The Independent Police Union of Montenegro (NSPCG) welcomed the decision of the prosecution to qualify the attack on a police officer - an officer of the Podgorica Security Department - as attempted murder, and they also welcomed the visit of the Minister of the Interior, Danilo Šaranović, to the injured colleague.
Police officer Mićo Radović is hospitalized in the Clinical Center, and Zoran Vukčević from Podgorica is suspected of having attacked him on Friday, during the escort to the detention facilities, and of causing him serious bodily injury.
"Sincerely concerned for the life and health of our colleague, we cannot say that we are surprised by this savage attack that had only one goal - to take a human life in a completely unprecedented way. Attacking a police officer in a police station shows all the hopelessness of the moment in which the entire society finds itself. If those who are supposed to protect all the citizens of this country, who are armed and who are supposed to represent authority, are not protected even in their workplace, what can an ordinary, peaceful citizen expect", according to the statement of the Main Board of the NPSCG.
What has already become a constant, they add, is "the loud silence of all who should come forward in such situations and condemn this senseless act".
"Politicians, the non-governmental sector, individual social activists... a thunderous silence. 'All the heroes don't let anyone down'. We are afraid that society is not aware of what is 'behind the hill'. With a huge minus in the state of numbers, with bad legal solutions and the decreasing interest of young people for this job, we are very close to the moment when there will be no one to protect us or serve us. But it may be too late. The years and even decades of destroying the reputation of the police officer are slowly but surely coming back to us like a boomerang that will hit us right in the head. We are afraid that sobering up will be extremely painful and unpleasant. Just don't say that you didn't know and that you weren't warned," the statement added.
However, as they said, "maybe all is not lost".
"In this whole situation, there are two moments that give hope. The first is that some new winds seem to be blowing in the prosecutor's office and criminal offenses of attacks on police officers are beginning to be qualified in the right and correct way. We expect and insist that the judicial organization also changes its long-standing practice." "caressing" of criminals and attackers against police officers and to condemn each subsequent attack with rigorous and maximum prison sentences. In addition to individual sentences, it would also be an excellent general prevention and an indication that thugs and criminals will not be overlooked," states the NPSCG.
Another, as they said, encouraging moment is the visit of the Minister of the Interior to an injured colleague.
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"In some past times, a policeman was left to his mercy, left to himself and his family, unprotected, financially completely destroyed and unable to bear all the costs of his own treatment. No one asked him how he was, if he could do anything or if he needed anything. We remember and some ministers who visited the assailant in the hospital instead of their official, apologizing and offering him help. And then that policeman, left in the wind, forgotten and rejected, additionally 'crucified' by the public, decides to end his suffering by raising a hand on himself And no one is shaken by that, doesn't put a finger on their forehead, doesn't ask themselves even one question", states the NPSCG, and concludes:
"Life has cruelly taught us not to look forward, but we want to believe in a better tomorrow. Let the prosecution's qualification of this act and the minister's gesture be the beginning of the return of dignity and the protection of the difficult, demanding and above all honorable police profession. We offer this society everything, and even our own lives. We expect at least protection and respect."
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