"Drunk Boy 2.0"? In search of justice
Internet forensics require mass executions
The case of the “drunken boy” is again widely discussed in Russia. But with one amendment: this is the second time in recent years. Differences from the first case, which took place in the city of Zheleznodorozhny, near Moscow, are very significant. But there are common features that make us instantly draw parallels and make some generalizations.
But let's take it in order. 13 July 2019 years in the Kirov region, with. Buyskoye, the operational duty officer of one of the local police departments, Major Sergey Melnikov, in his Nissan Qashqai car, ran into a six-year-old boy who rode his bicycle from a secondary road to the main one. As a result of the accident, the boy was thrown back at 20 meters (eyewitness accounts), he received multiple severe injuries, including head wounds, chest injuries, liver rupture, etc. The child died from the injuries on the spot.
Sergey Melnikov immediately called the police and an ambulance, and also offered his help to the boy’s parents in organizing the funeral (full payment). He was also examined for the presence of alcohol in his blood. The result of the survey is negative - the driver of the car at the time of the accident was sober.
(Press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Kirov region.)
In general, the picture of an accident involving a child is pretty typical: a small bicycle driver jumped literally under the wheels of a car whose driver did not have time to react and hit. And this story It would hardly have received wide publicity if the social networks had not begun to disseminate the results of the examination, according to which the deceased boy was drunk.
After the above-mentioned incident in Zheleznodorozhny, such expert conclusions became for the public a bit of a red rag for the bull: immediately there appeared those who drew a parallel with that egregious case and concluded that the driver was guilty. This guilt was aggravated by the fact that he was a police officer, and therefore could use his official position to falsify the results of the investigation. From here it’s not far from the conclusions of universal corruption, the “bloody regime” and other horrors of the struggle for all the good against all the bad.
Do not remotely understand ...
However, there are some points in the case that require very careful consideration. And in general, with an unbiased approach, you understand that this is a complicated matter, and finding out something remotely from hundreds or thousands of kilometers is very problematic. Therefore, we will leave the sentences in absentia to the Kirov major on the conscience of those who understand everything in advance. And we’ll try to carefully and correctly figure out at least what is more or less known from open sources.
First of all, we note that the alcohol content in the boy’s blood was not very large, 0,51 ppm. For comparison: the blood content of the victims of the tragedy in Zheleznodorozhny discovered the alcohol content in 2,7 ppm - that is, more than five times more. In this case, the dose exceeds the maximum permissible 0,35 ppm for adult drivers, but not so much as to indicate some serious intoxication. Given the small body weight of the child, a drunk mug of kvass, kefir, and standing fruit juice could give a temporary jump in the ethanol content in the blood. And to say unequivocally that in a child’s blood such an alcohol content is in principle impossible, probably impossible.
Probably, one should also bear in mind that after the case mentioned above, a forensic expert would hardly have been found who agreed to a direct forgery of the results of the examination. Let me remind you that the Moscow Region case ended with three years in a penal colony for the culprit of the accident and ten months of correctional work for an expert accused of negligence (it was impossible to prove collusion and intentional damage to the samples).
No, we cannot completely exclude this - friendships, for example, or some other personal interest. But here it must be borne in mind that Sergei Melnikov was on vacation, passing through the village of Buyskoye in transit, it was, as they say, “not his area”. It is unlikely that local police officers would just commit an official crime out of a sense of solidarity (and in a certain scenario, it could well qualify as a criminal offense) to shield a colleague. Here, as they say, your shirt is closer to the body.
We also note that only after the tragedy, the local authorities put things in order on the road - removed weeds along the curbs, made markings and even marked a pedestrian crossing in this place. Again, we know this from the words of eyewitnesses, local residents, and we cannot fully guarantee the accuracy of this information. However, taking into account our realities, it is quite easy to believe in this: we decided to play it safe, put everything in order, and now the high authorities from the region have nothing to complain about. At the same time, there is no need to explain how the weeds can be wiped out by mid-July and how they can hide the visibility of a six-year-old baby on a small bicycle.
If guilty, let him sit down. But is it to blame?
I do not set myself the goal of absolutely justifying Sergei Melnikov - if he is to blame, let him sit. But at the same time, it is obvious that the situation in which he finds himself can happen at any moment to most of us: alas, it is a small child on a bicycle that is one of the greatest nightmares of a motorist.
I do not believe that children necessarily follow the rules of the road. I don’t believe it simply because I remember ourselves and the way we jumped on a sled to the roadway almost under the wheels of a passing vehicle. We were asked not to do this, and of course we promised. We were scolded and of course we cried and promised again. They promised to register us in the children's room of the police, and again we promised to behave well ...
And then, after a few days or weeks, a fresh snow fell, we took sledges and ...
The behavior of a major who finds himself in such a terrible situation bribes me. He didn’t leave, tried to help, offered help to his parents. Somehow this does not look like the behavior of a typical bastard, as they sometimes try to set him up.
The Investigative Committee of Russia took control of the investigation into this matter. Alas, it is already impossible to make some examinations, and even more so it is impossible to return the life of a child who has fallen under the wheels. Therefore, the only thing that remains in this case to hope for is the triumph of justice. And what it will be like, now it’s impossible to say. But it is safe to say that the thirst for blood often runs counter to the achievement of justice ...
In this case, I prefer to wait for the findings of the IC and the court decision and only then make any final conclusions. Otherwise, it is too easy to become like a mass of advocates of "justice" in quotation marks, shouting frantically "crucify him!" and thinking of anything but true justice.
Information