In recent days, the Russian media space was dominated by one topic, covering even the coronavirus: the tragedy in the United States — the murder of a white policeman African American George Floyd in Minneapolis. Every day were on the news and discussed on various talk shows this terrible movie strangling to death lying on the pavement, unarmed, choking a black man in handcuffs. The second act of the tragedy began following the assassination of mass protests and riots in many cities of America and in other countries.
In the majority of Russian television broadcasts the whole “Patriotic” pathos was reduced to one: as everything is stable, decently and legally in Russia — and how awful things are in America, with its monstrous vices: racism, sadism, tyranny, lawlessness, ubiquitous violence and lawlessness, not to mention her all the boring hypocrisy and double standards!
In response to this enthusiasm I must say first of all that police brutality and abuse of power, of course, are a problem in any country. Russia, of course, is no exception to the rule. However, the racial motive of such tyranny in Russia by and large is not present. It’s not because there’s no racism — just at the household level, he double flowers bloom, and only because living in Russia few Africans!
however, when you stick a bottle of champagne in the anus of a detainee in police custody (referring to a famous incident in Kazan in 2012), then it does not matter whether it was the brutality committed on racial grounds or not.
“the Case of the bottle of champagne”, of course, outrageous shocking and outrageous example, but few would argue in Russia that police brutality in various forms is quite common in the country — from the brutal to the “everyday”, including corruption among police and other law enforcement officials. About this, I’m sure the Russians themselves can tell.
However every time on Russian television to discuss the problem of police brutality in AMERICA (and this is discussed much more often than police brutality in RUSSIA), we must always remind everyone that 99% of American police — a law-abiding, adequate, decent and balanced people.
the case of the murder of George Floyd — another matter. The leadership of the police of the city of Minneapolis have long been receiving numerous complaints about abuses by specific officers who were involved in his murder, but in previous years they have not been dismissed. Then claim to the police authorities of the city is absolutely justified.
whatever it was, it is impossible to conclude on the example of a freak among the police (and their 865 000) that Bo��isinto them sadists, tyrants and murderers. Similarly, for example, it was impossible for the Russian supporters of the “law of Dima Yakovlev” to generalize on the basis of a very small percentage (less than 0.01%) of cases of abuse by American foster parents of children who were adopted from Russia that the majority among them — psychopaths, are prone to abuse. Nevertheless, as the authors of the law when they banned all adoptions of Russian children by American citizens.
However, whenever in the Russian media discusses the problem of police brutality in the United States, is always celebrated in America every year kills about 1,000 people at the hands of police, and in Russia — “only a few hundred” for the same reason.
But the comparison of police brutality in the United States and Russia is fundamentally incorrect for several reasons. The most important of them: the U.S. has its own peculiarity, which take little account when “indignantly condemn” America in this regard. In the USA, a huge number of weapons in the hands of ordinary citizens (which in itself is a separate great problem). In the country where I live, about 330 million people, was from the civilians about 300 million different types of guns, machine guns and rifles. As you know, this problem of an armed population is absent in Russia.
So when any American policeman is faced with crime — especially in the most dangerous areas of a city, he understands in advance the greater the likelihood that the alleged offender is armed. In this connection we must not forget that every year more than 100 police officers are killed by shootings in the course of performing their direct duties.
that is why, when the police suspect yells: “freeze!” and “Hands up!”, every American knows — or should know! — it is necessary to comply with a police command. Any disobedience to this command puts the suspect at risk.
In a high-profile murder of Michael brown in Ferguson in 2014, there was just a failure to comply with this command. The results were fatal shots, the police decided according to the final result of the official investigation, justified, because they were made in a situation of self-defense.
most of the deaths of American citizens from the actions of the police every year occur as a result of such situations, and not as a result of the brutal cold-blooded sadism on racial grounds. According to the data published in the journal the Atlantic, the majority (52%) of the victims were white, but African-Americans suffer more as a percentage to 26%, although they only represent 14% of the total population of the United States.
either 1,000 deaths per year at the hands of police is a large number of victims, but uhthe problem is caused partly, or maybe largely, a huge number of weapons in the hands of citizens.
As for the tragic murder of George Floyd, I must say that such flagrant excesses are really small. Another thing that these outrageous incidents, especially when they are filmed on video, always attracted attention all over the world for obvious reasons.
this creates a distorted impression that such criminal tragedy to happen in the US very often, almost daily. At least the propaganda is not very friendly America countries is doing everything possible to create that impression!
I understand the temptation to once again happy to condemn the “outrageous police brutality and lawlessness in the US”, while asserting that these terrible troubles, “much less” in Russia. But if you look in detail — that rarely happens in Russian television — it’s a comparison of the level of arbitrariness is unlikely to be in favor of Russia.
