Disability after brutal assault. Police dismissed the case as a misdemeanor

There are cases that shake public confidence in the rule of law. Not because one person failed. But because the very system that is supposed to protect victims of violence will fail. The case from Luštěnice in Mladoboleslavsk is exactly such a case. And the more details come to light, the scarier the picture of how part of the police works is revealed.

After the brutal attack, the woman ended up with an open comminuted fracture of her lower leg, with a protruding bone, underwent surgery, long-term hospitalization, months of treatment, and was subsequently declared disabled. It wasn't an abrasion. It wasn't a "scuffle". This was no ordinary conflict. It was a devastating, violent attack with lifelong consequences.

And yet the officers of the District Police Department of Dobrovice initially did not treat the matter as a suspicion of a particularly serious violent crime. On the contrary. They evaluated it only as an offense against civil coexistence and forwarded it to an administrative authority.

Yes, that's right. A woman was left disabled after a brutal attack — and the police took the case to a misdemeanor level.

Only later, after the intervention of the general crime department, was a prosecution initiated for the particularly serious crime of grievous bodily harm under Section 145(1) of the Criminal Code. In other words: the police themselves eventually came to the conclusion that it was an act corresponding to one of the most serious violent crimes against health.

How is it possible that the same facts were seen by some police officers as a "misdemeanor", while others subsequently saw them as a particularly serious crime?

This is no longer a minor error. This is not a "different legal opinion". This is an absolutely fundamental failure of the basic duties of a police authority.

At the same time, the indications were quite obvious from the beginning. There was an open fracture with bone protruding. There was hospitalization. There were surgical interventions. There were direct witness accounts describing the deliberate stomping on the leg of a woman lying on the ground. There were camera records. There was medical documentation. There were visible consequences of brutal violence.

So what led the police to dismiss the case as a civil offence?

Was it incompetence? Ignorance of the basics of criminal law? Laziness? Reluctance to investigate a more complex case? Trying to administratively "clean up" a serious matter without work and responsibility?

Or was something even worse at play — the fact that the victim was a citizen of Ukraine?

These questions are extremely annoying. But it is the current state that makes them legitimate. Because if the police can't recognize a particularly serious violent crime even in the case of a woman with an open fracture and subsequent disability, then something is deeply wrong.

And the situation is even more serious. Possible errors were repeatedly pointed out. A submission was made to the General Inspection of Security Forces. It was argued that the police were failing to prosecute, that they were downplaying the violent attack, and that victims were being denied a proper criminal investigation. But the system did not respond appropriately for a long time.

Only later criminal proceedings showed that the original criticism was justified.

But that opens up a much scarier question: how many similar cases end up the same way in the Czech Republic? How many brutal attacks are administratively "reduced" to avoid extra work? How many victims hear the message between the lines that their case is not worth a thorough investigation?

The public is constantly reassured of the professionalism of the police. About modern work methods. About protecting citizens. But the reality of some cases looks completely different. Sometimes the reality is that a woman ends up disabled after a brutal attack — and the police refer it to the Criminal Investigations Commission.

This is not just a professional failure. This is the moral failure of the state towards the victim of violence.

The police are supposed to protect the weak. It is supposed to protect the attacked. It is meant to protect people who end up in hospital after a brutal attack. He should not look for reasons to make light of the matter, administratively postpone it or get rid of it.

If the system reaches a state where devastating violence with lifelong consequences is not even recognized as a suspected crime by some police officers, then it is no longer an individual misconduct. It is a symptom of a deeper breakdown of responsibility.

And that's why it's appropriate to ask a question that is uncomfortable but completely legitimate:

Where is today's police going if they can't protect ordinary people in some cases and are unwilling or unable to investigate even obvious violent crimes?

Source:

1. EVERYWHERE.Principles of criminal procedure. Všehrd – association of Czech lawyers [online]. Available from:Všehrd – Principles of criminal procedure

2. KURZY.CZ.§ 145 Serious bodily harm – Act No. 40/2009 Coll., Criminal Code[online]. Available from:Kurzy.cz– § 145 of the Criminal Code

3. KURZY.CZ.§ 158 of the Criminal Code - receiving notifications and initiating criminal proceedings[online]. Available from:Kurzy.cz– § 158 of the Criminal Code