A fascist, a delivery man, and a policeman are on the street on an August evening. The more closely I look at the clip of the racist attack, the more scenes from Lucian Pintilie’s films, Balanța or Why Are the Bells Ringing, Mitică?, come to mind, where the talented director masterfully describes the stupidity, lies, and violence in a society forever on the brink of chaos, yet also in full comedy.
The characters take on historic destinies, but the means and execution are superficial, comical, and the grand plan always slips into ridicule.
„Go back to your country, that’s the problem…”, the thin, castrated voice, trying to be furious and aggressive, of a teenager hitting a young man of color who earns his living delivering food, can be heard.
"You are an invader," the aggressor further says, justifying why he hits the person on a bike carrying a huge box on his back.
The aggressor films as he attacks, more concerned about the quality of the clip, probably dreaming of millions of views and the popularity that only social media toxicity can offer.
The young man being attacked looks around and asks for help, while the attacker calls him a "nigger," with clear racist intentions.
From somewhere in the background, the hero's voice is heard: "Stay put! Police!" The aggressor runs away, shouting, "Sorry, man!" The balance of power has already shifted, and the hunter has become the hunted. The racist teenager collapses in fear, in his own cowardice.
When caught, he mutters once more: "I'm defending my country!" followed by a quick, "I'm screwed!" It's the moment when his whole macho universe disappears.
The imagined grandeur of an uneducated, disoriented mind, burnt by TikTok, reaches the inevitable conclusion that reality has nothing to do with social media toxicity, and his life has just changed forever.
At this point, at the bottom of the abyss, the teenage aggressor sees only one distant salvation, sweetly asking the policeman, "Can I call my mom?"
Within 55 seconds, a small fascist, convinced he's defending his country, filming himself hitting an immigrant, transitions from aggressive superiority, promoted by all fascists and communists in the last hundred years - here, a brief parenthesis, there's no difference between fascists and communists, they are equally violent, equally criminal - to the last defense stronghold, forgiveness from a mother's love.
VIDEO. The entire clip filmed by the young man who assaulted the immigrant from Bangladesh, an incident that took place in the Colentina neighborhood of Bucharest
The teenager is a victim of hate speech promoted by AUR and associated extremist movements that have poisoned society over the past three years in an attempt to seize power through intense dissemination of Russian propaganda.
Deputy Dan Tanasă, the new Kremlin star in Bucharest, who incited racial hatred against foreigners working in food delivery, quickly adopted the idea following the decision of the governor of the St. Petersburg region, Russia.
In mid-August, Alexander Beglov announced to taxi, food delivery, and parcel companies that they are no longer allowed to hire immigrants in an attempt to reduce youth unemployment, according to an article published by Moscow Times.
Behind the decision lies, in reality, a desperate strategy of the Kremlin to create a new enemy, this time internally - immigrants - so as to create a social outlet for a impoverished, scared, war-weary population, aiming to prevent a popular fury against Putin from coalescing.
As the shortest path between a new Moscow-inspired propaganda invention and Bucharest bears the name AUR, it took only a few days for Deputy Dan Tanasă's message against immigrants delivering food orders in the city to appear on social media in Romania.
I don't know if the teenager managed to call his mom, I have reason to believe he did, I don't know what she told him when she saw him detained by the police, but I hope he uses his emotional leverage to transform himself from a pariah into a reliable man. I was, however, impressed by the strong and healthy reaction of the sane people in the country, who, on the ruins of an end-of-the-world scene, manage to bring light, offering hope, at the end of an absurd film.
"I am the Police!"