Rough edges of the transition period.

Facebook archive. First published on 02.06.2016.

This video is recommended viewing for all supporters of the law on weapons. The video shows how a police officer used force, in his opinion lawfully, and a second police officer explained that the first officer's use of force was dictated by the need to protect himself from the citizen's inadequate actions. If citizens were permitted to carry and use firearms, the police would be the first to start using them against citizens, and then would explain that something or other had seemed that way to them.

Misunderstanding between citizens and police officers exists because police officers act according to the letter of the law, completely ignoring the spirit of the law. Due to their inexperience, they believe that the law should be applied everywhere, and that the law covers every possible situation. In reality, however, the law is a set of rules that should make citizens' lives easier, not threaten their lives.

"Rules are for people, not people for rules!"

The second point, why it is dangerous to give the police expanded powers, concerns the police officers' general perception of their fellow citizens. In Ukraine there is no respect for one another: neighbor for neighbor, countryman for countryman, motorist for motorist, and so on. It seems to me that if the citizen in question had been the police officer's brother or father, he would have behaved differently. But for some reason it is permissible to twist the arms of an unfamiliar person and "put his face down on the asphalt."

For some reason my compatriots, I am speaking generally now, believe that they can violate another person's freedom. I understand that for centuries we were humiliated and destroyed, and that on the genetic level this type of behavior, though unpleasant, is considered normal. A citizen believes that if he has been humiliated all his life, then now his time has come. He can go into the police and humiliate people on legal grounds.

If another citizen was forbidden all his life to speak the Ukrainian language, then now his time has come to forbid speaking any language other than Ukrainian.

I deliberately touch on the sharpest topics so that you will form your own opinion. And I am sure that if I do not support your point of view, you will have the same desire as the police officer in the video. It will not even occur to you to respect my point of view, and me myself as a person.

This inner state is inherent in all citizens of Ukraine; it is the Soviet mentality and state immaturity. We still do not understand what a state is, and we do not want to understand, because every day we have to think about economic problems. Until people have prosperity, they will not begin to think about higher matters. But that is precisely the difficulty of what is happening: until people think about higher matters, they will not have prosperity.

The situation shown in the video would not have happened if fines for traffic violations had been affordable; this situation would not have happened if the police officer had been satisfied with his life and perceived his compatriot as his own brother. And more than one generation will have to change before the simple thought of respect for one another reaches the people.

Ukraine needs to grow up, and the people need to acquire maturity.