Week 7: With Breakdown of Order in Russia’s Dagestan Region, Fear Stalks Police

Summary: The following article, "With Breakdown of Order in Russia’s Dagestan Region, Fear Stalks Police" was written by Ellen Barry and was published on March 20th 2010 in the New York Times. This article is about the recent slayings of police officers in Dagestan, a region in Northern Caucasus. Last year, fifty-eight police officers were,according to the republic’s Interior Ministry, killed while running errands or standing at their posts.Last month alone, according to press reports, 13 officers were killed in bombings and gangland-style shootings.Who were responsible for these killings? The perpetrators were a combination of Islamist militants, alienated young people, ordinary criminals and foot soldiers in private armies. After these people kill the officers they float back into the city, and aren't found by authorities. They are known to Russian authorities as "Persons Unknown."The Police in Dagestan responded to these killings by removing the blue stripe off of police vehicles, requiring officers NOT to wear their uniform, and having an assault rifleman backing up every police officer on duty. The man in the photo above,Mukhtar Mukhtarov, is a retired police officer of 25 years. His son, Gassan, is now a lieutenant. He has received pressure from his family and friends to quit, although refuses too. Gassan has said, “If you had a son, would you let him work as a policeman?” he asked. “I wouldn’t let my own son do it.” These recent set of murders are thought to be the result of a long rocky relationship between Northern Caucasus police officers and the civilians who reside there. Civilians have long thought Police Officers to be brutal and corrupt and prefer to settle disputes between them in an unjust manner. These accusations made by civilians aren't entirely false...there are records of police officers tying suspects down to a chair and beating them whilst interrogating them. This has left behind a residue of rage among the public. Reports of abductions and deaths of civilians are common. They are abducted by a group of masked men who whisk civilians away. As the article reads, "it is hard to say who works for the federal government and who for the police."As Gassan says, “It’s a war,” Gassan said. “It won’t ever end in Dagestan.”

Correlation: This article correlates to what we have been learning in Comparative Government in regards to legitimacy and corruption. Obviously, the Russian relationship between the Police force and the civilians is severely off kilter. There is a sort of 'war' going on between them which is leading to abductions and killings coming from both sides. The police are supposed to be there to protect the civilians. If one can't even trust their own police force/is scared of their own police force, how are they going to feel safe? They won't. This is the result of corruption within Russian Authorities. Secondly, this article correlates with legitimacy. The police are trying to maintain legitimacy by fighting back to the civilians instead of letting them get by free whilst killing police officers. The officers are abducting the civilians in order to try to show who is boss and maintain their legitimacy. Although, the officers don't know who killed who, therefore they are killing random civilians which is a source of the corruption in this system.

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