October 04, 2006
A Post-Soviet Moment
Something unpleasant on the way to work today.
Driving along, we got passed by a police car running its flashers. No big deal.
A few blocks later, just as we were about to turn into the street with my office, the police car stopped a car in the street. They didn't pull it over -- they stopped it right in the lane, blocking traffic. Traffic stayed blocked for the next two or three minutes.
So the cops stop this car and start pulling people out of it. (There were three young men and one young woman.) They resist at first -- they don't want to get out of the car. One cop pulls a gun. Pretty serious stuff.
Then this other guy appears... we'll call him Thug. Because he looks like a thug: stocky guy with a pouty face, leather jacket, shaven head. Thug gets out of a white Lada Niva, which is no BMW but is a nice car by local standards.
So Thug walks over and begins beating on the guys being pulled out of the car. I mean, he just starts hitting them. Hard. While the cops are dragging them out of the car and shoving them into the cop car.
What struck me was that the cops acted as if nothing was happening. I mean, they acted as if Thug didn't exist, even as he was beating the crap out of the guys they were arresting. So, you had a cop frog-marching a guy to the cop car and shoving him into the back, and Thug walking alongside and punching the guy in the face.
This went on for... I don't know. 60 seconds, maybe?
Then Thug went back to his white Lada Niva and drove off. The cop car with the guys in the back drove off. The sobbing girl from the victims' car got back in the car, and a cop got in the car, and I guess they drove off too. Traffic started flowing again.
A minute or two later, as we were pulling into the office, I thought, "I should have gotten the license plate numbers." Of the cop car, of Thug's car. I could report them to... somebody. The local ombudsman? The anti-corruption committee? Someone.
When people are in accidents or incidents it seems they never do get the license plate numbers. I used to think that was stupid; surely /I/ would do better. But maybe not.
And that's all.
Posted by douglas at October 4, 2006 07:04 AMI have some 1996 photographs of two military police officers near Los Pinos (the Mexican presidential residence) beating a man bloody outside a metro station.
I don't know what possessed me to take it. Pretty stupid dangerous.
There's a sense of incredulity that sets in during these situations. You probably would have gotten license plate numbers in a situation you'd previously contemplated --- this one was so outside the realm of expected experience that your brain was fully occupied trying to process what you were seeing.
Least that's what I'd like to tell you, since I'm really telling myself.
Posted by: Noel Maurer at October 4, 2006 05:21 PMAnd further down the scale, in Egypt, I'd regularly see the "police" round up various people on my way to and from the university every day. Lots of unpleasantness there. It was remarkably unclear who exactly they thougth they were rounding up, as Mubarak's society is a /remarkably/ thorough police state.
And to show that I can outdistance Noel in the "doing something stupid" category, I watched, and took pictures of, the anti-Israel/Anti-America demonstration at Al-Azhar that the police put down. Full riot gear on the police, and third-world paddy wagons.
The worst was a few weeks later, once the Lebanon War included ground incursions. The regular Egyptian police got replaced with the StormFront variety, who tended to get tetchy, when talked to. They hit a few people, waved the big scary gun mounted to their pickups.
This is totally the place I'm going to work.
Posted by: Luke at October 10, 2006 05:22 AMDear Doug:
I didn't know where to put this except maybe here. Any comment in Armenia on this?:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6043064.stm
Best Wishes,
Traveller
Posted by: Traveller at October 12, 2006 12:23 PMBizarre story. Typical surreal Made in Armenia sort of tale. Makes you wonder how much of this sort of random violence is happening throughout Yerevan every day--which I'm sure it is since Armenians are generally feisty--without anyone daring to talk about it. Except you, of course...
Posted by: cgarbis at October 12, 2006 03:35 PMI repeated this story to a group of Eastern European (primarily Polish) academics. They all gaped with astonishment ... until they realized that I was talking about Armenia, not Romania. Then they shrugged. "Right. Well. Over there. Of course."
Doesn't seem like the country has a good image among the former remnants of the Soviet Empire, inasmuch as it has an image at all.
Posted by: Noel Maurer at October 12, 2006 04:38 PM>good image among the former remnants of the Soviet Empire, inasmuch as it has an image at all.
Do _any_ of the former Soviet component republics have a "good image" except the Baltic countries?
Well, the Poles would have been shocked to hear that a story like that had happened in Romania, so some countries must have better reputations than others.
Still, to suggest an answer your question: Slovenia?
Doug, you know much more.
Posted by: Noel Maurer at October 13, 2006 04:31 AMSlovenia?
ISTM that Noel is talking about the former Soviet Empire whereas Frank is talking more specifically about the former Soviet Union.
Whether there ever was a Soviet 'empire' in the sense that there is an American empire today, and how Armenia is handling the transition, are debates best left to another day.
Posted by: Syd Webb at October 13, 2006 08:28 AMSyd (and Noel), however you may wish to define the Soviet "Empire", Slovenia just wasn't a part of it. Except for four years, if one wants to be really pedantic.
... and how do you define a "good" image? Even though I boast that I hold everyone up to the same standards (and since this is me talking, you know already that those standards are bound to be bad and hypocritical), I still tend to give different countries different handicaps.
Consequently, leaving aside some gonzo stuff that's happening on regular basis, Ukraine looks pretty good to me at the moment, and has thus a great "image". As a former Soviet Republic, it's image-wise no worse than, say, Estonia, bearing in mind the handicaps.
On the other hand, extending this to all Warsaw Pact nations, there's this country where Noel's colleagues hail from, Poland. I mean, Jeezus, look at the current government and the state of the political discourse. The politics are an absolute _podróż do ciemnogrodu_, and I don't give a damn whether they're supporting the opposition in Belarus or not. Having a Messiah complex doesn't help one's image; dark is still dark, corrupt is still corrupt and bigoted is still bigoted.
Cheers,
Jalonen
Jussi: after Syd wrote his message it did, in fact, occur to me that writing "Slovenia" was pretty idiotic. That said, I didn't respond to Syd because, well, I didn't understand the purpose behind his comment.
Agreed too on the other stuff, although I'd like to mention that when Westerners look around for places to put their money, they don't seem to handicap. That does not, of course, obviate your point.
Syd: if you want me to engage you in this or any other forum, I'd ask you to please drop the act and stop with the ... I can't think of a neutral adjective, possibly because there aren't any ... remarks. The schtick has really worn quite old.