Translated material
The trial of police officers and anti-Gypsy propaganda
On April 4, 2005, the Cherepovets newspaper "Rech" published an article by Tatyana Tikhonova "Court inside out. Sailor against Petrenko: Attempt No. 2", dedicated to the review of the case of two policemen who had previously been convicted for abuse of office. The victims are Roma, and the newspaper material is clearly anti-Roma.
We do not know what exactly the policemen were accused of, the article only states that they were found guilty of about ten criminal episodes. On the other hand, the author emphasizes in every possible way that the trial against them was custom-made, that most of those involved in the case on the part of the prosecution are somehow connected with the drug mafia, and so on.
And here is how the gypsies are described:
* "Can we come tomorrow too?" - the gypsy from the "support group" of the victims turned to the judge when the first day of the hearing ended. - I liked it so much today, it was painfully interesting! And the whole "support group" laughed."
... "Gypsies, not burdened with legal labor, as in the past year, will come to court every day to support their" baron ". They look at the Sailor with adoration, their faces reflect his facial expressions like a mirror; they look at the judge they look with ingratiation, and at the defendants and their lawyer - with undisguised malice. The victims and their friends are now much more confident than in the last trial. Some of the remarks of the participants in the trial make them laugh. The drug lord urges women to calm down with majestic gestures "*.
Even a superficial glance at such quotes is enough for the reader to form an "objective" idea of the process in which the "evil", "ingratiating", "not burdened with legal labor" "gypsies" are a priori some kind of evil that opposes good in the face - let's remind! - the already convicted - the Antonov brothers at the trial, which, according to the journalist, is "the embodiment of the idea of the initial injustice of this case ...: the defendants [apparently referring to the gypsies - ed. ] move freely around the hall, and the victims (some of them) sit in a cage for the defendants, they are guarded by escorts and, letting them out of the cage, put on handcuffs .
By the way, in February 2005 in Cherepovets, an arson was recorded at a house in which a gypsy family lived.
Sources
- Tikhonova Tatiana. Court inside out. Sailor vs. Petrenko: Attempt #2 // Speech (Cherepovets). 2005. 4 April. (Quotation from the site "Vobla.Ru")