[size=75:3h486l23]Sofia echo 27 January 2010


Letter to the Editor: You’ve got to be kidding me

First, let me say that I have nothing against the police here personally. I have three friends who either were police or are currently Bulgarian cops. And I do realise that most of them are just trying to do their job. Well, somewhat.

But I do get tired of it...

A few days ago, I was driving my daughter to a photo shop and then to a father-daughter lunch. After I stopped to let her pick up photos, I neglected to turn on my lights again.

Soon, I had KAT wave their ridiculous little toy lollypop at me, so I stopped. Turned out that the young gruff and tuff KAT guy was gonna write me up for not having my lights on.

Obviously, he had said attitude as his boss was in the backseat, covered with more medals than a Soviet general, with his other colleague watching him.

Never mind that he was rude and gruff. At least he could have intoduced himself and talked civilly to me. Instead, it was like I personally insulted his mother or something. Not very professional to say the least.

Now I fully admit that I did the foul deed and forgot to turn on the headlights. Guilty as charged. I broke the law. However, a pit of respect from this young punk who was still wet behind his ears would have been nice.

Note to KAT - this is not how to win respect and score points with the public.

Also, it was not foggy, it was not dark and there really was no danger. So, why not give me a warning as I simply forgot? This is what any intelligent cop in California would do.

Alas, not true in Bulgaria! Basically, KAT serves as a revenue collection agency for the local government. Second note to KAT - you are not a tax collecting agency because the government is broke.

In fact, I would have much rather been pulled over for a REAL offence against public safety such as speeding, running a red light, or double parking;
all of which, I might add, I observed earlier that same day in Stara Zagora.

Also, paying the fine for a true violation would have not made me angry. But forgetting to turn your lights on? Gimme a break! You have got to be kidding.

Get a life, KAT.

This is what former military people such as I would call chicken faeces...so to speak. Why? Because it is petty, a cheap shot and minor. It is certainly not worthy of the larger term beginning with bull.

Third note to KAT - try to concentrate on people making serious traffic violations if you want to be taken seriously.

Frankly, I honestly cannot figure out why we have KAT or what they really do besides hide in the bushes and write out fines for people.

You never see them on a rainy day when road conditions are certainly dangerous. Obviously, they are in the local banitsa stand drinking coffee and sucking on a cancer stick.

As we all know, KAT tends to hang out in the shrubbery on safe roads where there are lots of people going five to10km/h over the speed limit to popular areas.

Or, they kick back on absurd sections of the freeway where you have to go from 120 km/h to 80 km/h, just for the fun of it all.

Just try to find them hanging out near dangerous curves, death trap intersections or on hole infested roads with poor traffic markings where they are actually needed.

Heaven forbid that they use common sense and try to do something good for motorists.

For instance, the road to the local mall is as thick as fleas with KAT just waiting for people.
One trick they love to do is to wait till the mall is nearly closed & ticket poor victims in a hurry to get home.

Come on!

Also, you might notice that they NEVER stop to direct traffic when the street lights don't function, which frequently happens in Stara Zagora.

Nothing like a score of drivers all trying to go at once in utter chaos, and honking like a bunch of maniacs, at some local intersection where the signal is dead as a doornail. I guess KAT considers that safe or social Darwinism in action.

I dunno, call me naive, but it seems to me that it is a bit more important to do this than pass out fines for forgetting to turn on your headlights during the daytime...

Then, why not sit at dangerous intersections, like ours and actually try to prevent accidents? We have an average of one accident every two weeks at our corner and the only time I've ever seen KAT there is when they are shopping at the nearby store, running the stop sign, or cleaning up after an accident.

Why not patrol our street, for a change, instead of sitting on your posterior ends toking on a coffin nail in your cosy warm cars? Especially when young fools consistantly use said avenue as their own personal drag strip going up to 80 km/h or so daily? Hmmmmm?

No, that would actually make sense and be useful.

Ya know, some years ago, my wife screamed at a car that nealy picked her off, in our crosswalk,along with our son in a stroller.
Young yokel, going the speed of light, must have a REALLY bad day, as he threw on his brakes, jammed it into reverse and blocked her way in the crosswalk. Next, he got out of the car and threatned to kill her.

Nice guy, but where was KAT?

Next, if you really want to be respected, why not start by obeying the same traffic laws that ordinary peasants like myself have to obey?

For instance, several times I have seen our local KAT blatantly drive though the stop sign here without even slowing down. No call or anything...they are just to lazy to stop. Or the banitsa is up and hot at the local stand...

Gee, could it be because they know that they are above the law or what?

Let me give an example. A few weeks ago, a Bulgarian friend of ours was unloading his supplies for his business on the walking street in town. This is normal. We have seen people do it several times.

However, this time two police walked up to him and told him he could not park there & to move his car. He told him that his business stand there was his and he was obviously unloading supplies to stock it - not parking.

Your friendly local police then told him to 1) either cough up 15 leva each to them, or 2) they would write him a fine to pay for 100 leva.

Naturally, he was just shocked, utterly shocked that this would occur. Well, not really. Just business as usual as we all know.

So, to make a long story short, he refused to pay the bribe, or perhaps we should say "
Christmas gift,"
to the cops. The poor sap landed in court with two witnesses in his favour.
Naturally, the court found him guilty and fined him 100 leva. Justice Bulgarian style, of course. Hey, at least it is a few steps above Iranian justice, huh?

Heck, why bother with a judicial system here? Let's just have the police sentence everyone. They are gonna do it anyway. Everyone know that they are never wrong and don't make mistakes.

See the Joseph Stalin entry in Wikipedia please.

And, then the powers that be in government wonder why people have zero respect for the police or the court system in Bulgaria. Geeze, why not just pay an annual nuisance fee to the goverment so they will leave you alone? No way, it makes too much sense.

In conclusion, if you want to be taken seriously, be serious. If not, things will simply continue as they are and both KAT and the Bulgarian courts will always be simply a very, very bad joke.

Nuff said.

Keith W. Brown

KAT and their colleagues from the other department at the ministry of interior affairs do not understand that their main purpose is to help and serve the society. The above described cases are a true example of their unprofessionalism and lack of complete understanding of what they should be doing, or maybe lack of proper schooling, supervision....

Got to agree with you NOPUS it seems the police in Bulgaria have all their priorities completely wrong? But as you say maybe its lack of training and vision but I have to say we have the same sort of problem here in the uk but perhaps not as bad as you seem to have it in Bulgaria but it does make me

Yes i agree its lack of trainingl lets remember they have only just come into the eu.and we should not expect everything to be of western standard,everything takes time,and everything is not cut and dry,if you think it is your in the wrong country



Mike

I think handing out speeding tickets to generate a bit of local/national income seems to be a universal police concept. One observation is that BG seems to be getting better albeit very slowly, as Mickhev rightly points out they are newcomers to the EU 'club', GB on the other hand appears to be going in the opposite direction and getting worse on an almost daily basis.