene for about four minutes after the brother reported that men had threatened them with a gun. The original incident started at a traffic light as the young Sudanese men were driving when a Jeep rolled up beside them and men inside started to call them names using the N-word. The men got out of a Jeep (a stolen vehicle) and threw beer bottles, breaking the car’s rear window. Last December an uncle of the young man killed was also shot to death behind his home after returning home from work in the early morning hours, in a crime that is still unsolved. An article in the Denver Post documents what happened during the latest incident:

A Denver 911 operator was mistaken when he told a motorist to return to the area where he and his companions had been threatened in a road-rage incident — moments before a fatal shooting, the head of the city’s emergency phone system acknowledged Monday.

Jimma Reat, a 24-year-old Sudanese refugee, died in the incident.

Reat and three companions had safely returned to his Wheat Ridge apartment and called 911 to report the altercation early Sunday when the 911 operator instructed them to drive back to Denver and wait for a police officer.

While they waited, a Jeep that had been involved in the earlier incident appeared and someone opened fire, killing Reat…

…failed to dispatch a police officer for about four minutes after one of Reat’s brothers told him that a carload of men, one of them flourishing a gun, threatened them…

…Reat’s brother, Gatwec Dengpathot, said the group had returned to the parking lot at Reat’s apartment in Wheat Ridge after the altercation, during which someone threatened them with a gun…

…One of Reat’s brothers, who was driving the Dodge Charger, was on a cellphone talking to the operator.

“He told the dispatcher that it isn’t safe there,” Dengpathot said. “We don’t want to go there, that is where the problem happened, they were threatening us with a gun.”

But after a few moments, “they finally submitted to the (operator’s) authority” and returned to West 29th Avenue, just east of Sheridan Boulevard, within Denver’s border, Dengpathot said…

…The original incident started at a traffic light as the group was driving north on Sheridan, at West 10th, when the Jeep rolled up beside the Charger, and the men inside started to call them “names using the N-word,” Dengpathot said.

The men, he said, got out of the Jeep and threw beer bottles, breaking the Charger’s rear window… Read more here

Posted in African Community Center (Denver), dangerous neighborhoods, Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Israeli Police Now Luring Desperate Refugees Into Crime

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 1, 2012

Israel’s ruling government has decided that African refugees fleeing persecution are persona non grata, and will not be allowed to work in Israel – even though Israel is in desperate need of low-wage labor. Israeli police are now attempting to lure the refugees, who are hungry and have no place to stay, into stealing from supposed drunks with loads of cash hanging out of their pockets. An article at Haaretz tells us about a new police operation:

Undercover Tel Aviv police, posing as drunks and prostitutes, have begun arresting refugees and asylum seekers by luring them to steal wallets and other items.

Dozens of undercover police officers operated last weekend around the central bus station, where many of the refugees who entered the country illegally live. In a joint operation of the Tel Aviv Region police and the Border Police’s Barak unit, policewomen disguised as prostitutes stood on street corners and arrested everyone who tried to attack them. Others pretended to be drunk women looking for a cab home…

…These illegal refugees, who are not entitled to work, are brought daily to the Magistrate’s Court in Tel Aviv to be remanded, usually after they were caught stealing property worth a few hundred shekels at most. They steal mobile phones and sell them for NIS 150 in stores in the area. Sometimes they work in groups of two or three who steal together to buy food and pay rent… Read more here

Posted in Islamic, Jewish, police | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Standing In Park Wearing Baggy Shorts While Black No Longer A Crime In Vermont

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 27, 2012

Vermont is now trying to make public safety of paramount concern irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation or any other characteristic. Up until now people have used law enforcement and other instruments of the state to play out personal prejudices against minorities, or anyone else seen as vulnerable or an easy victim. Even today in Vermont police are more likely to stop and ticket minority drivers and search their vehicles, according to a recent study. Now the state government is trying to make sure that there is a legitimate reason for troopers to come into contact with minorities, and not stopping people just for being a minority – or sending out a police cruiser because black men are standing in the park wearing baggy shorts. An AP article at The Caledonian Express explains:

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — With its small but rapidly growing minority population, Vermont’s top law enforcement officials and lawmakers are trying to ensure the state’s African-Americans, Hispanic immigrants and other minorities don’t feel the sting of discrimination.

Yet discrimination appears to be finding its way into the actions of at least some members of Vermont’s law enforcement community and the percentage of African-American inmates in the state’s prisons is 10 times their rate in the population, a figure that has doubled in the past decade, statistics show.

So state police are setting out to improve training to ensure that there is a legitimate reason for troopers to come into contact with minorities — and when they do, that minorities are treated the same as white Vermonters…

…thousands of refugees and others have moved to Vermont and the same census found minorities made up 36.8 percent of the state’s new residents…

…[A] study of 50,000 traffic stops done by the Vermont State Police for the year ending last July found minority drivers were more likely to be stopped and ticketed and their vehicles searched than white drivers.

Appel said that in the past 2½ years, the commission he leads has received 10 complaints from black drivers or passengers alleging racially biased treatment by Vermont law enforcement agencies, a substantial portion of his organization’s caseload.

“We’d like to think we are an enlightened state and in many ways we are, but if you talk to people who are members of the communities of color … there are numerous examples of bad experiences that you and I as white folks wouldn’t have,” state Rep. Suzi Wizowaty…

…”The only counter to bias is looking at data and making the facts more available to your consciousness and taking into consideration the fact that you might be biased,” she said…

…”The state police get this, they are sometimes the only direct contact that a visitor will have with an official of Vermont,” [said Curtiss Reed Jr, the executive director of the Brattleboro-based Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity]…

…”How do you conduct your policing in such a way that people walk away from it feeling as though, ‘Oh, in Vermont I understand that public safety is of paramount concern irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation or any other characteristic’?”

[Robert Appel, the executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission] has worked for five years to address the issues with the chiefs of police in Chittenden County, where most of the state’s minority population lives. Those agencies are adapting.

“They get calls from community members saying there are three African-American men standing in the park wearing baggy shorts, please send a cruiser,” Appel said. “In the old days they would send a cruiser, but there’s no reason to send a cruiser without some indicator that they are engaging in criminal activity.”

Now the dispatchers have been trained to ask the caller if there is any indication a crime has been or is about to be committed. If the answer is no, the caller is told that no officers will be sent.

Then the dispatcher transfers the call to the shift supervisor, Appel said, “to explain what the Constitution says, which is if you’re not breaking the law you have a right to be left alone.” Read more here

Posted in police, Vermont | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Attacks On Bhutanese Refugees Continue in Harrisburg, PA

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 19, 2012

A local friend of the Bhutanese refugees in Harrisburg contacted us to report that the attacks on the refugees have continued since police reported earlier this month that they suspected a small group of local teens.

I live near Harrisburg Pennsylvania and became involved with the refugee community there in 2010. I am deeply troubled by the victimization that they experience and would like to see more attention brought to it…most of it in the area on Green Street, but some in the area of Magnolia Hill (Thomas street off of Market). Robberies, assaults, and even entry into homes. It has them afraid to be outside. Some families have already fled the Green Street area…[since the police began investigating a group of teenagers] the problems haven’t gotten better…it’s probably the same…kids. Police don’t really help. However, the refugees are starting to think defensively. I’ve bought pepper spray for some of them and instructed them on its use.

Posted in Harrisburg-Mechanicsburg, Nepali Bhutanese, police, safety | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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