Post by New Dornalia on Jun 18, 2013 14:51:28 GMT -5
The Anti-Occult Crimes Section of the New Hokkaido Justice Department is a police force with jurisdiction over all of New Hokkaido County. It's job is to combat supernatural crimes. Formed originally as a section of the New Hokkaido Police Service to combat "psychic crime, Satanism and occult crime in the County of New Hokkaido," it represented the first major post-Civil War attempt by County civil authorities to police psychic crime by themselves.
Judging by the Section's checkered history, it was an example held by many County and Federal law enforcement agencies of what NOT to do.
Origin
Civilian anti-Empowered crime initiatives had existed before the Civil War, carried out on a small scale by organizations like the LAPD and the Alaska State Troopers and the Luxembourgia County Police Department. Most of these efforts tended to be either in conjunction with the Order's predecessors, the People's Acolytes, or used Empowered personnel in their ranks. Additionally, a Dornalia-wide attempt at policing Empowereds in the form of the National Organization of Security Enforcement was formed, which quickly gained controversy and left most Dornies with an ill-feeling to "non-experts" policing psychic crime due to their heavy handed methodology, as well as their perceived links/"sucking up" to the increasingly unpopular United Colonies of Kobol and their anti-magic stance.
Post-Civil War, as a result, most Dornie law enforcement agencies tended to work with the Order to police psychic crime, or in the case of Konoha County, even let them do it themselves.
However, New Hokkaido was a bit of an exception. Always a tad different than other territories, its extended settlement by large numbers of Afrikaner Elves and their Calvinist religion resulted in something a bit more conservative, and Western in makeup.
The result was that post-Civil War, the New Hokkaido Sheriff's Department--now the New Hokkaido Police Service--initially worked with the Order and its Temple in New Sapporo, the Capital. However, many conservatives felt they were more than capable of doing the job themselves. With a patron in Governor Jan van der Byl, a former attorney and center-right Afrikaner Elven nationalist running on the Broederbond Front ticket that took over immediately after the war, the NHPS formed the first Anti-Occult Crimes Squad by his Order In Council No. 15, issued pursuant to the Police Reorganisation Act. Despite outcry from the Order and a threatened lawsuit, the AOCS went into action.
Organization
Training
The Old Days
AOCS had a specially incorporated Training Depot in New Bloemfontein, in a rural area. Most of it was blandly reported as SWAT training. However, undercover reporters for the Mainichi Shimbun in New Sapporo reported that officers there were not only given training in handling incendiaries and also the usual SWAT and Special Ops courses, but also in Calvinist theology and Christian evangelical thought to wage "spiritual warfare against Satan and his agents."
Officers and constables were also encouraged to eat meals together, to build comradeship and make themselves united "in Christ against the Satanic hordes." As you may expect, a "No Sex Please" regimen was strictly followed, although men and women are allowed to interact, the thought being that "pure love in Christ" was a strong glue.
Controversially, the Shimbun also reported that "Reprobates" who "provide aid and comfort" to the "Satanists" were to be regarded as enemies--a part of the regimen which was vehemently denied, but is claimed by ex-AOCS members to be a motivating force behind several instances of civilian casualties.
Training was done in Afrikaans, partly because most recruits come from the rural areas where Afrikaans is used (and not coincidentally, have a higher degree of religiosity/fundamentalism than urbanized and suburbanized Elves), and also to prevent outsiders from snooping about.
The New Days
These days, AOCS's training regimen has changed drastically. While the New Bloemfontein facility still exists as the headquarters of the now seperate Anti Occult Crimes Section, Federal Court Orders have resulted in a massive overhaul of the training regimen, particularly through the passage of the controversial Empowered Crimes Management Act (the same Act which turned the Squad into the independent Section, rumored to have been done to avoid further Federal prosecution).
The act essentially forced the training onto a secular basis, though a number of the practices were kept with a new rationale. For example, the "No Sex Please" policy became not about purity, but about preventing unwarranted fraternization and sexual harassment.
Additionally, AOCS officers were forced to incorporate more use of force training, as well as other police techniques designed to more effectively and efficiently combat supernatural crime with a minimum of civilian casualties, or none.
Demographics
The Old Days
AOCS members tended to be recruited from the rural areas of the County, and over 80% tended to be Afrikaner Elves. The remainder were various officers of other ethnicities. Gender-wise, the AOCS recruited both men and women, and in a strange Dornie paradox, women were not only equally represented but also play a strong role in AOCS ops.
Most telling, very few if any were Empowered--the Governor issued Order in Council No. 24 to reserve a limited quota of Empowereds as part of a settlement of a lawsuit, but Empowereds reported discrimination, often being "frozen out" of assignments and denied promotions.
The New Days
Post-New Bloemfontein, the Empowered Crimes Management Act and the Federal Court Orders and the "kinder, gentler AOCS" they established required a larger quota of Empowered and non-Elven personnel, and ordered that personnel be taken in regardless of religious belief or lack thereof. The result is that a larger percentage of Empowereds have been recruited or otherwise seconded to the AOCS. Additionally, for the first time, a non-Afrikaner Elven leader--Mihoshi Nakayama, a ranking Orderperson in the Temple of New Sapporo and a Mastersmith at that--took command of the unit.
That being said, difficulties remain. Lines of communication continue to mostly be in Afrikaans, even with a requirement that the AOCS be bilingual Afrikaans and English. Additionally, outsiders have reported that older, more religiously conservative officers have tended to "clique up", causing havoc within the Section itself. The "Old Guard" as they are known are overrepresented in the Special Operations Group, the AOCS's police tactical unit meant for high risk situations. This has not gone unnoticed by the Feds.
Weapons
Even in the age of a kindler, gentler AOCS, most weapons here are comparable with the usual Dornie police arms and vehicles. AOCS employs R5 Galil Rifles, for example, and Wagner Arms Lawgiver pistols.
What was different was a marked emphasis on "blessed" weapons, many incendiary. According to an inquiry by the Diet of New Hokkaido's Heston Commission, magazines are loaded with all tracer shots, Melta Guns are common, and White Phosphorous Grenades are used, often "boosted" by AOCS armorers with additional, and decidedly unauthorized attachments to boost their incendiary potential. These practices were curbed significantly by the Federal Department of Justice's auditors, and while incendiaries can be found in AOCS lockers, a wider array of less-lethal weapons such as Phasers can be found.
Also, AOCS employs the Cobra Assault Cannon and anti-magic devices such as "Sierra India Devices"--in particular, they had NORINCO specially build what is known as the "Jerusalem Armor"--a heavily modified power armor variant that is not only defended against NBC attacks, but also has built in magic dampeners with a 25ft radius.
Numbers
The Old Days
Each NHPS District in the County had AOCS Special Detectives attached to it to investigate "occult crime," and a platoon sized team of AOCS Tactical Constables which are heavily armed and ready to act a moments' notice. They were also empowered to commandeer SWAT teams, local police and even civilian vehicles and civilians to stop the "enemy".
The New Days
The reorganization of the Anti Occult Crimes Section as a separate force from the New Hokkaido Police Service lead to an expansion of the ranks to better handle the job of policing supernatural crimes. AOCS Special Detectives' offices now often have any number of "civilian consultants" attached to them, ranging from Order experts to Federal DOJ Auditors, though teams of Tactical Constables, now organized as the Section's "Special Operations Group" are still available as a SWAT unit. Some of the old guard feels the Auditors are there as a form of "commissar" and have nicknamed them as such. They're not entirely wrong; the DOJ's Auditors are there to ensure that the terms of the Court Order are followed, and punishment follows if this is not followed.
Operational History
As expected, the organization has attracted its share of controversy. It's first attempt to combat "occult crime," Operation Ratel, was a successful raid on a Red Sand Smuggling operation lead by the Russian Mafiya.
However, its second operation, Operation Packer, was a public relations disaster. The same Mafiya group, lead by Nikolai "Opulence Guy" Antonov, had stashed a mass of Red Sand in New Sapporo's industrial district. During the raid on the compound, an errant WP grenade near a canister of industrial alcohol caused a massive explosion that killed six people and destroyed not only the stash, but also ignited a massive fire that nearly destroyed a Tylium fuel refinery. Other operations were a bit more disciplined, with the AOCS making spectacular arrests and high risk assaults on all manner of offenders.
The AOCS acquired a reputation for aggressiveness, and not undeserved too--unconfirmed reports later backed up by the Federal Department of Justice as well as the Heston Commission and the Mainichi Shimbun's reports noted a tendency to kill instead of capture, and generally, the AOCS earned the nickname "Inquisitors" or "God Squad" or "Witch Hunters" for their zealous brand of law enforcement.
Eventually, AOCS came under Federal Department of Justice scrutiny, particularly after the Mainichi Shimbun and Heston Commission reports which exposed much of their dark side. This even culminated in a raid by Republican Marshals on various facilities linked to the AOCS, as part of an investigation into AOCS agents potentially participating in the Siristader Range Wars between members of the Church of Sirithil (Afrikaner Elven) and various rival militias. Additionally, it was reported that members of AOCS had even conducted vigilante killings as members of the banned "Tangent Pluto" or "Shinsengumi" conspiracy. The "New Bloemfontein Affair" resulted in multiple arrests on federal charges and the Department of Justice ordering that the Anti-Occult Crimes Squad be placed under strict scrutiny with major reforms conducted to avoid further abuses. The Affair also lead to AOCS being split off and transformed into a separate agency.
Due to the AOCS's checkered history, the Order and the AOCS share a history of mutual distrust, even as the Feds have ordered them to cooperate. One particularly notorious case, the Pieter Poitgeiter Case, centered on the manhunt for an Empowered bank robber in a suburb. AOCS and Ordermen chased after Poitgeiter, and witnesses reported the two not only crashed vehicles at one another, but even exchanged gunfire and even destroyed a bus full of nuns. Lawsuits between the two are not uncommon over any number of things. Due to the Poitgeiter Case, the AOCS now also has a rivalry with the monastic order involved, the Order of Elizabeta the Fair--a group of Empowered gata nuns who decided to milk that old pun of "holy" for what its worth. "Old Guard" AOCS members tend to see the Sisters as "Filthy Papist Reprobrates," so the feelings are mutual.
Time will tell if this sticks.
Judging by the Section's checkered history, it was an example held by many County and Federal law enforcement agencies of what NOT to do.
Origin
Civilian anti-Empowered crime initiatives had existed before the Civil War, carried out on a small scale by organizations like the LAPD and the Alaska State Troopers and the Luxembourgia County Police Department. Most of these efforts tended to be either in conjunction with the Order's predecessors, the People's Acolytes, or used Empowered personnel in their ranks. Additionally, a Dornalia-wide attempt at policing Empowereds in the form of the National Organization of Security Enforcement was formed, which quickly gained controversy and left most Dornies with an ill-feeling to "non-experts" policing psychic crime due to their heavy handed methodology, as well as their perceived links/"sucking up" to the increasingly unpopular United Colonies of Kobol and their anti-magic stance.
Post-Civil War, as a result, most Dornie law enforcement agencies tended to work with the Order to police psychic crime, or in the case of Konoha County, even let them do it themselves.
However, New Hokkaido was a bit of an exception. Always a tad different than other territories, its extended settlement by large numbers of Afrikaner Elves and their Calvinist religion resulted in something a bit more conservative, and Western in makeup.
The result was that post-Civil War, the New Hokkaido Sheriff's Department--now the New Hokkaido Police Service--initially worked with the Order and its Temple in New Sapporo, the Capital. However, many conservatives felt they were more than capable of doing the job themselves. With a patron in Governor Jan van der Byl, a former attorney and center-right Afrikaner Elven nationalist running on the Broederbond Front ticket that took over immediately after the war, the NHPS formed the first Anti-Occult Crimes Squad by his Order In Council No. 15, issued pursuant to the Police Reorganisation Act. Despite outcry from the Order and a threatened lawsuit, the AOCS went into action.
Organization
Training
The Old Days
AOCS had a specially incorporated Training Depot in New Bloemfontein, in a rural area. Most of it was blandly reported as SWAT training. However, undercover reporters for the Mainichi Shimbun in New Sapporo reported that officers there were not only given training in handling incendiaries and also the usual SWAT and Special Ops courses, but also in Calvinist theology and Christian evangelical thought to wage "spiritual warfare against Satan and his agents."
Officers and constables were also encouraged to eat meals together, to build comradeship and make themselves united "in Christ against the Satanic hordes." As you may expect, a "No Sex Please" regimen was strictly followed, although men and women are allowed to interact, the thought being that "pure love in Christ" was a strong glue.
Controversially, the Shimbun also reported that "Reprobates" who "provide aid and comfort" to the "Satanists" were to be regarded as enemies--a part of the regimen which was vehemently denied, but is claimed by ex-AOCS members to be a motivating force behind several instances of civilian casualties.
Training was done in Afrikaans, partly because most recruits come from the rural areas where Afrikaans is used (and not coincidentally, have a higher degree of religiosity/fundamentalism than urbanized and suburbanized Elves), and also to prevent outsiders from snooping about.
The New Days
These days, AOCS's training regimen has changed drastically. While the New Bloemfontein facility still exists as the headquarters of the now seperate Anti Occult Crimes Section, Federal Court Orders have resulted in a massive overhaul of the training regimen, particularly through the passage of the controversial Empowered Crimes Management Act (the same Act which turned the Squad into the independent Section, rumored to have been done to avoid further Federal prosecution).
The act essentially forced the training onto a secular basis, though a number of the practices were kept with a new rationale. For example, the "No Sex Please" policy became not about purity, but about preventing unwarranted fraternization and sexual harassment.
Additionally, AOCS officers were forced to incorporate more use of force training, as well as other police techniques designed to more effectively and efficiently combat supernatural crime with a minimum of civilian casualties, or none.
Demographics
The Old Days
AOCS members tended to be recruited from the rural areas of the County, and over 80% tended to be Afrikaner Elves. The remainder were various officers of other ethnicities. Gender-wise, the AOCS recruited both men and women, and in a strange Dornie paradox, women were not only equally represented but also play a strong role in AOCS ops.
Most telling, very few if any were Empowered--the Governor issued Order in Council No. 24 to reserve a limited quota of Empowereds as part of a settlement of a lawsuit, but Empowereds reported discrimination, often being "frozen out" of assignments and denied promotions.
The New Days
Post-New Bloemfontein, the Empowered Crimes Management Act and the Federal Court Orders and the "kinder, gentler AOCS" they established required a larger quota of Empowered and non-Elven personnel, and ordered that personnel be taken in regardless of religious belief or lack thereof. The result is that a larger percentage of Empowereds have been recruited or otherwise seconded to the AOCS. Additionally, for the first time, a non-Afrikaner Elven leader--Mihoshi Nakayama, a ranking Orderperson in the Temple of New Sapporo and a Mastersmith at that--took command of the unit.
That being said, difficulties remain. Lines of communication continue to mostly be in Afrikaans, even with a requirement that the AOCS be bilingual Afrikaans and English. Additionally, outsiders have reported that older, more religiously conservative officers have tended to "clique up", causing havoc within the Section itself. The "Old Guard" as they are known are overrepresented in the Special Operations Group, the AOCS's police tactical unit meant for high risk situations. This has not gone unnoticed by the Feds.
Weapons
Even in the age of a kindler, gentler AOCS, most weapons here are comparable with the usual Dornie police arms and vehicles. AOCS employs R5 Galil Rifles, for example, and Wagner Arms Lawgiver pistols.
What was different was a marked emphasis on "blessed" weapons, many incendiary. According to an inquiry by the Diet of New Hokkaido's Heston Commission, magazines are loaded with all tracer shots, Melta Guns are common, and White Phosphorous Grenades are used, often "boosted" by AOCS armorers with additional, and decidedly unauthorized attachments to boost their incendiary potential. These practices were curbed significantly by the Federal Department of Justice's auditors, and while incendiaries can be found in AOCS lockers, a wider array of less-lethal weapons such as Phasers can be found.
Also, AOCS employs the Cobra Assault Cannon and anti-magic devices such as "Sierra India Devices"--in particular, they had NORINCO specially build what is known as the "Jerusalem Armor"--a heavily modified power armor variant that is not only defended against NBC attacks, but also has built in magic dampeners with a 25ft radius.
Numbers
The Old Days
Each NHPS District in the County had AOCS Special Detectives attached to it to investigate "occult crime," and a platoon sized team of AOCS Tactical Constables which are heavily armed and ready to act a moments' notice. They were also empowered to commandeer SWAT teams, local police and even civilian vehicles and civilians to stop the "enemy".
The New Days
The reorganization of the Anti Occult Crimes Section as a separate force from the New Hokkaido Police Service lead to an expansion of the ranks to better handle the job of policing supernatural crimes. AOCS Special Detectives' offices now often have any number of "civilian consultants" attached to them, ranging from Order experts to Federal DOJ Auditors, though teams of Tactical Constables, now organized as the Section's "Special Operations Group" are still available as a SWAT unit. Some of the old guard feels the Auditors are there as a form of "commissar" and have nicknamed them as such. They're not entirely wrong; the DOJ's Auditors are there to ensure that the terms of the Court Order are followed, and punishment follows if this is not followed.
Operational History
As expected, the organization has attracted its share of controversy. It's first attempt to combat "occult crime," Operation Ratel, was a successful raid on a Red Sand Smuggling operation lead by the Russian Mafiya.
However, its second operation, Operation Packer, was a public relations disaster. The same Mafiya group, lead by Nikolai "Opulence Guy" Antonov, had stashed a mass of Red Sand in New Sapporo's industrial district. During the raid on the compound, an errant WP grenade near a canister of industrial alcohol caused a massive explosion that killed six people and destroyed not only the stash, but also ignited a massive fire that nearly destroyed a Tylium fuel refinery. Other operations were a bit more disciplined, with the AOCS making spectacular arrests and high risk assaults on all manner of offenders.
The AOCS acquired a reputation for aggressiveness, and not undeserved too--unconfirmed reports later backed up by the Federal Department of Justice as well as the Heston Commission and the Mainichi Shimbun's reports noted a tendency to kill instead of capture, and generally, the AOCS earned the nickname "Inquisitors" or "God Squad" or "Witch Hunters" for their zealous brand of law enforcement.
Eventually, AOCS came under Federal Department of Justice scrutiny, particularly after the Mainichi Shimbun and Heston Commission reports which exposed much of their dark side. This even culminated in a raid by Republican Marshals on various facilities linked to the AOCS, as part of an investigation into AOCS agents potentially participating in the Siristader Range Wars between members of the Church of Sirithil (Afrikaner Elven) and various rival militias. Additionally, it was reported that members of AOCS had even conducted vigilante killings as members of the banned "Tangent Pluto" or "Shinsengumi" conspiracy. The "New Bloemfontein Affair" resulted in multiple arrests on federal charges and the Department of Justice ordering that the Anti-Occult Crimes Squad be placed under strict scrutiny with major reforms conducted to avoid further abuses. The Affair also lead to AOCS being split off and transformed into a separate agency.
Due to the AOCS's checkered history, the Order and the AOCS share a history of mutual distrust, even as the Feds have ordered them to cooperate. One particularly notorious case, the Pieter Poitgeiter Case, centered on the manhunt for an Empowered bank robber in a suburb. AOCS and Ordermen chased after Poitgeiter, and witnesses reported the two not only crashed vehicles at one another, but even exchanged gunfire and even destroyed a bus full of nuns. Lawsuits between the two are not uncommon over any number of things. Due to the Poitgeiter Case, the AOCS now also has a rivalry with the monastic order involved, the Order of Elizabeta the Fair--a group of Empowered gata nuns who decided to milk that old pun of "holy" for what its worth. "Old Guard" AOCS members tend to see the Sisters as "Filthy Papist Reprobrates," so the feelings are mutual.
Time will tell if this sticks.