The information bubble that surrounds us creates a comfortable idea of security and control. Yet, we live in a contradictory world, where open brutality emerges amid everyday life. The police commit dozens of atrocities, rapes and murders every year. We are shocked when we hear this information on the news, but it quickly gets lost in the endless flow of information. We ignore it. We find it easier to avoid awkward questions and problems, preferring to live our lives and hope that we'll get lucky.

According to the Kharkiv Institute for Social Research, in 2017, the number of reports of torture by the police alone exceeded 2,300 — even if not all victims risk making official statements about it. Unfortunately, there is no statistical information about the recent years, but high-profile cases, like the abuse in Kaharlyk or the death of 5-year-old Kyrylo in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi are part of the larger picture (a timeline of police brutality is available on the Ukrainska Pravda website).

Unfortunately, the problem of police torture is not limited to Ukraine. Mass clashes and protests that shook the United States in the summer of 2020 were provoked by the death of George Floyd, an African American man choked to death by the police. The Belarusian protest of August-September, 2020, saw mass beatings, persecution and torture of the protesters by the police. The impunity of law enforcement structures, which are meant to protect citizens, thus destroys the confidence in police officers and equalizes them to criminals. Why do we feel unsafe whenever we see a police officer outside?

However, the share of cases where criminal investigations into the abusers are actually initiated is under 5% — police officers of higher ranks and pro-government agencies "cover up" perpetrators within the police. If somebody is dismissed, they are quickly reinstated through courts. The 2015-2016 qualification assessment was "fake" too — 93% of "old" police officers retained their jobs. Half of the 7% who were actually dismissed were later reinstated in court. Those are mostly high-ranking officers. The whole "new police" idea thus becomes invalidated.