ILL-TREATED POLICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 30

ILL-TREATED POLICE

HARSH DISCIPLINE UNDER SOVIET MEN FREQUENTLY ARRESTED In the Soviet Union, as elsewhere, a policeman’s lot is not a happy one, judging from an article printed in "Izvestia,” the official organ of the Soviet Government. It is therein asserted that the police, instead of enjoying comradely Communist discipline, are subjected to abuse by their superiors, and are ruled with a rod c» iron, especially in Moscow. This may help to explain recent complaints in the Soviet Press about rough treatment of citizens by the police. A policeman harbouriing resentment agaiust his bosses is not likely to be gentle with the public. In the “Izvestia” article, as quoted in the Berlin “Vorwarts,” it is alleged that Captain Malanitchef. of the 36th Precinct in Moscow, served 500 orders of arrest upon 107 policemen in a period of seven mouths. When, a newspaper l/tan to protest, and the police trade union demanded the removal of the captain. Chief Lobanof asserted that Malanitchefs “system of education” was quite iu accord with the basic principles of the training of the workers’ and peasants’ militia. Then the complaint bureau of the Moscow workers' and peasants' inspection service took up the case, and filed charges again Malanitchef. To show that such “club discipline” is not limited to the Soviet capital, the Izvestia” tells of a conference of delegates of a policemen’s organisation at which one of them quoted the police chief of an industrial district as saying:—“Your union does not amount to anything: l appoint men regardless of the union, and I fire them the same way.” In the Leningrad district a policeman was discharged because he spoke at a meeting of his fellows about the low pay received. In explanation of his discharge, it was noted that “he had dared to try to make the police believe they were receiving too little pay.”