Laws and Bribery: A tenuous mix!

July 5, 2007

Today dealt with law, law enforcement, lawyers, police, and jails! We heard about law enforcement in Russia from a retired general. We visited the police academy in Vladimir. After lunch we visited the jail in town. It was a rather uncomfortable feeling walking into a jail in Russia. We couldn’t take any bags or cameras with us. We had to leave our passports at the office. Are we staying for a while? We actually got a great tour of the jail’s museum that had some cool (klassna!) stuff! Francis Gary Powers of U2 fame was held here for a year or so in the early 1960s. Stalin’s son was held here on embezzlement charges and returned later after the death of his father! Our end of the day discussion was with two lawyers who have worked in the Russian system, one older, one younger. Both agreed that bribery was the way to get something done. It is a tremendous problem that goes all the way the Russian Supreme Court!

Something I neglected to mention the other night: I boarded the bus, as usual, prepared to deal with the loss of personal space on a new diminsion. I paid the ticket lady my 7 rublay (I got the ending correct!) and held on to the nearest pole. The next thing I knew, the ticket lady, who was like an overzealous discplinarian in the classroom, took the teenager near me out of his seat. He was in his upper teens with earphones on, a bookbag over his shoulder. The skin color he had was comparable to someone from Pakistan, but I guessed that he was what the Russians call Tatar, aremnant from the Mongols of 12th through the 14th centuries. My strong-willed ticket lady then, without listening to any protests from me, ushered me to his seat. I sat for three miles and my young Tatar was forced to stand for the rest of the bus ride. He did not protest or question the act. He merely stood quietly and waited for his stop. If this was America....incredible differences for racism and discrimination! Everyone else accepted it as the usual course of events! Rosa Parks to the Russian rescue!