It bears repeating!
And an alternate version.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
So Many Problems With Tukums Police
21 Mars 2012 - 14:35
RIGA, March 21 (LETA) - The police officer who caused a fatal road accident this past weekend in Engure Region (western Latvia) was highly intoxicated at the time, according to the State Police's Internal Affairs Department.
The accident itself took place at around 10:10 p.m. on March 17 on the Jelgava-Tukums road in Engure Region, when the off-duty officer (born 1968) from the Tukums Police Department driving a ''Honda CRV'' swerved into the opposite lane and smashed into a ''VW Golf'' automobile....
It must be beyond frustrating for the serious professional police officers to work in such a troubled division.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Do Latvians Trust Their Police?
Nope
One tenth (11%) of economically active Latvian residents aged from 18 to 55 years are of opinion that within the last year there were carried out necessary reforms to improve general situation in police structures.
Among them, 1% of respondents think that there were definitely carried out necessary reforms to improve general situation in police structures, and 10% – that they were rather carried out, reveals a survey which was done in January by the market, public opinion and media research agency TNS Latvia together with television company LNT.
But slightly more that a half (56%) of respondents are of opposite opinion and think that there were not carried out necessary reforms. Among them, 41% of respondents are confident that there were rather not carried out any reforms, but 15% think that they were definitely not carried out.
Relatively large number – one third (33%) of respondents do not have a certain opinion in this issue.
A year has passed since the robbery in Jekabpils when five men, two of which were Tukums police officers and two officers of Alfa team, tried to rob the gambling hall. Analysing what had happened, several problems in internal structures were found and was carried out reorganizing of the Alfa team.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Cops and Robbers in Latvia
I probably shouldn't post this but I just have to because of the funny factor and the repetition of the first event described which defies all logic, at least from a Western perspective. Hope my lawyer doesn't read this!
I have a friend who has some local "small g" gangsters living in his building. They regularly leave company vehicles (taxi) parked in the security of the private parking of his supposedly elite building ("Private Parking" only because there is a sign stating such, no barrier or security guard to enforce it though) which then sit idle for a week or so and finally disappear. One day the vehicle is there, several days later it is gone. After a liberal application of alcohol we rightly or wrongly deduced this as a variation on a trick used in Winnipeg by an infamous deaths head biker gang on my old street in the west end to move stuff around. There they would show up with a tow truck and haul the vehicle off, presumably full of contraband. The point being that it was just an uninsured/unregistered vehicle belonging to no one in particular and therefore, "what do you mean there is 4 kilo of Bolivian marching powder in that boot officer"!? In this example here in Riga we assume out of shear laziness someone is just supposed to show up with the keys at an auspicious hour after something has been thrown in the boot and drive the thing away since I have overheard that it's easy to buy off the highway police in advance for a clear path. Or so I'm told.
But half the time it doesn't work out that way because the battery for the vehicle is frequently dead! HAH!! So it sits for an extra day or two until some local hoodie crazed on bath salts kicks in a door panel or a side window or some such which is inevitable in these parts. Then there is a torrent of high end vehicles that show up with booster cables but they can never get the sequence right, apparently. The owners manuals come out and dark clothed folks stalk about wincing in the harsh glare of the daytime Baltic gloom & smoking with cell phones glued to the ear, spitting and taking swigs from vodka bottles while even more vehicles show up with different cables and eventually the "transfer" vehicle is started and they all peel out in a wagon train of new Merc's and SUV's drawing no attention from anyone at all.
It happens every two weeks with some regularity. For a year now. Never a cop anywhere.
Hint: Positive to positive, negative to negative or to the frame of the dead vehicle if you're feeling technical.
Hilarious!
Such humorous interludes serve as a reminder as to who the real gangs are here in Latvia and that might be the police maybe? Remember my beef with the Tukums Regional Police described in previous posts? Think I'm exaggerating when I say that there are certain rotten apples who shouldn't be cops?
Read this: Latvian Police Casino Robbery Attempt
January 28, 2011
Tuesday of this week saw an unusual casino robbery in Latvia’s city of Jekabpils. According to reports, Five armed robbers, four of which were active police officers in uniform, stormed the “Fenikss” casino in the early hours of Tuesday morning in what ended up being a botched heist attempt. In the ensuing car chase and shoot-out a pursuing police officer was killed and numerous people were injured.
After arrests were made it was established that two of the robbers were members of the Tukums Regional Police force and another two were part of the “Alfa” elite police response squad. The Tukums police officers had previously been discharged for accepting bribes but had been reinstated after pressure from the police union.
Latvia’s Interior Minister Murniece called for immediate police department checks across the board stating that many people could lose their jobs. The Minister also expressed his disgust at what he labelled “Serious problems with discipline” within the Alfa elite police force and suspended the Alfa Chief of Police Andris Zaušs, as well as the chief of police in Riga, Ints Kuzis from service. Murniece has since come under pressure from the unions and the Council of the Home Office has been called in to deal with the situation.
Latvian Prime Minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, has given assurance that the interior minister’s job is not on the line over the incident and has pledged his support and agreement in her calls for police reform. He reportedly stated that there had been numerous instances where the police union had forced unfit officers to be reinstated regardless of the circumstances and that this practice should come to an end.
Think that's bad? Many police when they leave the force end up in private security which is a very lucrative business here in Latvia since most small towns and municipalities had their policing sub-contracted out to these private security firms by the government when the economy went into the toilet and the ruling 1% were forced to bow and scrape to Brussels and the IMF in order to meet the austerity measures which are a condition to continuing the EU loans which keep their private business's operating. There being no line at all between politics and business in this country which is due to join the European Union in 2014.
I have personal experience with one of these security firms, sounds something like Koblenz but I could be wrong as I'm a stupid foreigner and all, who once cost me LVL 200 and refused to pony up the money after a police investigation which surprise surprise, turned up no evidence of wrongdoing. Then there is a certain scam, again in Tukums but no doubt replicated elsewhere whereby in order to get a work permit, for electrical work for instance, you need to use one company and one company only which just happens to be owned by the local manager of the state electrical supplier. Ah, good times in Latvia. So many stories to tell. So much intrigue!
It's another week before my lawyer has the meeting with Tukums Regional Police regarding the false assault charges against me. I wonder how it will go?
I have a friend who has some local "small g" gangsters living in his building. They regularly leave company vehicles (taxi) parked in the security of the private parking of his supposedly elite building ("Private Parking" only because there is a sign stating such, no barrier or security guard to enforce it though) which then sit idle for a week or so and finally disappear. One day the vehicle is there, several days later it is gone. After a liberal application of alcohol we rightly or wrongly deduced this as a variation on a trick used in Winnipeg by an infamous deaths head biker gang on my old street in the west end to move stuff around. There they would show up with a tow truck and haul the vehicle off, presumably full of contraband. The point being that it was just an uninsured/unregistered vehicle belonging to no one in particular and therefore, "what do you mean there is 4 kilo of Bolivian marching powder in that boot officer"!? In this example here in Riga we assume out of shear laziness someone is just supposed to show up with the keys at an auspicious hour after something has been thrown in the boot and drive the thing away since I have overheard that it's easy to buy off the highway police in advance for a clear path. Or so I'm told.
But half the time it doesn't work out that way because the battery for the vehicle is frequently dead! HAH!! So it sits for an extra day or two until some local hoodie crazed on bath salts kicks in a door panel or a side window or some such which is inevitable in these parts. Then there is a torrent of high end vehicles that show up with booster cables but they can never get the sequence right, apparently. The owners manuals come out and dark clothed folks stalk about wincing in the harsh glare of the daytime Baltic gloom & smoking with cell phones glued to the ear, spitting and taking swigs from vodka bottles while even more vehicles show up with different cables and eventually the "transfer" vehicle is started and they all peel out in a wagon train of new Merc's and SUV's drawing no attention from anyone at all.
It happens every two weeks with some regularity. For a year now. Never a cop anywhere.
Hint: Positive to positive, negative to negative or to the frame of the dead vehicle if you're feeling technical.
Hilarious!
Such humorous interludes serve as a reminder as to who the real gangs are here in Latvia and that might be the police maybe? Remember my beef with the Tukums Regional Police described in previous posts? Think I'm exaggerating when I say that there are certain rotten apples who shouldn't be cops?
Read this: Latvian Police Casino Robbery Attempt
January 28, 2011
Tuesday of this week saw an unusual casino robbery in Latvia’s city of Jekabpils. According to reports, Five armed robbers, four of which were active police officers in uniform, stormed the “Fenikss” casino in the early hours of Tuesday morning in what ended up being a botched heist attempt. In the ensuing car chase and shoot-out a pursuing police officer was killed and numerous people were injured.
After arrests were made it was established that two of the robbers were members of the Tukums Regional Police force and another two were part of the “Alfa” elite police response squad. The Tukums police officers had previously been discharged for accepting bribes but had been reinstated after pressure from the police union.
Latvia’s Interior Minister Murniece called for immediate police department checks across the board stating that many people could lose their jobs. The Minister also expressed his disgust at what he labelled “Serious problems with discipline” within the Alfa elite police force and suspended the Alfa Chief of Police Andris Zaušs, as well as the chief of police in Riga, Ints Kuzis from service. Murniece has since come under pressure from the unions and the Council of the Home Office has been called in to deal with the situation.
Latvian Prime Minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, has given assurance that the interior minister’s job is not on the line over the incident and has pledged his support and agreement in her calls for police reform. He reportedly stated that there had been numerous instances where the police union had forced unfit officers to be reinstated regardless of the circumstances and that this practice should come to an end.
Think that's bad? Many police when they leave the force end up in private security which is a very lucrative business here in Latvia since most small towns and municipalities had their policing sub-contracted out to these private security firms by the government when the economy went into the toilet and the ruling 1% were forced to bow and scrape to Brussels and the IMF in order to meet the austerity measures which are a condition to continuing the EU loans which keep their private business's operating. There being no line at all between politics and business in this country which is due to join the European Union in 2014.
I have personal experience with one of these security firms, sounds something like Koblenz but I could be wrong as I'm a stupid foreigner and all, who once cost me LVL 200 and refused to pony up the money after a police investigation which surprise surprise, turned up no evidence of wrongdoing. Then there is a certain scam, again in Tukums but no doubt replicated elsewhere whereby in order to get a work permit, for electrical work for instance, you need to use one company and one company only which just happens to be owned by the local manager of the state electrical supplier. Ah, good times in Latvia. So many stories to tell. So much intrigue!
It's another week before my lawyer has the meeting with Tukums Regional Police regarding the false assault charges against me. I wonder how it will go?
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Russian Should Be An Official Language In Latvia
If I was wavering on this issue before I am not anymore. Mrs. T and I have had to deal with official documents in the Latvian language only for twenty years now and generally speaking my wife and I were able to muddle through as the general meaning was something that Mrs. T could figure out on her own as languages are her thing (seriously, she speaks 5) and after years of effort and private lessons she now speaks Latvian. Pretty well by most peoples feedback but when it comes to contracts or official documents we still have to get everything translated at an agency to be sure as the stress tends to cause her to miss important things.
And since we are dealing with the police of late an absolute rock solid understanding of Latvian is of prime importance. There is never enough time to respond to a letter in the mail box in the time allowed if you have to take it to a translation service and who has the money for that nowadays anyway?
If you have read the previous post you will know that we are embroiled in a criminal investigation of myself with the Tukums police but that is just the tip of the iceberg regarding our life here. You get a letter in the mail on a Monday telling you that you need to be at the police headquarters for an interview by next Monday but that is all you can figure out and there is no time to get the letter translated. So you show up without your lawyer and discover that it is much more serious than the seemingly innocuous letter suggested. So you beg for time and get a lawyer and find out what is really going on and show up again when they have a translator available.
When we set up our company all docs were in Lat/Russ/Eng and the same when you go to the bank plus everyone seems to speak English or Russian in normal society as that is the language of business (in Riga at least, home to 30% or more of the Latvian population). But how can the police service the 30%± of the population that does not speak adequate Latvian and all transactions are done in Latvian only? You are really at a disadvantage!
I used to think of this issue in political terms but now I understand why there are Russian enclaves here and why they will always be here. There is no other way to survive!
Right away in any type of dispute you are at a disadvantage as the whole system is bent towards the latvian speaking citizen. Not just Latvian as a second language but as a mother tongue, it is a very unforgiving situation.
Latvians should really consider taking such a large part of their population more seriously or there will never be peace and harmony here. You really need to reach out and make peace with a rather significant portion of your population.
And since we are dealing with the police of late an absolute rock solid understanding of Latvian is of prime importance. There is never enough time to respond to a letter in the mail box in the time allowed if you have to take it to a translation service and who has the money for that nowadays anyway?
If you have read the previous post you will know that we are embroiled in a criminal investigation of myself with the Tukums police but that is just the tip of the iceberg regarding our life here. You get a letter in the mail on a Monday telling you that you need to be at the police headquarters for an interview by next Monday but that is all you can figure out and there is no time to get the letter translated. So you show up without your lawyer and discover that it is much more serious than the seemingly innocuous letter suggested. So you beg for time and get a lawyer and find out what is really going on and show up again when they have a translator available.
When we set up our company all docs were in Lat/Russ/Eng and the same when you go to the bank plus everyone seems to speak English or Russian in normal society as that is the language of business (in Riga at least, home to 30% or more of the Latvian population). But how can the police service the 30%± of the population that does not speak adequate Latvian and all transactions are done in Latvian only? You are really at a disadvantage!
I used to think of this issue in political terms but now I understand why there are Russian enclaves here and why they will always be here. There is no other way to survive!
Right away in any type of dispute you are at a disadvantage as the whole system is bent towards the latvian speaking citizen. Not just Latvian as a second language but as a mother tongue, it is a very unforgiving situation.
Latvians should really consider taking such a large part of their population more seriously or there will never be peace and harmony here. You really need to reach out and make peace with a rather significant portion of your population.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Property Rights In Latvia And The Rule Of Law
So, I have been warning in previous posts that I had a story to tell as regards this subject and now our situation has progressed to the point where I feel compelled to begin the narrative. I fear this is just the beginning of many posts in our longstanding personal nightmare but regardless how it turns out I hope it stands as a warning to others about an unresolved situation that is still ongoing throughout the country as we speak and the result of not being fierce in ones response. All my heart and best wishes go out to all of you in similar circumstances who are not only not receiving help from officials but are in fact being victimized further by the very people who are supposed to be installing a civil society in Latvia, at the EU's expense. It's not all playgrounds for tiny tots and waste & water infrastructure you know! Drop me a line or point me to a group that will help us out with this matter.
BACKGROUND:
My wife is a repatriate. Her mother and grandmother were born in a house in Tukums, Latvia but my wife was born in Moscow where her mother was forced to flee after she had her ancestral Tukums land and houses de-privatized by the government of the day. When the Soviet Union fell my wife had her Tukums land and houses made available for her and her relatives to reclaim but through a loophole in the law and the inability of my wife or her relatives to frequently travel back & forth from Moscow to Tukums to prevent the loss of some of this land, my wife and her relatives had a 851m2 centre portion (the house my wife's mother was born in!) taken over by a Latvian couple rendering the remaining larger property into the shape of a donut. A one hectare piece of land with fierce opportunists laying claim to 851m2 in the very centre. My wife and her relatives were compensated with 851m2 of low lying adjacent swamp land of poor quality.
One third of our property was unfenced wild swampland (especially the "compensated" land) along with an area of old orchard that the fierce opportunists in the centre 851m2 had attempted to lay claim, at first by offering to rent it from us and when rebuffed by simply using it without permission and against our directives to not trespass.
So at great expense we fenced all this land, cleared it, posted it as Private and continued to maintain it sometimes hiring local workers who were given access to our equipment but mostly by myself when I was in town. In spite of the greater security provided to the citizens residing in the centre of our property by this newly secured land at no cost to them the personal attacks continued not only on ourselves but on some of our elderly and timid renters with no relief being afforded by the Tukums Municipal Police or State Police who were actually complicit in what can only be described as state approved harassment through laziness.
The situation eventually degenerated to the point where on September 3rd of this year I was forced to defend myself physically against the male occupant of the 851m2 plot who was flagrantly trespassing and interfering with a survey crew who we had been forced to hire to settle a longstanding and never-ending issue of property borders. They were entitled to 851m2 and any movement of one border would result in a corresponding movement of another border negating the entire process in order to maintain the original 851m2. Pure harassment.
He attacked me when we attempted to verbally remove him from our land on which he was trespassing and interfering with our survey crew and the police were called. Ambulances were called because there was blood. And so....
I was advised by the police to go the hospital to get checked out and then to the police station to make a statement and to do it that very day. He apparently went to the hospital to get his head sewed up but declined to make a statement at the police station, or so we were told on that day. We were also told that if I wanted to make a criminal claim against this guy, which I surely wanted to do then we would both my wife and I have to stay in the country for six months. Since we were booked to fly to Italy in two days I waved my right to initiate criminal proceeding and off we went on our trip. In two weeks when we came back there was a letter from the Tukums Region State Police stating that criminal charges had been dropped since we had not pursued any action within the 10 days allowed which was pretty much what I expected. But on November 19 we received letters commanding us to return to the Tukums State Police office on November 26 as the instigator of this assault had decided to press his own criminal charges, or rather he had pressed criminal charges two days after the original assault and they were now being acted upon by the authorities, I never did get a straight answer on this. After being told that they wanted statements from both my wife and I separately we declined and told them that my lawyer would be in touch since I was a foreigner I was not comfortable with the action taking place. They were fine with that.
The inspector we have been dealing with has been a professional but someone above her is manipulating the situation where instead of me filing charges against a trespasser who assaulted me in front of witnesses I am now myself the subject of a criminal investigation. As a non-citizen I do not know what my rights are and I do not trust the Tukums Police.
update: I cleaned up the above text and edited it to resemble more closely what I told the lawyer and added the comment below to bring it all up to speed.
So today we acquired a lawyer and she seems to fit the bill. Tukums being a small town of 18,000 souls is basically one big group of relatives and she claims to know how to deal with such sleepy societies. She goes to the town tomorrow and I go to the hospital to get my records. This will move very fast so as to prevent it from moving to the prosecutors office.
BACKGROUND:
My wife is a repatriate. Her mother and grandmother were born in a house in Tukums, Latvia but my wife was born in Moscow where her mother was forced to flee after she had her ancestral Tukums land and houses de-privatized by the government of the day. When the Soviet Union fell my wife had her Tukums land and houses made available for her and her relatives to reclaim but through a loophole in the law and the inability of my wife or her relatives to frequently travel back & forth from Moscow to Tukums to prevent the loss of some of this land, my wife and her relatives had a 851m2 centre portion (the house my wife's mother was born in!) taken over by a Latvian couple rendering the remaining larger property into the shape of a donut. A one hectare piece of land with fierce opportunists laying claim to 851m2 in the very centre. My wife and her relatives were compensated with 851m2 of low lying adjacent swamp land of poor quality.
One third of our property was unfenced wild swampland (especially the "compensated" land) along with an area of old orchard that the fierce opportunists in the centre 851m2 had attempted to lay claim, at first by offering to rent it from us and when rebuffed by simply using it without permission and against our directives to not trespass.
So at great expense we fenced all this land, cleared it, posted it as Private and continued to maintain it sometimes hiring local workers who were given access to our equipment but mostly by myself when I was in town. In spite of the greater security provided to the citizens residing in the centre of our property by this newly secured land at no cost to them the personal attacks continued not only on ourselves but on some of our elderly and timid renters with no relief being afforded by the Tukums Municipal Police or State Police who were actually complicit in what can only be described as state approved harassment through laziness.
The situation eventually degenerated to the point where on September 3rd of this year I was forced to defend myself physically against the male occupant of the 851m2 plot who was flagrantly trespassing and interfering with a survey crew who we had been forced to hire to settle a longstanding and never-ending issue of property borders. They were entitled to 851m2 and any movement of one border would result in a corresponding movement of another border negating the entire process in order to maintain the original 851m2. Pure harassment.
He attacked me when we attempted to verbally remove him from our land on which he was trespassing and interfering with our survey crew and the police were called. Ambulances were called because there was blood. And so....
I was advised by the police to go the hospital to get checked out and then to the police station to make a statement and to do it that very day. He apparently went to the hospital to get his head sewed up but declined to make a statement at the police station, or so we were told on that day. We were also told that if I wanted to make a criminal claim against this guy, which I surely wanted to do then we would both my wife and I have to stay in the country for six months. Since we were booked to fly to Italy in two days I waved my right to initiate criminal proceeding and off we went on our trip. In two weeks when we came back there was a letter from the Tukums Region State Police stating that criminal charges had been dropped since we had not pursued any action within the 10 days allowed which was pretty much what I expected. But on November 19 we received letters commanding us to return to the Tukums State Police office on November 26 as the instigator of this assault had decided to press his own criminal charges, or rather he had pressed criminal charges two days after the original assault and they were now being acted upon by the authorities, I never did get a straight answer on this. After being told that they wanted statements from both my wife and I separately we declined and told them that my lawyer would be in touch since I was a foreigner I was not comfortable with the action taking place. They were fine with that.
The inspector we have been dealing with has been a professional but someone above her is manipulating the situation where instead of me filing charges against a trespasser who assaulted me in front of witnesses I am now myself the subject of a criminal investigation. As a non-citizen I do not know what my rights are and I do not trust the Tukums Police.
update: I cleaned up the above text and edited it to resemble more closely what I told the lawyer and added the comment below to bring it all up to speed.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
What Makes Russians Happy?
Well, I found this some time ago that may answer the question.
But I haven't found anything about what makes Latvians happy! I wonder if it would be much different?
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