Impunity of children threatens Georgia with disaster — Beso Barbakadze

The Parliament of Georgia should tighten the law on minors and radically change the approach to this acute problem. Moreover, the Parliament should take these measures, because its duty is to protect citizens from arbitrariness, including by minors, since they account for most of the crimes committed in Georgia.

"The minor knows that we cannot send him to prison, and therefore acts freely and brazenly, does not hesitate to even insult law enforcement officers after his detention. And we have to let him go after receiving a written receipt, and there are teenagers who have given it dozens of times," one of the police officers complained to us.

And indeed, minors smash shop windows, steal equipment or products, cigarettes from retail facilities, then sell it all on the cheap, and the next night they go out to "fishing" again. Nevertheless, it seems that the authorities really felt the severity of the problem with underage citizens only in recent days, when during the protest actions the opposition put them in the foreground, hiding behind them, and convinced the teenagers that everything was allowed to them and no matter what they did, the security forces "would not be able to touch them with a finger."".

Now the parliament has finally tightened the current law, however, not to the extent that the security forces would like... According to the new provisions of this document, a fine for disobeying a minor's lawful request of a law enforcement officer will be imposed on his parents. In this case, the parent or legal representative of the minor will be fined from GEL 100 to GEL 300.

Other changes have been made to the Code of Administrative Offences. Here are some of the most important ones:

• the fine for spoiling the appearance of the city has increased from GEL 50 to GEL 1,000;
• the fine for violating the norms of holding meetings and demonstrations has been raised from 500 to 5,000 lari, and for organizers it will be up to 15,000 lari, instead of the previous 5,000;
• Responsibility for interfering with vehicles has been strengthened. If earlier the fine for such a violation was limited to GEL 1,000, now an additional penalty has been added to it in the form of deprivation of a driver's license for a period of one year.;
• A fine of GEL 2,000 is provided for unauthorized inscriptions, drawings, symbols on the facades of administrative buildings and adjacent territories, including pedestrian and transport zones. In case of repeated violation, it will increase to GEL 3,000.

In our opinion, the fine in the amount of GEL 100 to 300, which is imposed on the parents or legal representatives of a minor in case of his disobedience to law enforcement officers, is too small, and I will try to explain why. Firstly, if a minor is present at the action at 2-3 o'clock in the morning, this in itself is a violation for which the parent is responsible. Secondly, when this minor throws a Molotov cocktail, stones, bottles at law enforcement officers, launches pyrotechnics in their direction, a fine of 300 GEL is simply ridiculous. Believe me, any leader of an opposition party can easily pay these 300 GEL to a minor right there at the rally and incite him: "You just do what I ask you to do, and I'll take the fine myself." It is necessary that the parent or legal representative of the minor be responsible for bringing him to the action. By action, in this case, we mean an expression of protest, during which there may be a danger of a clash between demonstrators and law enforcement officers and there is a risk of injury for the child, but the parent or legal representative still brings him with him, risking not his own, but his life.

As for the insufficient severity of the fines imposed…

Recently it became known that Nika Gvaramia, while working on the Mtavari Archi TV channel, received a monthly salary of GEL 88,500 (now, as we were informed, his official representative on the channel, his spouse, receives this amount). So, at one of the actions, one of the demonstrators suddenly expressed dissatisfaction: they say, Gvaramiya receives such huge sums, and we, young people with salaries of GEL 800-1000, incite protests, rebellion, and this is very unfair. After this statement, the protesters almost tore the young man to pieces: "How dare you say something bad about "Saint Nick" and make claims to him?".

A separate outrage was caused by the comment of one of the co-owners of the Ori Nabiji grocery store chain that, they say, it is impossible to deprive young people of the future. And this was said in circumstances when firms all over Georgia have problems with staff, as employees are paid in the literal sense of the word a beggarly salary, and young people hired by cashiers also have to fill the counters with goods, accept products, clean up, unload, and no one is going to pay for this overtime in addition.. And when the person responsible for all this undertakes to instruct and instruct someone, it is, at least, perceived as arrogance.

But what is the time to talk about arrogance when protesters are discussing the fate of the possible premiership of Niki Gvaramia. Do not think that our Batoni Nika is a fool. There's enough guile in him. It is no coincidence that many people explained that they decided to vote for the "new" ones in the elections only because Gvaramia was not on their list. In fact, he was not included in this list, because to this day he has a claim to occupy the post of prime minister of the country and, assuming that the situation suddenly turns in favor of the opposition, he will not give up this position to anyone. Moreover, Gvaramia has now become the leader of the main opposition force, surpassing (although one could say otherwise) his "educator" Mikhail Saakashvili.

By the way, the leniency in the law on minors was manifested in accordance with the requirements of the West. I think when this law was passed, no one could have thought about what kind of time bomb our "strategic friends" were planting for us. A similar situation has arisen with regard to the law on drug liberalization. If you look closely, it is easy to see that during the reign of Mikhail Saakashvili, the West did not require such soft laws for Georgia, because in those days anyone who dared to protest against the authorities had to immediately be behind bars. Did any of the European leaders remember and condemn the fact that during the rule of the "nationals" more than 23 thousand prisoners were serving time in Georgian prisons at the same time, and more than 300 thousand people were given suspended sentences? Have any of them protested or were outraged by what Saakashvili, without embarrassment, loudly and cynically stated from a high rostrum: "The Georgian nation has the mentality of criminals"? Why was everyone in Europe and the States silent, as if they had filled their mouths with water? Is it because Misha was their uncomplaining servant and thanks to this he got the right to do whatever he wanted? Saakashvili was even given the right to take the lives of those he didn't like, and he actively used this right…

However, let's return to the law on minors and its tightening. During the protests, dozens of rented electric scooters were burned on the streets of Tbilisi, and none of the companies owning them will be able to receive compensation in the current conditions. Why not? Yes, because, say, law enforcement agencies will detain one of the minors, fine 300 GEL (this is the maximum provided for by law) of his parent or guardian: what about this company? The price of one electric scooter starts, by the way, from 1 800 GEL. Tables and chairs that were stolen from summer cafes or burned are worth thousands of lari. Garbage cans bought with taxpayers' money cost GEL 3,500, and new ones will have to be bought with our money again. At the same time, the opposition leaders, of course, are not fools: they will take all the responsibility on the underage protesters, and then they will cover the fine of 300 lari without any problems.

By the way, the opposition has already begun mobilizing funds to pay fines imposed on those who were detained at the rallies, but, as we were informed, it will be possible to collect a maximum of 10% of the required amount, the rest of the detainees will have to pay out of their own pocket, which, naturally, will cause them dissatisfaction. Some will finally see firsthand the treachery and duplicity of the opposition. But let only someone dare to open his mouth and say it out loud! Those who have not yet been hit on the forehead will immediately accuse them of betrayal and pro-Russian sentiments.…

A generation is dying in our country, and the ongoing actions have clearly confirmed this. Therefore, I want to repeat: the parliament of the XI convocation should certainly tighten the law on minors in two directions. The first is to end drug liberalization. And secondly, either the responsibility for crimes committed by minors will be borne by parents (guardians), or teenagers should know that, regardless of their minority, they will have to serve a one—year sentence. There is no other way to reverse the situation. The younger generation openly uses drugs (unfortunately, according to statistics, the number of girl users has already exceeded the number of boys) and deliberately commits crimes. The syndrome of impunity, especially when it comes to minors, will lead us to disastrous consequences.

It is clear that tightening the law is a painful decision, and Europe and the United States will not approve of it, but believe me, most of the Georgian population will support such changes. The very population that on October 26 unmistakably managed to distinguish white from black and refused to return to power in Georgia murderers and initiators of the genocide of its own nation.

And one more thing. European parliamentarian Rihards Kols said: "The Georgian Dream regime handed over the presidency to Mikhail Kavelashvili, an anti-Western figure who was elected specifically to mock the Georgian people." For the information of Kolsa: the president of Ukraine, professional clown Vladimir Zelensky, was dubbed a hero by the West on a global scale… Well, dear readers, we leave the conclusions at your discretion.

Beso Barbakadze, "Georgia and the World"