A Minsk resident published a post on Threads describing a conflict with teenagers in the Nemiga area. The publication drew criticism from the Interior Ministry, which said that in such cases people should contact the police rather than write on social media.
According to the woman’s post, the teenagers behaved provocatively. Unable to restrain herself, she called one of them a “freak”. The teenagers then began demonstratively filming her, and on the metro platform they tripped her.
“I was shaking, my hands were trembling… A feeling of confusion, resentment, fear, helplessness. Is it normal for an adult to be afraid of teenagers?! Not to know how to protect oneself from them?! How should one react and behave in such a situation? Is there any point in trying to obtain CCTV footage from the metro and filing a police report?! It feels like some kind of stalking… I would really like them to be ‘punished’”, the woman wrote.
The Interior Ministry said the woman acted improperly by posting about the incident on social media.
“Instead of seeking help from the police, the woman published a post on a social network that caused a public reaction. Of course, this did not go unnoticed by law enforcement”, the ministry said.
The author of the post was identified the following day and invited to a district police department, where she filed a statement. A “repentance video” was recorded with her, in which she explained that she “had not yet managed to обратиться anywhere”. The identities of the 13-year-old schoolchildren were established. The Interior Ministry said it had launched a check.
The ministry urged people to “exercise prudence” and contact the police in the event of an offence, adding that social media posts “often create a distorted perception of what happened” and may hinder the objectivity of checks.
It should be recalled that the chair of the Council of the Republic Natallia Kachanava has proposed introducing liability for complaints by Belarusians on social media.
