The Civil Contract faction deputy is wrong: the police exercised disproportionate force against the protesters

In an interview with Freenews on May 14, Rustam Bakoyan, a member of the National Assembly, said that the police had never exercised disproportionate or brutal force against citizens who had taken to the streets.

“I will ask you to give an example during my answer where brutal force was used and the police, which was created by the leaders standing in the square today. Have they exercised brutality, have they used water cannons, have they used batons, have they used flash or other types of grenades during their rule? And the politicians who consider themselves opposition today, who are in the square, do they now raise the issue of using water cannons now, of using batons now, of using flash grenades or other means by the police? And if there is such a case, why are we or any member of the society not aware of it?” Says Bakoyan.

In response to this, the interviewer says, “Well, they publish photos on telegram channels.” Bakoyan counters, “Please tell me a case that such a thing happened. The demand of the police is as follows: when they demand any action, keep within the borders in any place or when they commit violations, they circumvent the law, the police invite them to the police station. And if this invitation is considered a disproportionate force, then I congratulate our current government, because, firstly, we do not interfere here, secondly, no disproportionate or brutal force has been exercised by the police during our rule, as evidenced by the videos spread by them, which show as if․․․ You see, they are showing something that does not exist here, they want to convince the people that there is police brutality here. Where did you see that brutality?” Bakoyan said.

During next question, Bakoyan addresses the actions of the police, noting that there is no condemnable action there, “We have RA citizens, those people, yes, they think that maybe our policy should be different, that’s why they took to the streets, and there is no oppression, no violence against those citizens and you can see that they are still in the street, they are in the square or squares, there is no action against them by the police that should be condemned.”

Although Bakoyan claims that the police did not exercise disproportionate or brutal force against the protesters, the facts show otherwise.

On some days during the street protests of the opposition, the journalists of the Fact Investigation Platform also watched the events on the ground. On May 2, the journalist of the Fact Investigation Platform recorded the actions of the police during the arrest of the participants of the assembly. The video clearly shows how one of the policemen punched the protester several times in the head.

On the same day, the Human Rights Defender published the study of the rapid response groups that also included the manifestation of disproportionate force against the above-mentioned citizen. “According to a video spread by a number of media outlets, 4-6 police officers used disproportionate force against a citizen while detaining him, and one of the officers inflicted several blows to the head of the detainee,” the Human Rights Defender said in a statement.

In another part of the same statement, the Human Rights Defender stated that “the exercise of disproportionate force in the detention of protesters by the police continued to be problematic.”

There were also cases of violence against journalists. This video shows how the head of the State Protection Service kicks the cameraman. This was included in the Human Rights Defender’s report, but not on the basis of the videos published by the media, but on the basis of witnessing by her own employees.

The representative of the Office of the Human Rights Defender witnessed the use of violence by the Head of the State Protection Service against a professional journalist. The Human Rights Defender considers such an act unacceptable and condemnable, especially when this act is conducted by a person who is the Head of the Service and not a regular serviceman.” – reads the statement of the Human Rights Defender.

The ombudsperson’s reports on different days again records the manifestations of disproportionate use of force by police officers, i.e. the disproportionate use of force was exercised and recorded not only on May 2, but also after that in ombudsperson’s various statements.

Thus, MP Bakoyan’s assertion that no disproportionate or brutal force was exercised by the police during the rule of their political force is wrong.

Narek Martirosyan