Law against the people and the police

photo: phonet

Out of about 360 articles of the draft of the new law on the police, we present about thirty of the most controversial ones, which should form the axis for placing the police apparatus in the role of apparatchiks of the ruling party. It seems that whoever wrote the law "had the opposition in his head". Parts of the law do not sound as if they were written for the safety of citizens, but as for the insecurity of political opponents. And it is known that the Minister of Police is a political position, intended for the most loyal party people. How brutal and inhumane this law will be, if it is adopted, is best shown by a series of controversial laws on the means of coercion.

PREGNANT WOMEN WITH ELECTRIC SHOCKS, HUNTING THE DEMONSTRATORS AS ON A SAFARI

Pregnant women, heart patients or people with mental disorders, if they dare to protest, more precisely "to disturb public order and peace", the police can discipline them with electric shockers, but "especially carefully"... This is stated in Article 125 on Electromagnetic means.

And that's not the end of the MUP's sadistic toys. With special rifles that fire nets with steel hooks, which stick into the flesh or the ground, the police want to hunt down protesters who disrupt public order and peace by gathering. For this, like on a safari, hunting citizens who show disobedience, the police are reminded in Article 121 - "Means of binding" - to avoid shooting them in the head or neck area... Now, if someone misses...

There are also sound waves, provided for in Article 134, and these horrible sounds can serve to drive the protestors mad, or at least drive them crazy like rats, mice and snakes. And who says that the police do not take care of their citizens. Here is the proof: they can spray a group that disturbs public order and peace with jets of water, but only with ecologically clean water! Ecological bathing is legally mandated under Article 131. Admittedly, disobedient citizens are also allowed to be sprayed with paint, purely to make it easier to find them, and that is when they have already been chased away from the meeting.

As "Vreme" learns, the MUP has already acquired all these exotic means for torturing citizens. It is not known through which tender or secret procurement, when there is no legal basis for the purchase of such equipment. Here, the sources of "Vremena" say that they have a well-founded suspicion that the police illegally acquired funds that should be used to compel some of the citizens to comply with the new police law.

PRIVACY OF THE CITIZENS IS AVOIDED

A security check, which implies an intrusion into the innermost privacy of any citizen, could in the future be carried out under the pretext of implementing the Law, i.e. Article 103, paragraph 7, which states: "Persons who live, work or otherwise stay in the immediate vicinity in the environment of persons and objects that are protected and provided with security, as well as in the immediate environment of persons who are protected as participants in criminal proceedings and persons close to them."

It is not specified what the immediate environment is. Under that pretext - and Article 106 states that the checked citizen does not have to know about it, i.e. to give his consent - it would be possible to check the private parts of any resident of Belgrade, even beyond, because he lives "nearby" some protected person .

In response to all this, the public is already buzzing about the scandalous Article 91, according to which the police could, without a court order, break into citizens' homes. The working group that wrote the draft of the disputed law says that the reason for such a law is that now they cannot react quickly if they do not have a specific report and break into an apartment where they suspect that domestic violence is taking place. Here, women who suffer violence have become an excuse for the police why they should violate the Constitution, and the same working group that wrote the Draft does not explain on what basis the police, the other day, broke into the apartment of a boyfriend in Vračar who was taking pictures of Vulin from his window when was leaving the hairdresser.

Whether a citizen drinks alcohol or takes drugs should not be a matter of intimacy, even under the new law. Namely, in Article 101, it is stated that police officers can test for alcohol or drugs a person who is not suspected of being a participant in a criminal act or misdemeanor, but it is enough to be a "participant in the event". What an event is is not defined, so it could be a chat between two people on the street or anyone's party.

OWNERS OF OTHERS' LIVES

Where we're going, what we're talking about... The police believe that they should know all that, and even record it. And to whom could all those "notes" from other people's, or rather our, lives be delivered? According to Article 44, the data processing system, where we moved, who we called on the phone, and even recordings of those conversations, the police can deliver to "legal entities". Who are these "legal entities"?

In order for the people to understand, history teaches us that it is usually about criminals, who are beaten as controversial businessmen, but tabloids and all propaganda media outlets are also on that list. And the people being followed do not necessarily have to be criminals, suspicion is enough. And on that list for "data processing" can end up individuals, often labeled by the authorities as "foreign mercenaries, domestic traitors", that is investigative and critical journalists or opposition politicians. And here's a way to publicly hand over all compromising material about someone. And that's not only in cases where the police are recording him and following him secretly. There, a series of three controversial articles on Surveillance and Recording in Public Places (Articles 152, 153 and 154) create a perfect storm for destroying the life of any citizen.

photo: vladimir paunović

Namely, in Article 152, it is stated: "The police, using the audio and video surveillance system, in order to perform police and other duties, conduct surveillance and recording of persons, objects, events and occurrences in a public place."

And when they record you from the moment of the first kiss to the moment of the brawl, then, as stipulated in Article 154.

"The Minister regulates in more detail the technical conditions for the construction and access of the Ministry's audio and video surveillance system of entities from Article 152 of this law and access of entities from Article 152 of this law to the Ministry's audio and video surveillance system, as well as the way of using the Ministry's audio and video surveillance system and the way announcing the intention to film a public place."

In translation, this means that the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia can slap a "secrecy mark" and give your recordings, recorded in public places, to whomever he likes.

NEW POLICE DIRECTOR IS COMING FROM BIA?

photo: Tanjug

Why has Serbia not had a police director for a year? Article 35, paragraph 2, which states that the director of the police, among other things, can be someone who has: "...at least 15 years of effective work in security affairs in managerial positions." This regulation indicates that the new director of the Serbian police will be someone from the Security and Information Agency. Let's recall the recent reshuffle: the soon-to-be-appointed Minister of Internal Affairs, Bratislav Gašić, came to that position precisely from the BIA, while the previous Minister of Police, Aleksandar Vulin, went to the position of the first person of the BIA. The rule is that someone who has no experience in public security can become the director of the police. If someone from the BIA is indeed elected after the adoption of the new law, it will be shown that the law was changed because of someone's deals and promises, and not for the sake of improving the work of the MUP.

And that is just the beginning of a series of examples of how this legal act left room to be subordinated to someone's businesses, and not to protect public safety, life and personal and property security of people and support the rule of law - which is the definition of the term internal affairs.

LAW AGAINST THE POLICE?

photo: Tanjug

Who will be the new benefactors and financiers of the MUP is prescribed by Article 202, which states: "... and natural persons can participate with their means in improving the working conditions of organizational units of the Ministry, that is, in cooperation with the Ministry, they can participate in financing activities aimed at improving security in the community and in the implementation of certain activities of importance for the safety of people and property in a certain area."

Those famous "natural persons" do not have to be, as the Law prescribes, even unconvicted in order to be donors to the police. The question is whether the accused, who is the leader of the organized criminal group Predrag Koluvija, the owner of the Jovanjica plantation, where, according to the indictment, the largest marijuana plantation in Europe was found, will become the new benefactor of the MUP of Serbia. Not so long ago, Koluvija was also a donor to the BIA, which is why, according to his lawyer's statement, he also had contact with Bratislav Gašić, the then director of the Agency, and the current Minister of Police.

If we follow the law, then criminals can become the new legal financiers of the police. Admittedly, which of the criminals today has fuller pockets?! Will police officers be required to be good to their benefactors? What if they refuse, because in the law there is a lot of "blackmailing potential" against the police officers themselves, who the minister can move to a lower position or retire, as provided for in articles 253 and 347 of the law.

photo: Tanjug

Police officers must also submit to a polygraph whenever requested. Otherwise, as stated in Article 276, he will undergo a security check. Here's the coincidence, precisely because of Jovanjica, the head of the department, Slobodan Milenkovic, who exposed the drug-corruption scandal, took the polygraph twice, and the detector showed that he was telling the truth both times. However, they forced him to take a polygraph and the third time, he refused. For more than three years, Chief Milenkovic and almost the entire Fourth Department have suffered political, media, police and judicial persecution.

According to Article 17, the Ministry can establish a public-private partnership with natural persons... What these partnerships can mean, they are allowed to let their imaginations run wild, the Law will certainly not prevent them from realizing their dreams, because there are no restrictions. For example, they could be partners in the cultivation of Indian hemp, of course for the production of medicines, ropes, paper, oil... It is also disputed that a police officer, according to Article 277, paragraph 3, can be a member of a sports association and does not need any consent from his superiors. So, a police officer can participate in the work of football clubs where tens of millions of euros are turned over, but if he wants to, say, deliver express mail or walk dogs for a fee, he needs the approval of his superiors for such an engagement.

According to the old bad law, the internal control sector will continue to work under the orders of the Minister of Internal Affairs. So much for the independence of those who are supposed to check other police officers, but actually work at the behest of a political figure.

And who will be the new police officers? In Article 107, it is written that a "security hindrance" for someone's employment can be, as stated in paragraph 4, "a person whose habits, behavior or inclinations indicate that he is not worthy, that is, he will not be worthy to work in the Ministry". What can all this mean... Worthy to be a policeman may not be the candidate who tends to read "Vreme" or has a Corax calendar or cable SBB on the wall...

And if these candidates are not eligible, there is the auxiliary police. In Article 160, paragraph 3, auxiliary police officers are described as follows: "Persons who meet the conditions for employment in the Ministry and who are unemployed, older than 18 and younger than 50 years of age, have completed at least secondary education and have completed training that is implemented according to a special program."

According to this criterion, if he had completed the training - and he had never been convicted before - the auxiliary policeman could also have been Srđan Lalić, known as the "butcher from Ritopek", now the accused witness in the proceedings against Belivuk. And who knows how many more hooligans, so far unconvicted, could soon take the baton in their hands...

ARE THE CHINESE ARRIVING OR WHERE ARE THE SERBIAN POLICEMEN GOING?

Article 20 on International Cooperation states that "the Ministry can send an employee outside the territory of the Republic of Serbia to work in the police of another country (...) in order to achieve cooperation in the field of internal affairs".

In translation, this means that Chinese police officers can really start working in Serbia. Previously, during the summer, the Serbian police sent several inspectors to Montenegro, and this was usually done on a reciprocal basis. Now 100 or 1000 Serbian policemen could go to distant China, and they could come here in the same number and legally start taking care of their investments, but also the equipment for surveillance, or for beating and subduing citizens, which they as "Vreme" learns, they have already been sold to the Serbian MUP.

Article 12 on Data Processing and Protection is extremely imprecise and leaves room for numerous manipulations. It states that the police deal with "the protection of public and national security", as if they were the army or the counter-intelligence service. They are given space to "observe and perceive other countries as well...". This all reminds of the "Potočari" case from 2015, when Serbian inspectors illegally went to Srebrenica, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to work as secret agents on the territory of another country and monitor a commemorative rally, during which the then Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar was attacked Vucic. The policemen who spoke about it publicly, Milan Dumanović and Mladen Trbović, were arrested, detained, persecuted by the media and accused of revealing an official secret, and this year they were legally acquitted.

The public debate on the law on internal affairs will last until January 22, 2023. After that, it is expected to enter the parliament, where deputies will decide whether "In the name of the people" will adopt it. When the law is precise, there is no need for extensive additional explanations. No one is trusted on their "honorable word", especially not the police, which has been politicized and criminalized for decades. A good law suits all; when the government writes it, it should draft it so that the law protects it even if it becomes the opposition tomorrow. However, the current draft was made according to the model that whoever works according to that law, will actually violate thirty laws on human rights. In Serbia, in the twenties of the 21st century, we came to a situation where we are reminded of the saying "Laws exist for the sake of people, not people for the sake of laws".

A well-coordinated team wrote the Draft Law on the Police

photo: phonet

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia has not held a media conference for more than two years. For the public, that's absurd, they talked exclusively with eligible people. It was only at the beginning of the week, during the presentation of the draft of the new law on the police, that the members of the working group that drafted the disputed legal act introduced themselves to journalists. Deputy Secretary of the Ministry Milica Bondžić was presented as the leader of the group - the new face of the police, for the new law. However, there are those who know Bondžić's work from earlier, such as Novica Antic, president of the Serbian Military Union. Antić says that the Army has also experienced controversial draft laws, from the same author.

"I am not surprised that the new law on internal affairs contains so many perfidiously incorporated unconstitutional provisions, since we know that it was drafted 'in collaboration' with Vulin's confidant and secretary in each of Vulin's ministries, Zoran Lazić, and his close associate and 'friend' Milica Bondžić, until recently a lawyer in the Ministry of Defense, and today a police major and deputy secretary of the MUP. In 2021, this couple drafted an equally unconstitutional new law on the Serbian Armed Forces, which was withdrawn from the procedure after public criticism and public alarm. It should be remembered that Zoran Lazić, as Vulin's associate in the Ministry of Labour, drafted the current, also very bad and criticized Labor Law, which caused almost all trade unions to go on strike and protest throughout Serbia in 2014. Now, when we know all this, and above all who and with what credibility are the authors of this new police law, it is more than clear that it is not intended to improve the safety of the citizens of Serbia and more effectively protect the constitutional order, but rather to legalize numerous abuses by individuals who have been given that they have power and that they abuse it in the most criminal and down-to-earth way, and Serbia is classified in the group of countries with the blackest dictatorships, which it was not in even in the 14th century," the president told "Vreme" of the Supreme Court.