Police killing in St. Petersburg
The St. Petersburg Times
Issue #1530 (92), Friday, November 27, 2009
TOP STORIES
Man Dies Following Police Beating
By Sergey Chernov
Staff Writer
A man died after being detained by police in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported Thursday. The case is the latest in a recent wave of violent incidents involving police officers.
According to a statement from the police, a police officer used his foot to “push away” the man, who was allegedly drunk, in the process of detaining him on Nov. 2 because the man “leaned” on the officer.
The following day, the man was taken to the city’s Mariinsky Hospital, where he died of a burst bladder on Nov. 12. A police officer was detained on suspicion of injuring the man on Tuesday.
The case is one in a string of violent incidents involving policemen, the most recent of which was reported on Tuesday (see page 15), when three Moscow police officers were detained after beating a man to death in Moscow. They were reported to have been drunk when they assaulted the man.
The year’s most infamous incident happened in April when Major Denis Yevsyukov went on a shooting rampage, killing two people and injuring seven in a Moscow supermarket. He was also reported to have been drunk.
Maxim Reznik, the leader of the local branch of the Yabloko Democratic Party, said such incidents were no longer news in Russia.
“Sadly, the collective image of the Russian police today is not Uncle Styopa [an idealized Soviet policeman from a children’s poem by the late Sergei Mikhalkov], but the infamous Major Yevsyukov,” Reznik said by phone on Thursday.
Reznik said that the Russian police force’s two main problems are involvement in politics and corruption.
“The police feel that they don’t serve the people, but the corrupt bureaucrats - and people treat the police with contempt and fear,” he said.
“Feeling their necessity and impunity, [the police] themselves plunge into corruption and have become a repressive body. Some officers from Precinct 76 were detained in St. Petersburg recently for extorting 25 million rubles ($860,000). I’m not surprised that it was Precinct 76, because that’s where representatives of oppositional organizations were taken many times. “
Although there has been much discussion lately about the necessity of police reform, Reznik said the police could not be reformed without changing the way authority is structured in Russia.
“It’s impossible to think that we’ll change the bad policemen for the good ones now, and everything will change,” he said.
“There are good and bad people everywhere, but the system should be built in such a way that it helps the good ones, and doesn’t show indulgence toward the bad ones. There are good policemen even now, but it’s simply not their time.
“The police should be under very serious control from an independent parliament, which doesn’t exist; from an independent media, which is mostly under the control of the bureaucracy; and, of course, from an independent court system.
“An independent parliament, media and court system - all of this is called ‘democracy;’ there’s no other word for it.”
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=30398
Issue #1530 (92), Friday, November 27, 2009
TOP STORIES
Man Dies Following Police Beating
By Sergey Chernov
Staff Writer
A man died after being detained by police in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported Thursday. The case is the latest in a recent wave of violent incidents involving police officers.
According to a statement from the police, a police officer used his foot to “push away” the man, who was allegedly drunk, in the process of detaining him on Nov. 2 because the man “leaned” on the officer.
The following day, the man was taken to the city’s Mariinsky Hospital, where he died of a burst bladder on Nov. 12. A police officer was detained on suspicion of injuring the man on Tuesday.
The case is one in a string of violent incidents involving policemen, the most recent of which was reported on Tuesday (see page 15), when three Moscow police officers were detained after beating a man to death in Moscow. They were reported to have been drunk when they assaulted the man.
The year’s most infamous incident happened in April when Major Denis Yevsyukov went on a shooting rampage, killing two people and injuring seven in a Moscow supermarket. He was also reported to have been drunk.
Maxim Reznik, the leader of the local branch of the Yabloko Democratic Party, said such incidents were no longer news in Russia.
“Sadly, the collective image of the Russian police today is not Uncle Styopa [an idealized Soviet policeman from a children’s poem by the late Sergei Mikhalkov], but the infamous Major Yevsyukov,” Reznik said by phone on Thursday.
Reznik said that the Russian police force’s two main problems are involvement in politics and corruption.
“The police feel that they don’t serve the people, but the corrupt bureaucrats - and people treat the police with contempt and fear,” he said.
“Feeling their necessity and impunity, [the police] themselves plunge into corruption and have become a repressive body. Some officers from Precinct 76 were detained in St. Petersburg recently for extorting 25 million rubles ($860,000). I’m not surprised that it was Precinct 76, because that’s where representatives of oppositional organizations were taken many times. “
Although there has been much discussion lately about the necessity of police reform, Reznik said the police could not be reformed without changing the way authority is structured in Russia.
“It’s impossible to think that we’ll change the bad policemen for the good ones now, and everything will change,” he said.
“There are good and bad people everywhere, but the system should be built in such a way that it helps the good ones, and doesn’t show indulgence toward the bad ones. There are good policemen even now, but it’s simply not their time.
“The police should be under very serious control from an independent parliament, which doesn’t exist; from an independent media, which is mostly under the control of the bureaucracy; and, of course, from an independent court system.
“An independent parliament, media and court system - all of this is called ‘democracy;’ there’s no other word for it.”
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=30398