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What did 4 June 2020 reveal about policing?
Summary
Two reports from 4 June 2020, one from Pavlohrad and one from Crimea, showed how law enforcement and courts were in the news just before 6 June 2020.
What did the reports of 4 June 2020 show, as seen from 6 June 2020? Two items stood out, in different places and on different subjects.
In Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a gang of police officers was exposed. According to the report, it was organised by Dmytro Serdiuk, who headed the local police department. The case concerned the conduct of the very people responsible for enforcing the law in the town.
The second item came from Crimea, under Russian control. A court there jailed a Jehovah's Witness for six years for practising a religion that is outlawed in the territory. The report placed the case within the wider question of freedom of religion in Russia.
The two stories were unrelated in place and circumstance. Both, however, concerned the exercise of official power: in one case, officers accused of abusing their positions, in the other, a court imposing a prison term for religious practice.
