Sunday, June 6, 2010

Armenia's Police Digging for Excuses

The police seem to really be digging for anything to charge the protesters, especially Ani Gevorgyan, with, these days. And they seem to have really put in a lot of work in trying to convince anyone around that their own actions, violence and arrests are justified.

I took many long looks at the video posted on police.am of the protests over the last weekend of May. First of all, the fact that these incidents were important enough for them to put together a video, with a voice over, AND then, post it on their website just below their police video, is a sign of just how hard they're trying to justify themselves, and really, just how scared they are. What are they scared of?... In Bazaz's own words
“Large numbers of people must not gather here. If 100, 150 or 200 persons gather here today, this square will become a rally site tomorrow.”

The video they posted is a series of clips from May 29 and May 31- and the only reason I know that is because some of the clips have a date and time at the bottom left, some don't.

Now, Ani is charged with assaulting an officer, but where is the proof?? The video clip, which seems to be offered up as some type of evidence, shows her knocking a hat off of a policeman's head - but no contact with his head, or any other part of his body. Where's the assault?

That portion of the video is not dated, but it is embedded in videos that are from May 31. Yet, it is impossible that that video is from May 31. On May 31, Ani was wearing a RED shirt, but in the video where she knocks off the hat, she is wearing a BLACK shirt. So when is it that video from? Do the police even know?


And, if that video is not from the 31st, it must be from before then, since she was arrested on the 31st. Why didn't they arrest her before, if it happened before? If she hit a police officer on May 31, then it makes sense that they would arrest her on May 31. But I can't find what day she supposedly committed this alleged assault- maybe its somewhere, in some article, but I can't find it. Do the police even know?But all video footage of May 31, from a1plus and azatutyun, show her on the sidelines, camera in her right hand (attached to a right arm in a RED sleeve) in the air, doing her job as a photojournalist. Still no proof of assault.

It seems to me the police went back over their videos and tried to look for something, anything, to charge her on. They came up with this video, that has no date, and threw it in among videos from May 31, to make it look like she was arrested that day she knocked the hat off, to try to justify their own actions.

[Top photo is of Davit Kiramijyan, who remains in prison on charges of hooliganism, from a1plus]

5 comments:

Vrej said...

After seeing video, I absolutely think Ani should be called to court for this. This should not be allowed as this creates a precedence of disrespecting a police officer. If not sitting in jail for a couple of months, but for sure a hefty fine that grandpa Levon surely can pay from his Soros piggy-bank.
Mark my words, she is guilty and this time you can't claim human rights abuse because the video is there.From now on police should work exactly this way. videotape each hooligan's acts, then the Witnesses will never have a case of human rights and the enemy will be defeated. This should be the obective of the Armenian state. Enough is enough with the games.

Hasmik said...

"From now on police should work exactly this way".

Yes, vrej, the police WILL work exactly this way with you too, hold your breath.

Vrej said...

Hasmik,

If I'm breaking the law, of course!
I demand that police officers do their job and rid Armenia of the internal enemy a.k.a. Levoni Vkaner!

Vrej said...

ara es Sashik Sargsyan-e irok demq a!! Mer nor or-eri Frunzik-n a! Halal a halal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CiLMqk1QrQ&feature=youtube_gdata

@ 1:00

@2:07 LOL!!!!!!
Sashik for 32 atam!

Harut said...

"Ասա՝ ով է ընկերդ, ասեմ՝ ով ես դու":
Դե, Վրեժի հիացմունքի առարկան Սաշիկն է:
Մնացյալը լռություն է: