Vale Home Guard
The Vale Home Guard - known colloquially as the 'Peach Caps' for the colored headware that comes with their position - are an officially sanctioned, all-volunteer group of Vale Verdial men and women who serve as auxiliaries to local law enforcement cadres.
Structure
Peach Caps normally report to local law enforcement cadres to claim bounties and receive legal training. Members of the VGH may be deputized for a time, but no individual member may be kept deputized for more than a cumulative 30 days per year. As otherwise private citizens, Peach Caps are not organized at a level beyond this, though they may also take positions in other organizations for which membership in the VHG does not represent a conflict of scheduling or organizational interests (i.e. fire fighting crews). Indeed, this decentralization is part of the VHG's design, as it makes it nearly impossible for them to be defeated by the sort of decapitation attack or corruption of leadership that comes with the particularly Vale Verdial strain of organized crime.
Because they are typically well-armed and trained in urban fighting, they may also be called upon by the Petalcap Vale Department of Defense for limited military actions. They may not be used in any offensive actions, but serve to bolster the military and any active militia in the event that the Vale is invaded. While this has never come up in the context of foreign powers - yet - the Peach Caps have been called in to assist in restoring order after the Horror Dusk, the exposure of Distal Polyp pockets in the Mycorrhizal Catacombs, and similar Distal-associated natural disasters.
Culture
The Vale Home Guard was created to channel a wave of vigilante sentiment that arose in response to the Cull of '64 and other such spikes in organized crime.
Most of the time, VHG members' largest contribution to the legal process is as professional witnesses. Peach Caps do have the training and authority to carry out arrests (including use of force) in response to felonies committed in their presence. They can enforce wants, bounties, and arrest (but not search) warrants within their region as well. Peach Caps do not, however, have other law enforcement powers such as detention, investigation, or setting criminal charges. These must be carried out by sworn officers of law enforcement agencies, and policy dictates that members of the VHG summon the help of these agencies as soon as possible after an action to make the arrest 'official.'
Peach Caps tend to be aggressively anti-corruption and pro-self defense, but they retain defference to legitimate legal authority as set forth in the Charter of Law. Officials hoping to be elected to regional government on the VHG vote often make a big show of being completely transparent in their dealings, but even a whiff of dishonesty can spoil this strategy. On the other hand, the relatively free-wheeling nature of the organization's activities means that the over-zealous Peach Caps must occasionally be reigned in by professional law enforcement; the line between a Peach Cap and an unlawful vigilante can grow thin at times.
The official garb of a Peach Cap is, as the name implies, a cloth hat colored and shaped so that it resembles the head of a particular species of giant mushroom found only in the Vale. This is the same justification for the light orange portions in the Petalcap Vale national flag, and this symbolic ode to patriotism is no mistake. Peach Caps tend to be more nationalistic than most Vale Verdials, but their antipathy for corruption pits them against the similarly nationalistic Verdant Order; for a Peach Cap, a circumstance in which one can justifiably put cuffs on a Hand of the Order is a rare treat.
Type
Government, Law Enforcement
Alternative Names
VGH, PVHG, Home Guard, Guard
Demonym
Peach Cap(s)
Parent Organization
Related Species
Related Ethnicities
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