Last week, the Capital Police took 10 hours to track down an unarmed, untrained pensioner who had passed under the noses of the gendarmes after setting fire to the store in the Parliament lobby and was waiting in his hotel room where he had checked in under his real name.
I then witnessed a display of forces worthy of hunting down a heavily armed serial killer. All for a man who wasn’t even seriously hiding.
The scenario repeated itself, but more eagerly, on Tuesday, 3 days after the brawl with stakes in Pantelimon and then at Saint Pantelimon Hospital. In addition to the resources already displayed for the pensioner, dogs, drones, a helicopter, and special intervention units from several counties were mobilized. All under the genius leadership of the Chief of the Capital Police, Bogdan Berechet, the protege of the Ministry of Internal Affairs State Secretary - Bogdan Despescu.
Several participants in the brawl were arrested, apparently from their homes, some white weapons were pompously confiscated, and a great victory of law enforcement agencies was proclaimed.
Is that so?
First of all, it should be noted that the identities of those involved in the brawl, as in Parliament, were known from the beginning, as they were filmed in action by numerous cameras. The reason for the disturbance was also known: a minor had been sold by her family for marriage, but she didn't want to leave. The buyers came to take the girl or the money back, and that's where the commotion started. So there was no need for any great insight to know exactly where to apprehend the suspects, without drones and helicopters.
We understand from the Pantelimon Police representative that the brawlers were not part of a criminal clan or group, so there was no need for monitoring. Therefore, from the perspective of State Secretary Despescu's subordinates, those people were model citizens who went to church on Sundays, suddenly went crazy on a Saturday, and behaved inexplicably and unpredictably, just like members of a criminal group.
But if that's the case, why was such a deployment necessary, from drones to helicopters? If they weren't criminal groups, where did they get so many white weapons? Is that a natural arsenal? What has the Police been guarding until now, under whose nose this arming took place?
The same lady from the Pantelimon Police seemed very irritated by the locals' reproaches that they live in insecurity. Why didn't they report to the Police? If she's not lying and there are indeed no reports, is it because people don't trust the Police? At best, they don't expect any resolution. Unless they end up being snitched on by policemen to the criminals who would then seek revenge.
In how many localities is there certainty that the Police are hand in hand with the clans? And the fact that the police officers act as bodyguards at the events of criminals, and the head of the Romanian Police negotiates with them at night through churches, only strengthens this belief.
Furthermore, the Police, along with other institutions, does not seem interested at all in the cause of the commotion, more serious than the brawl itself.
In 21st-century European Romania, just a stone's throw from Bucharest, girls are sold like cattle.
The fact that this is the tradition of an ethnic group should not be an impediment to law enforcement. The impediment is the racism/corruption of many Romanian policemen, who have no interest in what happens in marginal communities until a major scandal erupts, and then they rush in, stumbling over their shoelaces.
The fact that Romania is the country of clans and drug traffickers is a direct consequence of the impotence of the Romanian Police, not only under-equipped, not only understaffed, not only lacking in training and continuous training. But above all, ineptly led by inept individuals who, from time to time, pretend to work, starting with the top chief, Bogdan Despescu, immovable regardless of the misfortunes caused by his incompetence.
If the Police were respected as an institution and feared for the effectiveness of its response, the gangsters wouldn't be fighting on the streets and in hospitals without any restraint. Such a thing only happens when no one cares about the Police, neither those who should fear it, nor those who should feel protected.