ADANA - Evaluating the increasing of the authority of the watchmen, ÇHD Vice President Ümit Büyükdağ stated that the government expanded their authority in order to suppress social revolts such as Gezi protests.

 

Vice President of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD) Ümit Büyükdağ made evaluations regarding the increasing of the aurhority of the watchmen and the police violence and the bill introduced at the parliament. Büyükdağ stated that the police violence have increased with the outbreak.

 

VIOLENCE BECAME VISIBLE IN THE OUTBREAK

 

Underlining that police, as a structure affiliated to the Ministry of the Interior, always take responsibility for actions such as torture, ill-treatment, dissappearances under custody and murders, Büyükdağ said: "The law enforcement ensures the safety of the state, not the citizens. They can create all kinds of crimes and commit all kinds of crimes to survive. The nature of the law enforcement have always been like this since Lyon butcher Joseph Fouche. It is built on committing crimes against the people. The regular people are surprised to see that social movements are supressed by police violence like its a new thing. It's not."

 

THEY AIM TO AVOID REVOLTS

 

Stating that we first need to consider why the state needs the watchmen, Büyükdağ said: "They are worried that a social revolt like Gezi might occur again and they need the watchmen for that. The government is trying to normalize the violence. From this aspect, seeing the watchmen as the merceneries of the AKP is wrong. It is the wish of both the state and the capital. They can place watchmen to every street, every neighborhood, every door if they can. They are cheaper than the police and easier to use for every task police wouldn't do. Arbitrariness and unlawfulness have increased in recent years as they are the principle of the state. Inevitably, watchmen will take the top place in the production of state violence."

 

POLICY OF IMPUNITY

 

Stating that the police violence is actually state violence, Büyükdağ said: "Police can execute people, torture them and don't face the consequences. They kill the Kurds with armoured vehicles and walk away. Shot people in the traffic and walk away. This is the joint attitude of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior. Therefore, the guardian of the impunity policy is judgment. The chambers of Judges and Prosecutors are filled with watchmen more than they have judges and prosecutors. Examples such as the authority to use guns or search people are the result of this arbitrariness and impunity. They are giving a message. They say you are at the mercy of the watchmen in a country where the police does not obey the law."

 

Expressing that they will be standing against the police violence with the people in all steps of the way, Büyükdağ stated that they will not take one step back and fight against this violence. Büyükdağ said: "We should not let the people whose wages come from our pockets to come and batter us as they like. As the ÇHD, we give you our word that we have never left you alone in this and we never will."

 

MA / Hamdullah Kesen