When will women be treated seriously by police?
I had been planning to write a column on the cultural life of Istanbul, but several local stories have caught my attention instead, so here we are again – no Rodin exhibition, just “aliens versus police”. Still, a local tribal mentality may prove interesting, especially if it is not harmful to anyone. However, problems start as soon as the latter happens.
The first story was, of course, about three British women who, last Sunday, went for an evening stroll in Paralimni. When on the roadside they saw a man exposing himself and masturbating, they called the police, who arrived immediately. So far so good, but this was exactly when the real fun began. According to the women, when they told the policemen what had happened the guys seemed to find it amusing and “smirked” while later they drove away “without asking the women for their names and addresses”. The women felt they hadn’t been treated seriously and went to the press. In its defence, the police said: “We are investigating the complaint and will do everything we can to make sure this person is caught,” adding that it was the first time they had heard about the flasher and were in the process of assessing what to do to stop him before he struck again.
OK, it is me Agnieszka and I know I am not a policeman but common sense and years of watching Colombo and Kojak tell me that rule number one in any proper investigation is always the same, namely, when a person comes to police with a claim they take his name and personal details first since if they catch a suspect they call the person to confirm they have the right man. In the light of what I have heard about the above case, and some others as well, it seems that in Cyprus it doesn’t always happen like that.
I don’t question the fact that Paralimni policemen honestly intend to stop the flasher from behaving in the same fashion again, but logically, how they are planning to achieve that if a) they don’t know his name; b) they don’t have the names of the only people who can recognise him? The only way forward is to wait for the guy to show it all once again, hopefully to some local politicians (maybe the Ayia Napa mayor would do since she is a woman as well?) who will kick up more fuss than the British ladies.
The second story that caught my interest was about a Romanian woman working as a waitress in a small but well-known (I have the impression that the fact that the place is well-known could be significant) village close to Nicosia, who told police that she had been raped twice by the father-in-law of her boss. According to officials of Apanemi (the Women’s Information and Support Centre), who were assisting the woman during her ordeal, the woman: 1) from the very start was treated both by police and other institutions involved with disbelief; 2) wasn’t properly informed about her rights; 3) was constantly pressed by the authorities to drop charges. As a result, four days after lodging her complaint, the woman withdrew it saying she had made it up in order to get £200 from her boss. Soon after she left the country.
“In the end, the woman fled Cyprus, dropping all charges. The last words she told a friend of hers on the way to the airport were I’m leaving because I’m afraid for my life. I’m not the first to have experienced what I have’… Frankly under the circumstances she is indeed safer in her own country than in Cyprus,” commented Apanemi general co-ordinator Julia Kalimeri.
“Whether she was raped or not is irrelevant,” Kalimeri continued. “It should have been left to the courts to decide. Instead this woman, a migrant worker and therefore a member of a vulnerable social group, was treated by police like a woman ‘asking for it’.”
What worries me in this story is not only that, as Kalimeri said, from the very first the woman was treated as a liar and as if she was “asking for it” but also the police’s over-willingness to act above their station. I would like to know when Cypriot policemen will understand that although Cyprus is a little village times have changed and they can’t act as “the first instance community referees”. Theirs is a different job and they should stick to it.
