Tragedy in Teplice

I do love my adopted country, the land where I’ve lived for 23 years now, the forests, the parks, the ponds, lakes and rivers, the beautiful old buildings and the highly efficient public transportation. One thing I don’t like about the Czech Republic is how eager they are to be like Americans. Fast food outlets dot the freeways and dominate shopping malls throughout the country, and now the Czech police have taken things to a new and horrible extreme.
Yesterday, in Teplice (tep-lee-tzay), the police murdered a Gypsy man by kneeling on his neck. They say he was on drugs (likely true), but it is clear from the video that the police killed him. He was not in a comatose state, he was not overdosing. The police were called because he was in an argument with another man, who had the good sense to run away. Advice to all people: when you see the police coming, just run like hell. If they can’t catch you, they can’t kill you, and most of them are old and fat and can’t run very far.
I do hope the Czech courts do a better job of disciplining the officers involved than American courts do, but I’m not holding my breath. The racism against the gypsies is one of the ugliest aspects of life in the Czech Republic.
My condolences to the family and friends of the murdered man. Fuck the police.