What Happens When the Police Use Foul Language

The Interior Ministry system rots from the head.

Halina Lahatskaya will remember her visit to the police for long. Colonel Mikalai Rutskoi and his subordinate Mikhalenak not only used physical force against her but also a foul language.

Their conversation she had recorded

"I used to be against when they were called "cops". But after this case my opinion has drastically changed," Halina told Belsat.

Lahatskaya wrote complaints to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor's office. The first attempt was failing, but the second time the investigation revealed facts of rude and tactless behavior on the part of ensign Mikhalenak. Dictaphone record became the basis for such a decision:

At the same time the conclusion of forensic medical examination on hematomas has been neglected by inspectors. Mikhalenak was just deprived of a bonus.

"One structure will always cover up the other one"

Former police officer Dzmitry Kovsh, who now lives in Poland and whose extradition is sought by the authorities of Belarus, says such punishment is considered the softest one.

"All inspections in internal bodies are of formal nature, one structure will always cover up the other one. This state is a single mechanism," Dzmitry explains.

A fish rots from the head

What should we expect from ordinary police officers when high officials behave like that? Former Interior Minister Uladzimir Naumau is known for his foul language. There are a lot of cases when police authorities use foul language. As an example, a well-known hard-mouthed person, the former chief of the Minsk police Ihar Euseyeu.

They like dirty language and fists

There are dozens and hundreds of video on YouTube, there people in the uniform beat unarmed Belarusians. There are only few examples when they are liable for this.

At protest actions policemen have their hands free at all. If mass events have a political context, physical abuse is later considered legitimate. They know that court will not held them liable, some of them beat people just for fun, others by the order

Official statistics show 65-percent confidence level in the interior bodies. But lenient punishment of offenders in the uniform, as in the case of Halina Lahatskaya will certainly spoil this low figure.

The Maskouski Police Department have a different point of view

The institution has decided to terminate the administrative case against senior ensign Mikhalenka under the article "petty hooliganism". His colleagues have decided that he had no intention to violate the public order.