Editor’s Note: A five-year-old boy has died in a Kyiv hospital on June 3 after drunken off-duty police officers allegedly shot him in the head accidentally. The incident sparked public outrage and protests. Many demanded that Interior Minister Arsen Avakov resign and questioned the effectiveness of the police reform that was launched in 2014.
Olga Kuzmenko,
lawyer
“The police should respect citizens who pay taxes that pay for their work. They need to understand that a police officer is a hireling of the nation. They need to be responsible for the citizens’ life and safety. The police reform changed nothing.”
Volodymyr Plotkin,
student
“I don’t know if it is even possible to trust them. It’s impossible to reform the whole system because it is impossible to withdraw the police and create the new police.”
Dmytro Komarov,
IT specialist
“I think they need to dismiss the senior leadership. Certain kind of trust exists, but we need time to build more trust. Judicial and police reforms are connected — this is a process that will take many years. We need new faces.”
Svitlana Yevtushenko,
English teacher
“To arrive on time! And be fair, so that not only rich people have the power.”
Viktoria Shubko,
on maternity leave
“They should be polite when people approach them. They shouldn’t kill kids like they just did. They should reveal themselves from a different side. For example, I would be amused, if a police officer took the risk and went into a burning house to rescue people. I wish I saw more actions like this, sincere actions. Police officer as a profession should be a calling. Police officers should work not for money, but because they want to be heroes.”
