Sunday, April 27, Saratov.

Interesting little scene just outside my window this afternoon. I am working at the computer. I keep hearing men's voices. It starts to get a little annoying and I get up to look out the window. Fellow about my age is pretty drunk, sitting on the ground underneath my window. There is a police car at the curb--an older model white Lada sedan. There are two officers out of the car standing about 5-6  feet away from the guy, speaking with him in calm tones. They are smartly dressed. He's a little agitated and has a cut over his right eye, a big bruise on his face. Blood has dripped down one side of his face and dried there. He looks rough. He is a pretty big guy, probably 6 feet 200 lbs. This goes on for about 20 minutes. One of the officers carries a little sub-machine gun over his shoulder. It never gets tense. Not once. They let him call someone on his cell phone at least twice. There is some very mild amusement on the part of the officers once in  a while. They speak with him almost softly. One of them sits in the car and at one point speaks to whoever is on the other end of the guy's phone. They never act threatening towards him in any way. I don't think they have any sort of dash-cam. The guy stands and walks over toward the one with the machine gun. He calmly removes it from his shoulder and hands it to his partner in the car. They just kind of leisurely keep an eye on him. Nothing physical, no real interrogation of any kind. An ambulance arrives. The medic very kindly takes a look at the guy and guides him over to the ambulance. Another guy, his wife, and a baby carriage go by and he shakes one of the officer's hands as they pass. The cops get in their car and drive away. The ambulance follows shortly.


I am impressed at the low key aspect of the whole interaction.