Now really, Iacob Gumenita the man deserves all the compassion he can get. Some sympathy can be extended to Iacob Gumenita the police colonel, as well. But no way can we tolerate 'the Gumenita phenomenon'. It's because the Gumenita phenomenon can do severe injury to the entire Moldovan society, its moral and genetic code. This is why I think it would be an useful exercise to examine the causes of the appearance and development of this phenomenon, but also the measures that need to be taken to counter and prevent it. Really, no one with a sound mind and heart would rejoice at the misery of a man behind bars, especially when he looks defeated, complains of a rapidly declining health and pleads not guilty. Really, one could understand, to some extent, Iacob Gumenita the police colonel, who found himself pushed to the limits of his vigor and sanity in the early hours of 8 April 2009 when he, true or not, happened to kick once or twice a young protester knocked to the ground. Later it would become known that that young man died from those, and other kicks too, but that was later. Maybe we should bear in mind the mental state of the colonel who watched helpless for hours his men being thrown stones and insults at by a presumably provoked crowd. Maybe we should also count the professional frustration caused by the inability to keep a complicated and dangerous situation under control, to restore public order, to protect the governmental buildings from vandals. In fact, it was a failure of what could have been the biggest moment of his entire police career, a moment for which he had been trained and for which he had devoted his entire life. Or maybe he had tormenting doubts as to the correctness of the orders he had received, which he might have found wrong and unclear. We cannot exclude such feelings and heartaches, if we count police colonels among people with sound minds and hearts... All that can be understood, even if not justified, too. [New times, new people] Those things cannot be justified because what Chisinau's police chief Col. Iacob Gumenita did was a logical endpoint of a series of actions done by him and the police, the law enforcement bodies in general, in the last few years. In this sense, things should be regarded collectively, and this approach would reveal us a grave and alarming phenomenon for Moldovan society. We called it conventionally 'the Gumenita phenomenon', after its most prominent representative in the last few years. Its definition, perhaps not the most comprehensive, would be “serve the big fish (especially those in the governmental pool) and beat the small fish (from the opposition pool, but not only, and often those who are already knocked down)”. So much for serve and protect. The phenomenon takes its roots from the 'war' declared in the early 2000s by the previous central government on the local Chisinau government. Seizing the capital's City Hall was regarded not only as a major goal, but also as the final touch on the opus of constructing a 'vertical of power' at the top of which would be enthroned the authority of one person, anointed as 'the father of the Moldovan nation'. In this scenario, a leading role was attributed to the law enforcement bodies. To some point, the main executors kept a low profile and didn't get too much involved, which cost them their jobs. They were replaced at the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Anticorruption Center and the like by persons who accepted roles without masks and intermediaries: “new times require new people”. And those new people came with new faces: overt defiance of the common sense, lack of moderation, supererogation, bravado in executing orders. Shortly after his appointment as municipal police chief Lt. Col. Iacob Gumenita became the impersonation of that new team of executors. And, before too long, his conduct earned him Colonel stars. On 31 October 2007, the agency Info-Prim Neo published a commentary snapshotting, among other things, the beginning of Col. Gumenita's career as the leading representative of the new current of zealous executors. Here is an illustrative excerpt: {“(...) the subversion of the process of constituting the mayoral team is stimulated by the representatives of the central administration in the local administration. These are representatives of the authorities with double subordination with the police coming first on this list. In particular, the behavior of the head of the municipal traffic police Ion Vozian is close to defiant if not impudent. (...) Instead of providing the requested information, the head of the traffic police, (...) gave the mayor a piece of advice: to deal with 'more important' issues as, for instance, the supply of heat in the municipality and the sweeping in Chisinau. He said this in public, in the presence of dozens of municipal functionaries and many video cameras, some of which displayed excessive interest. The head of the municipal police Iacob Gumenita seems to play a similar role, but in a smarter way. Gumenita did not want to reveal the 'secrets of the probe' (...), but at the next meeting he presented an ultimatum-report to the mayor. The report said that if the City Hall did not transfer a certain sum of money 'by tomorrow', the police cars would stop patrolling the streets.(...)The ban on the sale of beer in the Great National Assembly Square on the Language Day, the verbal altercations over the coincidence of the Wine Day and City Day are other examples of the uninterrupted war (...)} The full article can be found at http://info-prim.md/?a=10&nD=2007/10/31&ay=11225 or in the book “Electoral Lessons at the Moldovan School of Democracy”, published by Info-Prim Neo. Then was the Christmas Tree dilogy, as well as other bigger provocations and smaller instances of defying chicanery, grandstanding acts enacted for the general public and for those who ordered them. They would invariably appear on television, so if Col. Gumenita ever decides to complain at the European Court in Strasbourg of political retaliation, such footage and a rich media profile would rather harm than justify him. [Poor ordinary man...] In the context of the bravado once displayed by the chief of the municipal police, the general public has the right to be concerned in connection with the steep deterioration of his health, which doesn't seem to be simulated. The concerns are aroused in particular by the fact that his condition worsened when it was announced that he would be prosecuted and arrested. One of the explanations could be that Iacob Gumenita is intimately familiar with the pretexts used for arresting someone, with the detention conditions and the investigation methods, which presumably caused him a physiological shock. He could ask for details someone like Vladimir Sarban, Constantin Becciev, Valeriu Pasat and many other guiltless arestees of the previous regime. The general public has every right to be concerned, as it has the right to lament: “poor ordinary man, poor society, if a big deal colonel, the police chief of a capital city of a sovereign state, trembles with fear when he thinks about being in police custody and under arrest in particular”. A group of young people once gathered outside the building where Iacob Gumenita was remanded to express their concerns about his arrest: {“We, the young people that gathered today, April 16, to bring food to Gumenita Iacob, the former chief of the municipal police, call on all the policemen who got or will get to handle Gumenita Iacob not to maltreat and humiliate him. True, Gumenita booted protesters, concealed the truth, arrested innocents and terminated absolutely peaceful rallies during the communist rule, yet not even a criminal deserves to be beaten in the remand center. Do not make him strip and squat naked, because such kind of treatment is inhumane, even if it is applied to a man of no scruples like Gumenita. We urge you to ensure him the right to a fair trial. Do not let him be tried directly at the remand center, like it happened last year, in April, to the young people who protested peacefully and were illegally detained. We insist that all Gumenita's wrongdoings are investigated thoroughly and tried accordingly. Being aware that Gumenita should serve heavy imprisonment terms, and taking into account his deteriorating health, we solicit an isolated cell and a calm environment for him”}. [What should be done about the Gumenita phenomenon?] The Gumenita phenomenon was in demand and fostered in certain sociopolitical circumstances. So certain conditions need to be shaped to quench it and prevent its re-emergence. Reform in the field is one of the greatest challenges of the current government, the test of its capacity to effect change. Many elements of the reform have been for many years on the surface, just awaiting political will. They include: - unsimulated depoliticization and demilitarization of the police. If the great military powers find it suitable and democratic to put civilians administrate defense and interior agencies, then we see no reason why a country with a few thousands policemen, who are working exclusively for and with the civilian population, shouldn't do the same thing. It would be more difficult to manipulate such kind of police through military orders to achieve political or any other inappropriate benefits. - hold elections to choose sheriffs in Chisinau as well as in the smallest village or the remotest district. In countries with democratic traditions they are elected, alongside local chief fire officers and judges. It is a mechanism which will make the police feel a stronger bond with the people, for whom and with whom they work, and less dependent on the political factor. - ensure unismulated transparency of the police activity, transfer real monitoring instruments and authority to civil society. For instance, a human rights activist could be appointed advisor to the Minister of Justice, with powers to supervise and monitor any activity of the Ministry's subdivisions. You don't even need to change the laws, it takes only political will to do that. - sound alternation to power of the political forces. Civil society, the mass media is obliged to watch closely any government in order to keep it awake. Any instance of abuse, any attempt to erect a 'vertical of power', which contradicts the constitutional principle of separation of powers, not to mention the attempts to institute 'fathers of the Moldovan nation', must be strongly condemned. This is how we can ensure the vitality of the principal of power alternation as the only democratic mechanism of giving government to the people. The Gumenita phenomenon affects severely the entire Moldovan society, its moral and genetic code. It deprives it of the opportunity to live a decent life, without humiliation, without apprehension, with open rules and the law as the only rule. In this conditions the good old folklore would say: [“I have pity on Gumenita, but I have more pity on myself”] [Valeriu Vasilică, Info-prim Neo]