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Russian Whistleblower Cop On YouTube
AHuxley notes a series of YouTube videos that have gone viral in Russia, in which senior police officer Alexei Dymovsky — in full uniform — details police corruption and calls on Vladimir Putin to act. "[Dymovsky says:] 'Maybe you don't know about us, about simple cops, who live and work and love their work. I'm ready to tell you everything. I'm not scared of my own death. I will show you the life of cops in Russia, how it is lived, with all the corruption and all the rest – with ignorance, rudeness, recklessness, with honest officers killed because they have stupid bosses.' His series of three 2-to-7-minute long videos released over the past week have together garnered 1 million hits on YouTube, and have spread across Russia. Dymovsky was promptly fired after the clips spread across the Internet, and a local prosecutor has opened an investigation into libel. An interior ministry source accused him of working for foreign agents and hinted that the format of Dymovsky's complaint was a problem, using a medium that remains largely free of government control." It's best to visit the Global Post link with NoScript and Flashblock enabled. Here's a Google cache link in case it's needed.
Isn't Noscript sufficient?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
In Soviet Russia, YouTube whistles YOU!
I doubt much will come of this. Putin is a putz.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Lately slashdot is getting really slow. I saw this even on tv a few days ago.
...I only hope that his courage is somehow rewarded.
Whether he accomplishes anything out of this or not, the guy is still a hero in my book. Someone do a wikipedia article on him quick :)
and hinted that the format of Dymovsky's complaint was a problem, using a medium that remains largely free of government control.
This from the "people who completely miss the point" department. If government control was working so well, this officer would have had no reason not to stay within the (ahem!) "proper" channels.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
So, I only watched the first half of the first video, but this sounded like a lot of bitching about nothing.
My schedule was rough and my wives left me. The pay sucks. My bosses are idiots. I had to work on weekends and nights and go no extra pay for it... I was in the Marine Corps, and it sounds like the same endless bitching that went on there too. It kind of goes with the territory with the types of jobs I would expect... Honestly if you don't like it quit (or don't re enlist in the case of the ones in the military); nobody said the job was full of awesome and would make you rich...
> I'm not scared of my own death.
How appropriate. Bye bye then.
This blown way out of proportion by the media. Most cops in russia are corrupt and everyone in russia knows that. Where is the news here?
Problem -> reaction -> solution?..
Or just a media clusterf*k?
My guess, they still don't know how to apply this.
What's interesting is that the story originated from a closed digg-like community "Leprosorium". Then the russian MSM picked it up like its a fcking golden egg. Now slashdot? wtf?
He leaves Russia asap!
Corruption may indeed be so common as to be considered the norm. It should never be viewed with complacency. Here is a man with morals and ethics who is speaking out. I for one would hope that his actions will bring about some kind of change for the better. The only given here is that it will be a long and hard fought battle on all fronts.
Some people are only alive because it's against the law for me to hunt them down and kill them.
...may he rest in peace
Just want to know what would happen if a NY cop were to do the exact same thing, if he would have a job the following day?
Seems like good intention that was doomed from the start. No police force would allow this officer to continue his job. Its unfortunate but true.
As for corruption, my family works work in the restaurant business and my uncle works in construction in the NYC area, they can tell you all you need to know about buying city inspectors and cops on the take.
And that's not even going into politics... oy!
Isn't it a running joke about how bad the Russian police force is? Seems like any interior or exterior complaint through the expected media doesn't do a damn thing.
Oh yeah, preface that with "In Soviet Russia."
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
Could somebody be so kind as to post links to downloadable versions of the videos?
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
We learned from you, you learned from us. It is not a good thing.
The US economy is strong because there are a lot of good honest people in America. If the corruption in the US becomes rampant, like in the FSU, it will be a bad thing for every one.
Corruption didn't disappear with the advent of Putin. He only makes big, theatrical gestures, but has no interest in fighting corruption, because it is this corrupt system that is his lifeline. I've learned years ago, that journalists are the *only* true force opposed to corruption. I come from an ex-communist country where corruption is rampant (and I hate it there, because I can't stand that corruption, so I'll never go back), but the few bright lights of hope are the journalists who uncover schemes and collusions - and then bear the consequences.
Well, in Russia these lights are all but quenched. Putin's regime has dealt with journalists so brutally, the few that aren't dead just fell into line.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
No corruption is allready rife in the US - we just promote the most corrupt to ceo's and those with lesser talent for corruption to Congress etc.
i had to cry watching this.
I dunno man, living on an entirely different continent, I am very concerned over my IP being logged by viewing a few damn YouTube videos from Russia. I better install Tor as well and go down to Starbucks with a brand new netbook, just in case.
No Script and Flashblock don't help if you're running flash anyway.
It's potentially more than the video, watching that using flash puts for all practical purposes a backdoor on the computers of an interesting group, especially those within Russia. Idiots that use flash and javascript are almost as bad as the ones that set up sites to depend on them for operation. Again, this is a case where using open standards would not just help get the message out but help protect the identities, interests, and machine integrity of those receiving the message.
Basically there is a severe show-stopper every few weeks. Here's a 1 minute search, taking longer to post here than to find in Google:
2009: Flash Origin Policy Issues
2009 also: New attacks exploit vuln in (fully-patched) Adobe Flash: Browse and get owned
2008: Adobe Flash exploit raises concern
2007: Serious Flash vulns menace at least 10,000 websites
There's plenty more where that came from. Again, it was 1 minute of searching.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Thankfully our corruption is limited. Even though there are corrupt ties between congressmen and special interests, your basic local cop is usually not corrupt. This is the difference.
cops blow you?
This cop dude has a website: http://dymovskiy.ru/
Please don't /. it (it's in Russia anyways), use Google translation to english instead.
It's hard to sympathize with someone when their job description includes conducting laws made by an oppressive government regime. Maybe they need someone to help with real crimes, but I personally have difficulty sympathizing with anyone that takes a job that involves carrying out the unjust laws of a corrupt regime.
The Russian president just gave his state of the nation address, and suprised some with his calls to prosecute and end corruption, modernize and privatize industry, and strengthen democracy. This police officer may be speaking out, at least partly, because of what the president had to say.
The US economy is strong because there are a lot of good honest people in America.
The US economy is strong because of economic concessions from the wake of WWII. It's failing because we don't make anything.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Who conceded what?
We make technology, and we're good at it
We also make stocks and other intangible financial instruments... and sadly we're good at that too
The US economy is strong because there are a lot of good honest people in America. If the corruption in the US becomes rampant, like in the FSU, it will be a bad thing for every one.
So is it the economy, or everything?
I'd suggest a certain level of corruption is A Good Thing.
Years ago when I lived in Chicago, it was customary to offer a small donation when pulled over by the police for speeding. Existing tickets could be be handled similarly (but more discretely) in traffic court; it wasn't uncommon for the average person to have the glove compartment, or in my case, the trunk, filled with old and unpaid parking tickets. The police officers walking the sidewalks ate donuts, openly smoked cigars, and talked to everyone, including the friendly black girls hanging out on street corners. Life was fine.
When I arrived in LA, I discovered a very different world. The police department continues in the Parker tradition, which could be described as both professional and militaristic. Traffic violations are treated with the same seriousness as major felonies, and a routine stop for a minor infraction can involve additional patrol cars showing up, all with flashing lights. A "Get out and spread your arms and legs" isn't uncommon. And that's just for white guys with late model cars.
I suspect the problem with LA is that the police don't have friendly black girls to talk to. It wouldn't be possible, anyway. The police are required to shut down major thoroughfares and get everyone people off the sidewalks and roads when the bars close.
Then, there's the example of New York a few years ago when the mafia was forced out of the garbage business. Respectable corporations with proven track records for efficient waste disposal moved in, prices shot up, and services went down. Everyone complained (including major corporations), but corruption was gone.
Widespread corruption can be a problem, and it certainly is in certain countries or localities, but a certain level of it, to "grease the wheels" so to speak, makes life livable.
I think the point that people miss is that every country has some degree of corruption, but it is what levels it is active at and how they deal with that corruption that is important.
In the US, what we might term "corruption" in the sense of favoritism (or deviations from a US sense of "meritocracy") tend to occur at the very local level (small town nepotism, "networking", etc), or at the more rarefied levels of government and business (quod pro quos from both of the political parties, lobbying, the kind of no-bid blackwater/Halliburton sort of think, insider trading, etc). This isn't to say that corruption at the top is not a problem (in fact, it is much more influential in the long run than corruption at the bottom), but simply in the US it tends to be limited to the upper reaches of government and finance.
In many other countries, the striking contrast to this is corruption in the middle, in addition to the top and bottom. Getting a job is basically impossible in some countries without appropriate connections, bribery is rampant and expected for basic "government provided" services, public works are often mired in those same problems of bribery (not scratching enough backs, etc). Even worse is when the guardians of civil society, the police, are dangerous to approach and more often on the side of criminals, as in Russia.
The other major dividing line is the public reaction to exposure of corruption. In societies where corruption is most widespread, "revelations" are generally shrugged off (and have been probably more widely known prior to their revelation), whereas in less corrupt economies, there is at least some backlash against corruption, rather than simple apathy or active suppression. Being a whistleblower in the US can be bad for your job. Being a whistleblower in other countries (as shown by many of the posts pointing out other instances where political opponents have been assassinated, etc) can result in indefinite incarceration and torture, perhaps with an "accidental" death in prison.
The advent of youtube, on the other hand, gives a voice to those who would be otherwise suppressed. Take the story of Imad Kabir, an Egyptian taxi driver. He was arrested (without charges) for participating in a fight. He was subsequently sodomized with a broomstick, which was video taped by the perpetrators. They were so sure of their immunity that they showed it to his co-workers, perhaps as a warning. When Kabir initially complained, he was actually prosecuted and jailed for assaulting an officer (dating back to his original assault arrest), but as the youtube video spread on various blogs, the officers were finally arrested. Without the internet, the officers who tortured Kabir probably would still be doing that kind of shit. Even the people who did post it to their blogs were threatened by the authorities.
...of course I'm not copying and pasting properly.
Breakfast served all day!
"An interior ministry source accused him of working for foreign agents"
Oh, yes. Because it's so unbelievable that police could become corrupt in any country, or that there might be police willing to speak out about it. Especially in Russia. It's so much more plausible that an agent of some foreign country put them up to it. That must be it. Corruption? What corruption. There's no corruption in Russia.
Instead of being in denial, or blaming everyone else for it, how about dealing with the problem?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8360569.stm
In soviet russia, the kebab eats you. etc etc.
Deleted
Wow. Talk about swallowing the propaganda.
Go take a look at reality sometime. Visit your local council. Take a look at the nepotism, the corruption, the incompetence, the arse covering, the back scratching.
This is what government *is*, not what it's supposed to be or might theoretically be. National government is exactly the same, only *MUCH* bigger. How much exactly has the government enslaved future generations for? Who did they give it to?
The difference in Russia is there is less hypocrisy and more shooting. So I doubt they missed the point at all. They were just being clear what the point is.
Deleted
A most excellent firefox extension
http://www.downloadhelper.net/
Wow man, back in nineteen-diggity-two? They'd put your ass in cuffs for suspicion of even THINKING about bribing a cop around here now.
Now you're really only allowed to bribe people in Chicagoland if you're a contractor friendly to a politician or a politician yourself.
Wow, please feel free to share your drugs with the rest of us...
I strongly suggest that this cop move to Switzerland. Or somewhere else he won't be found/hunted down/extradited.
You don't have to look too far:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Serpico
There's also a film named Serpico made in 1973 with Al Pacino playing his part.
If he should lose the legal fight against the local and national governments of Russia, I will contribute money to any effort helping him to flee Russia.
Most of us Slashdotters are arm-chair political analysts opining about the world. We should get out of our chairs and -- this time -- make a difference in that world. Let us stop talking. Let us start doing. We should help this guy.
Are you nuts, the US has more corruption then you would believe. The whole system we live in today is corrupt. If you knew a bit out the history of this country and what it was originally made up to be you would be shocked.
Not so surprisingly, a popular English language forum at pravda.ru has no discussion whatsoever about Alexei Dymovsky.
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Just want to know what would happen if a NY cop were to do the exact same thing, if he would have a job the following day?
Bullshit. You claim to live in NY, yet you know nothing of unions? Especially the police unions. If they can keep people on even though they took bribes, they could surely do it for complaining about them.
Every one of your examples of where corruption is advantages is simply because it bypasses an inefficient political or policy system. In other words, official policy says make it complex or redundant, so we make corruption to bypass the silly policy. So people who enjoy corruption do not have to worry about bad policy. Further, the voters can ignore the fact that they are electing bad policy because corruption bypasses it anyway. This sufficiently describes Chicago as well as Detroit.
Ha! You have just described India as well!
I totally agree, there is corruption everywhere, but what matters is how much is an average citizen affected by it and what is his reaction. In the developed world, the corruption does not really touch as much as it does an average citizen in India (and presumably in Russia as well). No one wants to approach the police; the police are considered thugs with a license. Politicians are blatantly corrupt, as are bureaucrats. The police is more for the safety and help of the bureaucracy and the politicians than for the masses. Sad, but true!
your basic local cop is usually not corrupt.
True ... but among those basic uncorrupted officials are some serious assholes. But that's another story.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I say forget them. I just quit my job of 5 1/2 years because I was tired of losing hair and eyesight due to the stress, without compensation that would have helped the stress. (Move to a bigger home that I need and get a second car going, etc.) I was worth 30% more according to my bosses boss, and with that I could have moved and fixed the car in about a month.
In my case, the employees (I was in middle management, also considered the most valuable job in the facility...) below me couldn't have done much to change things. But I still say that isn't totally true.
In this Russian cop's case, over a million people have watched this video, and they CAN do something about it. They just have to show that they are willing to die (as he has demonstrated) for the sake of future generations. I decided to quit my job, for the sake of future and current employees. Sure it is coming on our peak season, and me not being there will hurt, but if they can't compensate me then they will have to learn their lesson.
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
I think you delude yourself to believe corruption is ok. It just isn't. For example, the people are now paying a fairer price for waste management. Why were they able to get it so cheaply before? I can't say for sure, but there IS an answer, and I would venture to say it could be as simple as the mafia was making enough money elsewhere and didn't want to rock the boat and stay beloved by customers. But someone was paying for it, and quite possibly with their livelihoods, life savings and/or lives.
(I don't think that capitalism is the only solution, but that is another argument where we may agree.)
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
Are you saying patroling police officers shouldn't talk to prostitutes? Why not? Seems to me that's the people they *should* talk to, to build trust, check that they are ok and so on.
See the story of Frank Serpico for what happened in the USA when someone came forth to accuse the system of rampant corruption:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Serpico
The movie with Al Pacino is one of my all time favourite films...
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Even though there are corrupt ties between congressmen and special interests, your basic local cop is usually not corrupt. This is the difference.
Your basic local cop usually IS corrupt. The difference is that he's in on getting paid off on bigger events than just pulling you over. He needs to write a certain number of tickets, deserved or not, which is institutionalized corruption — theft by the police department, committed against the people. If you can get a cop to talk about corruption, he'll tell you all about it. Our "local" cops here in Lake County, CA are in total collusion with certain lawbreakers, and if you think corruption isn't endemic to police departments in the USA, you're not thinking hard enough — or you're totally unqualified to comment. The corruption goes all the way to the emperor!
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
just so they could report on all the bribes and corruption that were perpetrated on small business people. they had reporters learn to be bartenders and waiters, and write about what they saw.
of course i dont think modern papers have the money to do that.
He is certainly a brave and conscientious man, and patriotic. This is not limited to Russia, Ukraine was the same when I visited and my Moroccan friend tells me you have to be well connected to even get a job as a police officer there due to the high level of guaranteed bribes. I hope he succeeds in his aim of inspiring the younger officers, and convincing them the current state is not what should be considered normal. His dream of what sounds like creating a Police Officers Union to ensure officers are well treated, hence attracting a higher caliber of people to the job and not just those interested in the 'perks', may still be far off. He has good intentions though.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
You probably do not speak Russian, I do, so the guy says that he was given a higher rank of a lieutenant last spring in exchange for a promise to accuse an innocent man and put him to jail, which he did.
From his messages it is apparent that his moral compass turned to the right side after he himself filled wronged. He says this:
For ten years he worked in the force with very little (truly impossibly little pay), his wife makes twice his salary actually.
He is expecting his first kid and he cannot get any promotion legally, the promotion he got was for putting an innocent person to jail.
He is forced to work 30 days a week, morning to dawn. He is expected to have a minimum number of 'crimes' solved and a minimum number of people accused to be allowed to leave home early, if he does not, he is forced to work weekends and extra hours.
Said he lost 2 wives this way so far.
Said that this year for the first time he got sick (sounded pretty bad actually), that he needs medical attention, but when he came to a clinic, the doctors turned him away, because for some reason they have an 'understanding' with his top brass that they are not supposed to treat the cops, I don't get it.
Said that he complained about the doctor, was told that the doctor was punished, but unofficially his commandment forced him to go apologize to the doctor, who has close personal ties to some of the higher ranks in the force.
Said that he is supposed to find himself 'kalym' (illegally obtained money from covering for crimes and just covering business against being destroyed) to supplement his miserly income. ...
Sounded to me like he was fine putting innocent people to jail and earning illegal income until it hit him too close to home.
I am not sure about 'ethics', I think it's just the guy is cornered.
Apparently now some more current and ex-cops are doing the same thing in Russia.
You can't handle the truth.
But the Daily Mail in the UK and I am sure many media outlets in the US as well as right wing politicians the world over are telling us that "asylum seekers", people who seek shelter in another country because they fear for their lives in their own country, are all criminals and freeloaders.
Surely if Mr. Dymovsky tries to claim asylum our politicians and media will demand he goes back to his own country, after all asylum seekers are all fakes? Plus our leaders are always telling us that Mr. Putin is a man who they can do business with and that Russia is a lovely country with no real human rights issues to worry about?
[W]hat would happen if a NY cop were to do the exact same thing [...]
See: Serpico.
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
In Soviet Russia, YOU tube THE POLICE
Not so much about corruption, as about his bad boss, who called him "frozen head", not getting paid for overtime, etc. His russian is very bad. Not sure where he is from, bet certainly lacking high-school diploma. Conditions he is talking about are not that uncommon in Russia, it is just that other people of other professions do not have a fat chance to rob and take bribes, as policeman do.
There are other, similar, Russian cop videos on Youtube and other web video media.
I am a former resident of Russia. My reaction is absolutely different from what I've seen so far on slashdot. I think it is most probable that this (Medvedev's speech, cops on Youtube)is part of a carefully planned "marketing" campaign by Putin's government.
As pointed out on some other postings here, a dictator must at least appear to occasionally help his people. Medvedev's speech MUST have been approved by Putin, and therefore is part of this plan. The cops probably feel safe enough to post critical opinions because it was pre-approved at the highest levels.
So? Some social steam is released, Medvedev appears to be a leader with broad reforms in democracy, economics, and government corruption.
What is likely to actually change? Nothing. In Former Soviet Russia, GOVERNMENT astroturfs YOU!
Wow. Talk about swallowing the propaganda.
Wow. Talk about having no sense of humor.
Ah well. Less hypocrisy is not necessarily an improvement. Russia's government is what it is.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Before anyone chips in with "US is corrupt too", a report by Transparency International on worldwide corruption: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8363599.stm
TL;DR US ranked 19th least corrupt, New Zealand #1. Russia seems to be among the worst corrupt states.
No, I am saying that corruption is not okay...
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
Just want to know what would happen if a NY cop were to do the exact same thing, if he would have a job the following day?
He might even survive. Too bad there's so few of these guys.
Someone is wrong on the Internet!