It was not a crime to be hit during the Women’s Strike. The prosecutor’s office did not bring any criminal charges as it was “only” a misdemeanor. Is such an assessment of the situation scandalous or does it have any grounds?
Hitting the Women’s Strike
The Warsaw branch of TVN informs that the deduction for Women’s Strike – caused by the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal on fetal abortion for embryopathological reasons – was not a crime, but an offense. Consequently, the driver did not hear any criminal charges.
The spokesman of the Warsaw police, Sylwester Marczak, referred to the actions of the police during the protests and informed that a BMW driver was among those detained in connection with the protests.
It was supposed to pass through the crowd of protesters. The event itself was filmed by the protesters. You can’t see too much. However, it is known that at least one person was admitted to the hospital – luckily with minor injuries.
Interestingly, the detained BMW driver – according to TVN – is an officer of the Internal Security Agency.
Crime or… misdemeanor?
The police found an offense under Art. 160 of the Criminal Code. It states in §1 that
Whoever exposes a person to the immediate danger of loss of life or serious damage to health,
is punishable by imprisonment of up to 3 years.
The case files were first sent to the Warsaw-Mokotów District Prosecutor’s Office. For some reason, they were then sent to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, which decided not to initiate criminal proceedings.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office – Aleksandra Skrzyniarz – explained to PAP that:
In particular, the monitoring recordings were secured and the people involved in the incident were interviewed. Moreover, the prosecutor’s office obtained opinions on injuries sustained by victims. These opinions clearly indicate that the above-mentioned persons suffered bodily injuries resulting in health disorders lasting less than seven days. The above excludes the possibility of assigning a traffic accident to the driver of a passenger car.
What just happened?
I do not understand
The spokeswoman also added that after the completion of the procedural steps, the man was released. He will be responsible for the offense at best.
I do not understand this assessment of the situation, because the above-mentioned Art. 160 of the Criminal Code does not require any health impairment, hence the position of the prosecutor’s office is strange.
The fact is that there were no serious injuries among the protesters. The recording of the event, however, is available and it is easy to judge – even without specialist knowledge – that it could have ended differently. The driver seems to have consciously added the gas to break free from the crowd.
The protesters were on each side of the vehicle, so this behavior was undoubtedly risky to say the least. The case leaves a number of doubts, which is influenced, among others, by the fact of forwarding the case files to the higher prosecutor’s office. Finally, I will add – which is probably obvious – that such behavior – like BMW drivers – does not deserve any justification.
It is one thing that someone does not like the protests. Yes – we have an epidemic – but we also have constitutional rights, which so far (fortunately) have undoubtedly not been legally suspended.
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