MARCH OF INEQUALITY IN KYIV, PT 1: A POLICE VIOLENCE AND WHAT THE AFFECTED ACTIVISTS HAVE TO DO WITH IT

It seems that the Ukrainian police (pre and after reform) and the government itself are hard to learn how to act lawfully and respect people.

On June 17, 2018, an incident, that took place in the center of Kyiv before the LGBT-march beginning has eloquently confirmed that the police keep following its pre-reform traditions through a manifestation of total disregard to the constitutional rights of citizens and brutal actions against the participants of a civil action. All this has thrown us back the Yanukovich's time, for whom it was normal to use force to disperse any peaceful rally.

Thus, on Sunday, June 17, in parallel to the equality march organizers, members of Ukraine's patriotic organizations and representatives of churches (Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant) applied to the Kyiv City State Administration to hold a public event in the center of Kyiv in accordance with their constitutional law, which is enshrined in Article #39 of the Basic Law.

And if the LGBT activists took full advantage of their constitutional law with full support and police protection, the participants who advocated a traditional Ukrainian values were brutally dispersed and beaten by police.

What's most importantly, the police had no legitimate reasons for such actions - that is, they did not have:

- a court decision prohibiting the relevant action;

- a court decision to change venue of the action.

Thus, the police - as an authority - is obliged to follow the rules of the current legislation and not to take over the function of other authorities and courts.

That is, in essence, the Kyiv city police, apart from the unjustified use of force against the citizens of Ukraine, illegally assigned the functions of the judiciary and themselves decided who had been allowed and who had been prohibited to hold a public action, the right to which is enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine.

Such actions must undoubtedly be classified as a crime under the following articles of the Criminal Code:

# 365 - excess of authority or official authority by a law enforcement officer;

# 146 - illegal deprivation of liberty;

# 126 - physical abuse and cruelty.

Therefore, those who have suffered from illegal police actions have to:

- Apply to the police and the prosecutor's office with an allegation of crime;

- Find out who directly gave an illegal order and demand the person to retire;

- Request explanations from the Minister of the Interior;

- To prepare a lawsuit against the police to declare police actions unlawful;

- To seek legal redress for damage inflicted by the National Police.

As a conclusion, it must be noted that there are many examples all-over the Occidental world, where the LGBT minority rights are protected with a gross violation of the rights of others to freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. Ukrainian law enforcers went further, they not only illegally ceased the freedom of peaceful gatherings, the police brutally dispersed representatives of patriotic organizations and churches!

Serhiy Gula, a Ukrainian attorney