By Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
The rising number of murders and violent robberies in Georgia has been the most problematic and discussed topic of the last couple of weeks. A story of Rustavi-2 TV about robbers breaking into a family's house late at night, torturing the mother of children with a hot iron, demanding she give them money, has stirred up the public. The robbers stole only a few thousand dollars. The Interior Ministry suspects young people released on amnesty of committing the crime.
People recalled the stagnation period of Brezhnev times, when using an iron for torture was an "invention" of Georgian criminals.
Murders in broad daylight have become more common. Young people chase each other on the streets or sneak up on each other with silenced pistols on porches, as was often seen in the age of the Mkhedrioni militarized formations when the Tbilisi posses split into spheres of influence in Tbilisi, constantly at war with each other.
"Misha would have never let anything like that happen," can often be heard at minibus taxis and in parks. In reality, the formation of such a stereotype is dangerous for the current government: universal free medical insurance, renewal of agricultural exports to Russia and the easing of tensions around regional conflicts is great and everyone values that, but the most most important concern of the public is safety on the street and at home.
The reason for the criminal situation going downhill in Georgia has a simple explanation: in 2012, right after coming to power in the light of the major scandal around torture at Gldani Prison, the Georgian Dream coalition of Bidzina Ivanishvili passed a law on amnesty, releasing about half of Georgia's prisoners and shortening imprisonment for others.
The police became more sensitive to the law and human rights. Georgia does not use the same harsh measures of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili and ex-Minister of the Interior Vano Merabishvili to fight crime today.
Of course, such a combination of factors could not leave the overall situation unaffected, and, consequently, criminals got out of control, creating a firm image that the new government is less efficient on crime control than the old one. Simultaneously, the release of half of the imprisoned criminals of a small country could not happen without repercussions.
The government is certainly not sitting idly by. It started random checks on the streets. Police stop cars and pedestrians, check documents, send people to special hospitals to check them for drug addiction, fine them for drinking beer in parks and so on. But the methods have grieved the public. "Of course, crime should be fought but with what methods?" ask the attendees of many talk shows. No one ever clarifies what methods can suppress crime, because the methods used by the old government turned out to be unacceptable in terms of their cruelty and brutality.
The government and society cannot find a happy medium, because all post-Soviet experience in Georgia suggests that everything has its price. The lower crime level was achieved at the price of Gldani Prison; humanity, liberalism and scrupulous respect for human rights require the sacrifice of safety on the streets.
