Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Crime & Predictable Outcomes


When the “Lustration Law” was passed last year an entry at the time raised the following issue (amongst several) – “There is also a question of what then to do with all the lustrated? It is one thing to raise sufficient doubt about lifestyles far beyond declared means ultimately resulting in a lustration from office – but perhaps quite another matter to provide evidence of specific crimes sufficient for trial and incarceration.

A well educated, affluent, corrupt, well connected, ethically bankrupt and embittered set of people in large enough numbers could become a shadow civil service administration, together with a shadow legal and law enforcement system, given the right encouragement and backing – and you don’t need to look far within the Ukrainian neighbourhood for those prepared to provide that encouragement and backing.


If the numbers to be lustrated are to be deliberately kept small enough to manage any such risk, then that calls into question the genuine purification process being purported and that society is expecting. Worse, any small number then becomes perceived as a political witch hunt where rule by law selects those who fall foul of the process.”

So far as can be seen, no answer has been found – if indeed an answer was ever sought.  Whilst the number of nefarious and criminal incidents involving those no longer holding official positions is unknown (and probably deliberately not being recorded somewhere within Government), reports of such incidents continue to appear in the media.

The latest incident in Odessa involving a criminal gang of six that comprised of a serving State Migration Officer and an ex-police officer in an armed robbery – one of many they are suspected of committing.

One of the anticipated outcomes of reforming the police is that those who leave become organised criminals #Odessa  https://t.co/zEwUJUbzNJ — Nikolai Holmov (@OdessaBlogger) November 9, 2015

The after effect of “lustration” whereby simply sacking or accepting (encouraged) resignations of those that have clearly been involved in crimes that provide for a far better lifestyle than official salaries provide for, is that their “networks” and nefarious criminal associations continue as they remain free to roam the streets.  For a percentage of the “lustrated” who perhaps have not accumulated sufficient illicit funds, or that want more, or that were simply criminals in State uniforms their entire careers, they know that crime certainly pays far better than any other job they are likely to get – and with their connections they are unlikely to face any consequences unless lieterally caught in the act.

With the new Patrol Police now up and running, but dealing with traffic accidents, drunks, dog bites and street brawls – the most basic (albeit most public facing) of policing, as has been written about at length previously at the blog, the issue of the specialised police officers, (criminal investigation, drugs, sexual offences, human trafficking, serious and organised crime etc) being sacked en masse and installation of brand new but inexperienced replacements would be prohibited due to experience within the specific disciplines.

(The same issues will be presented with new prosecutors and judges – they cannot all simply be sacked or lustrated less the experienced if slightly grubby baby be thrown out with the very dirty water – particularly so when the the bureaucracy to accomplish a changing of (most of) the guard is simply so slow.)
Thus all such officers have been made redundant and those that wanted to remain have been rehired under a new (temporary) contract whilst they are “reassessed” for their suitability.  Those with experience but less mired in corruption will stay whilst those up to their necks in corruption will go – hopefully.

The next wave of “reassessment” for those officers now entering the “new police” is likely to lead to more being required to resign/sacked due to their level of criminality and suspected nefariousness being too great to justify their retention – and these will be smarter and better connected within unreformed institutions and the organised and local criminal networks than those already ejected from the police that were replaced by the “Patrol Police”.

They will be followed by a large number of lustrated/sacked/resigned prosecutors and (hopefully) numerous judges all with equally “useful” networks ranging from the politicians, institutional bosses, and organised crime, to the street dealer, smuggler and pimp.  None seem likely to see the inside of a jail or be subject to a meaningful criminal investigation at the time of dismissal – perhaps the numbers are so great the legal system couldn’t cope – though as the legal stands (entirely unreformed where it counts) few would be incarcerated anyway.

At its core the issue is not one of simply changing corrupt personnel – it is one of changing institutional (canteen) culture.  The institution being “reformed” changed to that where public service is the ethos of the institution, rather than one of public subjugation under the institution.

However, questions remain about what to do with the thousands of sacked/lustrated (and lustration has not even begun amongst the judiciary) when jailing people seems to be something that simply doesn’t happen to those removed from public institutions.  Such people only seem to be arrested and see the inside of a cell if caught red-handed – whether in, or after, holding office.

As such local criminal networks of the sacked/lustrated are appearing and will continue to do so – as predicted in the 5th October 2014 entry – often involving those that remain in office and missed the lustration guillotine.  A half-arsed “lustration” is undoubtedly what Ukraine has conducted, leading to half-arsed outcomes – due to what is seemingly either a half-arsed or entirely absent strategy regarding the nefarious and criminal that are dismissed rather than properly investigated and subjected to due process.

The longer these local recently institutionally defrocked networks exit, the more they will grow and the more they will become consolidated.  The harder then, to uproot them later.

It is perhaps time to start consolidating the number and type of criminal incidents involving ex/lustrated/former uniform wearing personnel – if in the apparent absence of any idea of what to do with them (such as subject them to meaningful investigation – and subsequently jail), then for no other reason than academic purposes.

Perhaps something to keep an eye on considering the possibilities of cooperation or co-opting some well armed volunteers also roaming around unchallenged by the authorities too.


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