calmSince that time people start to be afraid of those who mean to be protecting people. When you see a policeman coming towards you on a street of any Russian city, even if you're an absolutely law-abiding person, you don't expect anything good. In general people don’t' like police here. Some hate. Very often it's mutual.
Recent news show, that sometimes such hatred has some real basis underneath.
Today I read on a news site that three policemen were accused in torturing of a student. It's sad and scary but it happens all the time. When regular police officers are pressed from the top, in order to get somebody to blame, they can get a random person from the street. The torture their victim and made a person to sign a confession and their done. The person may spend years after that trying to proof that it was a forced confession, and some victims never speak up.
It’s hard to believe that it happens everywhere, but I had a friend who was in such mess. He was beaten by hooligans, but when he came to police station actually bleeding, they decided that he’s drunk and he’s a good opportunity to ‘close’ some old case. They tried to make him sign something, but luckily he managed to phone his parents minutes before, so they were not insisting and he got away from there ok.
You may think that Russian policemen are monsters, and very often it’s true, but certainly among them are lots of good guys, not the majority though.
Take a good care of yourselves, please.
