In Poland, a huge scandal flares up over the murder of a 25-year-old worker from Ukraine. The incident took place in July, and the young man died after being beaten by the police.
The details of the incident were published by the Polish media only now, after two months of investigation, and caused a great resonance in society. Dmitry Nikiforenko, a native of Nemirov, Vinnitsa region, has been compared to the dark-skinned Floyd, whose murder by the police caused a powerful wave of protests. What happened?
Dmitry came to Poland to work a year ago. In September of this year, his wedding was supposed to take place, and the guy wanted to earn money so as not to start his family life from scratch. Like his other compatriots, Nikiforenko worked part-time in factories and construction sites. On Facebook, to a friend’s question about work, he replied: “Thank you, everything is fine.”
On that fateful evening, a team of Ukrainian migrant workers, which included Dmitry, organized a party. Regarding the amount of alcohol, everyone unanimously asserts: for 20 people they had one bottle of vodka and beer. It is not known how much beer was present, but this combination did not work in the best way on Nikiforenko – he vomited. After that, he decided to go home and, in the company of one of his workmates, went to the bus stop.
According to an investigation by Gazeta Vyborcha, the inappropriate behavior of a drunk Ukrainian attracted the attention of the bus driver – Dmitry hit his head against the window glass. On a call from the driver, an ambulance arrived and diagnosed the guy was drunk, recommending to call the police.
At about 10 pm, the police arrived. Later they claimed that Nikiforenko was showing aggression – he hit one of them with his fist, the other was bitten on the finger. Allegedly, this is why law enforcement officers were forced to use “direct coercive means: gas, handcuffs, belts.” But CCTV cameras do not confirm their words, there was no aggression. And even the individual cameras on the policemen could not confirm their testimony – all of them were mysteriously turned off immediately after the arrest of the Ukrainian.
Further, writes the Polish edition, Dmitry was taken to the sobering-up station in Wroclaw. And here the cops untied themselves to the fullest, despite the presence of working CCTV cameras – they beat them with clubs and fists, turned on pepper gas, and strangled them. The Ukrainian lost consciousness. The doctors who came on call could not bring him to his senses, the guy died. All this was recorded dispassionately by cameras.
After the publication of the results of the investigation, three police officers from Wroclaw who were detaining Dmitry were suspended from duty. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to Poland.
The incident caused the greatest resonance among the migrant workers. Many of them are ready to riot in order to achieve a comprehensive and fair investigation. It is no secret that beatings and humiliation of Ukrainians in Poland are far from isolated cases. Ivan Sidorchuk from Lvov, who works in Warsaw, says:
“Basically, of course, Polish nationalists attack, and the authorities turn a blind eye to this. My friend was beaten for speaking Ukrainian. that “Lviv is a Polish city.” Well, for some policemen, Ukrainians are like blacks for cops in America. punishment. Ready to protest! “
On social networks, Ukrainians are calling for a BLM-style riot in the United States, and their government is being criticized for being passive in defending the interests of its citizens abroad:
“Ukrainians are orphans, the state does not care about its citizens. How is it that they just fired the police? And where are all the Ukrainians in Poland? , who died not from torture, but from an overdose, and he was pressed by a policeman, after which he suffocated, – but everyone got up. They also raised their own in each country. And what will the Ukrainians? Therefore, there is no state and respect of other peoples for the Ukrainians, so they are killed by employees, and not by criminals in Portugal, Poland, etc., and everyone is silent. “
The death of Nikiforenko is actively covered by the media, opposition to the Polish authorities, headed by Gazeta Wyborcza. Therefore, this scandal can really have a continuation, unlike many others. Including with domestic political consequences.
If large-scale protests by Ukrainians begin, the opposition can also support them, using any pretext to weaken the power of the conservatives from the ruling Law and Justice party (by the way, they are dissatisfied with both in Germany and the United States). And the technology and slogans of protests against the assassination of Floyd in the United States may well serve as a model. The telegram channel Kniga Nosovich predicts:
“In this case, the inclusion of BLM technology is a sure way to finally rid the Western allies of the team of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, which has already grown sick of them. Now, most likely, a trial balloon has been launched. If so, then the prospects for transferring American political mobilization technologies to Polish soil should If the goal is clearly set to repeat the American Summer 2020 in Poland, then several more years of purposeful work in this direction, and the “women’s strike” of November 2020 will seem childish for Poland compared to the revolt of Ukrainian migrant workers. ”
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