Cyprus-Forum.com

[zan]

Is this what TCs will have to go through each time they are wronged....

‘Police told me not to go to court because my neighbours could harm us’
By Stefanos Evripidou
ONE MOTHER’S recent ordeal with troublesome neighbours has left her confidence in the police force completely shattered. She vows never to seek help from the police again, claiming they are incapable of providing protection to the average citizen.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, the woman accused police of turning up too late to prevent an attack on her husband by neighbours and of advising the couple not to press charges because they would “only be asking for more trouble”.

It took the intervention of outsiders, unrelated to the police, to provide peace in the neighbourhood again, claimed the mother.

“As a young woman, I don’t feel any trust in the police. A month ago, I would see them and feel secure. I respected them. Not anymore,” she said.

The news comes just days after the head of the Bar Association warned that the public had lost all faith in the police force.

In the interests of keeping the woman’s identity secret, her real name and address have not been used.

Two weekends ago, Maria, 28, returned home with her 30-year-old husband, Costas, and nine-month-old son to find that the neighbours were playing music at a very high volume. They had had similar problems at least twice in the past, and had pleaded with the neighbour’s teenage daughter to keep it down as the baby was ill.

“This time, we came home at around 8pm and the music was very, very loud. We closed our door, but still couldn’t hear ourselves speak,” said Maria.

Costas went next door and asked the neighbour to reduce the volume as they were trying to put the baby to sleep. The mother of the teenage daughter responded by shouting at Costas and accusing him of threatening her child.

“He had never threatened her. But a big shouting fight started, all the neighbours came out. The teenager also came out carrying a kitchen knife, saying, ‘I will kill you’,” she said. Maria called her husband back inside to call the police. As she returned to her flat, she heard the mother allegedly say: “I’m going to call someone to come and sort them out.”

Maria called the police at 8.30pm. At 9pm, she called again. Police told her they were still trying to find the flat. Then, the doorbell rang. The police on the other side of the line said, “Ah, that’s probably us,” and put the phone down.

It wasn’t. Costas opened the door to two men in their 30s who pulled him out and began roughing him up. “All I could hear were shouts, so I left the baby in the room, closed the door, and started shouting from the window ‘Help! Help!” she said.

Maria ran out to see the neighbours watching as two men tried to hit her husband. “Only one neighbour tried to help my husband, and he wasn’t even Cypriot. I heard the mother say, ‘So you see, we are not alone’,” she said.

Maria was also pushed around during the fracas as she tried to get her husband back inside. “I was panicked by this point and called the police again. They were still looking for the flat. At 9.30pm, two guys turned up from the Crime Prevention Unit in civilian clothing.

“I was still in shock and refused to let them in until they showed me their ID three, four times.”

The plain-clothed officers told Maria to take her complaint to the Small Crimes Unit. The nearest police station was unable to send someone to take the report, so the couple took the baby and drove to the district’s central headquarters to file a charge.

Once there, they got a call from the local police station telling them to lodge a complaint at the station, not headquarters. The couple took the baby to Maria’s parents, passed by the hospital to get a medical report, and then drove to the station.

“My husband had cuts and bruises to his neck, face and chest,” she said.

At around 11pm, the couple made it to the local station where they were told to wait until four policemen finished their meal. Ten minutes later, an officer spoke to them.

“He told us that he’d spoken to the guy already who said he didn’t want to mess around with courts, and that he was accusing Costas of entering the flat and threatening the teenager.”

The policeman then called the alleged aggressor and put him on speaker phone. The man told Costas, “If we wanted to hit you, we would have done so. We just wanted to warn you.”

Maria turned to the officer and said: “Excuse me, but is he threatening us in front of you and you’re letting him?”

According to the 28-year-old, the police then tried to convince the couple not to press charges, saying the attackers were not good people, and would cause trouble if they insisted on going to court.

“I asked them what kind of justice system is this where police tell me not to go to court because they could harm us. And they replied, ‘If the system was good, would they all be out (of prison)?’.”

Shaken and concerned about her baby, Maria agreed to leave without pressing charges.

A week later, a black car was parked outside the flat, blocking their parking space. With the memories of last Saturday’s bust up still fresh, Maria “got really scared”.

She called the police who called the owner, but could not get an answer. “They said they couldn’t come round as the car was on private property so I lied that it was parked on the pavement.

“It turned out that the car belonged to someone from over the road, but when the police came and saw the car was not on the pavement, they were really angry with me for bringing them out.”

In the meantime, another neighbour with contacts to the underworld told the couple he had sent “one of their own types” to visit the troublesome neighbours. The couple have had no problems since then.

“The police were complaining a few weeks ago about people going to private security companies instead of the police. What do they expect?

“Police neither offer protection nor support to the average, vulnerable citizen. If I ever have any problems in the future, I will not go to the police, especially after the way they told me off for calling them out,” said Maria.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009

[Dr J]

This post is classic Turkish propaganda. What's this police matter got to do with the Cyprus Problem?

[insan]

Bloody blue-blooded Vips.

[zan]

This post is classic Turkish propaganda. What's this police matter got to do with the Cyprus Problem?

I don't think TUrks invented propaganda did they....

Some of us have the vision to see what could happen in the future...Its called thinking!!! I am an expert at finding possible fire hazards......

[YFred]

This post is classic Turkish propaganda. What's this police matter got to do with the Cyprus Problem?

I don't think TUrks invented propaganda did they....

Some of us have the vision to see what could happen in the future...Its called thinking!!! I am an expert at finding possible fire hazards......

Don't worry Zan, we have the solution, just pay a bit protection money from the Mafia, problem solved.
When it comes to underworld, TC are as good as they are.

[zan]

This post is classic Turkish propaganda. What's this police matter got to do with the Cyprus Problem?

I don't think TUrks invented propaganda did they....

Some of us have the vision to see what could happen in the future...Its called thinking!!! I am an expert at finding possible fire hazards......

Don't worry Zan, we have the solution, just pay a bit protection money from the Mafia, problem solved.
When it comes to underworld, TC are as good as they are.

AH! Fight fire with fire ey!!! Prevention is always better than the cure.

[DT.]

This post is classic Turkish propaganda. What's this police matter got to do with the Cyprus Problem?

I don't think TUrks invented propaganda did they....

Some of us have the vision to see what could happen in the future...Its called thinking!!! I am an expert at finding possible fire hazards......

And yet you see no fire hazards on the event of the insistence of these confederal inspired ideas by talat?

How long do you think a pseudostate built on refugee land can live for without "fire hazards"

[Get Real!]

Human rights!! Pahh!

What's a story about slack police got to do with "Human Rights"?

[zan]

This post is classic Turkish propaganda. What's this police matter got to do with the Cyprus Problem?

I don't think TUrks invented propaganda did they....

Some of us have the vision to see what could happen in the future...Its called thinking!!! I am an expert at finding possible fire hazards......

And yet you see no fire hazards on the event of the insistence of these confederal inspired ideas by talat?

How long do you think a pseudostate built on refugee land can live for without "fire hazards"

DT and GR,

When you have the small island mentality of Cyprus and a corrupt police force the powder keg is on the shortest fuse possible. How many of these "Slack" police are there??? If you cant trust the politicians, who will be making the decisions as to security, then how do you expect me to trust the "Slack" police I will be encountering on a daily basis. (I = TCs) How long before "someone" instigates "Communal fighting"? Some of us have to look to practicality and not just political gain like you boys.

[paliometoxo]

human rights is something turkey knows nothing of and their illigal state in the north