Saturday, November 4, 2017

Moscow Police have No Time to Fight Crime: They’re Too Busy Combatting Protests



Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 4 – Andrey Pivovarov, a Moscow commentator, reports what many have long suspected: Under Vladimir Putin, the Russian police are so heavily committed to dealing with demonstrations and protests that officers sometimes don’t have the time to devote to their primary job of fighting crime.

            In a blogpost on the Kasparov portal, he says that when he reported a theft to the police at the local precinct last weekend, the officer was extremely prompt and polite but said his colleagues couldn’t do anything until Monday: all its officers had been detailed to control demonstrations (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59FCC309E1158).

            What happened to Pivovarov has undoubtedly happened to others. What is more serious is that criminals certainly know this as well and may target people precisely during times when they know the police are protecting the state against demonstrators and thus unable to pursue them quickly when an arrest would be most probable.

No comments:

Post a Comment