New Year Thriller

When the New Year begins with shooting, it makes one wonder.

Journalists are looking for witnesses and trying to unravel the truth themselves, because the MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) does not tell it anyway. Society wants answers to simple questions. Is this the truth that there was only one policeman instead of three in the apartment of Minsk dweller Andrei Haurosh. Is it true that the Minsk dweller was drunk and picked a fight, or just opened the door and got a bullet in the chest? Why did the policeman leave the wounded to bleed and was smoking in the yard? How does it comply with instructions and where have they been violated? How could the policeman be beaten then?

There are many questions, and every answer to them is required. But I've got other question. Let's imagine that the MIA's version is true. Why do the police personnel not keep fit? Can you imagine this poor policeman who was not able to cope with a drunken man?

Let's pretend that we live in a fairy tale where everyone believes in the TV truth and official press releases. We are informed that a loud music was playing in the night, the police arrived, a drunken person opened the door and picked a fight, behaved aggressively, and the policeman had to shoot. And we would have accepted it. But the story of the MIA is even more horrible. Didn't the police high officials understand it?

To declare that a bent cop suddenly appeared in the police, and he now answers in law, will be tried and imprisoned, pay compensation to the family of the victim, then will be quartered in the main square of the city could be worse. It may happen even in the most law abiding departments of a legal state.

But to assert that the gunman was right because there was no other way to deal with a drunk and unarmed person means the end. The end to the entire Belarusian police. It is capital punishment. It turns out that from the point of view of the MIA, the police are the convention of jellylike and quaggy wimps not able to do anything but pull the trigger. I assure you that official documents mention hours of physical trainings, examinations and achievement of ranking - everything is fine only on paper, the way it is in the Central Election Committee. But the reality is as that - the doorbell rings, you open the door and a gunshot follows. Because they are scared and have no physical strength to resist, it is enough only to beat women and children. And we pay money to these wimps.

We also pay them bonuses - for rank, for years of service plus vacation allowance, quarterage and even thirteenth salary. For what? For their ability to damage the unarmed? Let's save the budget. For example, if girls from a club could be given a gun, they would make all the town feel fear. All TV sets, stereos and even the light will be off at 11 pm. Citizens will use flashlights to read under a cover and watch the bed not to squeak otherwise those in uniform arrive and start shooting. New Year will be celebrated under blankets as well, whispering songs. But it will save the budget. It will be enough to pay debts, increase salaries for teachers and some money will be left for homes for elderly people. But this is not the variant...All this police with its complete combat impotence increases in number and welcomes wimps wanting to "pop a pistol off". However, the state is filled with such people at all the levels. Fortunately, not everyone can do it.

According to the rules of private communities, it turns out that if an ordinary Belarusian has to save his life from a tribe of cannibals in the middle of nowhere, he would prefer the company of any maniac killer, not a policeman. There will be more chances to survive.

As for the New Year thriller, all of us should drive to two simple conclusions. First, the Belarusians may rely only on themselves. Even if one is attacked by a criminal the police can do nothing. Second, no way one should open the door after "please, open it's police" in order not to take a bullet by chance. Life is much better than a phantom orderliness.

There is a new folk saying - if there is a smoking policeman in a court yard, it means he has recently given a shot, and someone needs an emergency care.

Iryna Khalip, especially for charter97.org