Five residents of the Vitebsk region became heroes of the "Civil Courage" campaign for assisting the police

The tradition of holding the "Civil Courage" event on Defender of the Fatherland Day, honoring people with a civic stance, assistants in suppressing crimes and offenses, has been in place for almost 10 years. "During this time, the department's awards have recognized more than 20 residents of the region who actively participate in maintaining public order, show courage and heroism in difficult situations, and do not remain indifferent when they witness a violation of the law. Today, we are holding such an event again, honoring five nominees. We have also invited cadets and schoolchildren as spectators to educate our youth through living examples of civil courage," noted the head of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee Department of Internal Affairs, Viktor Senko.

Dmitry Mironov and Evgeny Chudakov, employees of OJSC "Dolomit," received diplomas from the Department of Internal Affairs in the nomination "For Bravery and Determination." On an April evening, the young men witnessed a crime in the urban settlement of Ruba: a man snatched a woman's bag on the street. Hearing cries for help, the guys did not hesitate and, after a rather long chase, detained the robber and handed him over to the police officers who arrived in response to the call. It turned out to be a seasoned criminal with a criminal record of several convictions.

Pensioner Leonid Daderkin detained a serial thief in the gardening cooperative "Tiraspol," of which he has been the chairman for almost a quarter of a century. In the evening, the vigilant man noticed a stranger who had no business in the cooperative. He followed him until he saw him climb through a window into one of the houses. The local guardian did not let the thief leave the house with the stolen goods. No matter how much the criminal swore, he did not risk using force against the determined pensioner. Now Leonid Daderkin is awarded in the nomination "For Non-Indifference," which is symbolic, as this quality is not the first time he has shown it – he has already detained seven offenders.

Among those awarded were also representatives of the fair sex - Alexandra Sinkevich and Natalia Tikhonova. These employees of a gas station on the outskirts of Vitebsk were recognized in the nomination "For Ingenuity and Resourcefulness". It was precisely these qualities they demonstrated when, left alone on duty late in the evening, they noticed a couple of intoxicated young men. They lingered by the beer refrigerator, behaving very boisterously. When they didn't have enough money to pay, they started swearing and acting aggressively. But the gas station operators did not lose their composure: they recorded the customers' car number and called the traffic police duty unit, and pressed the security alarm button. To buy time until the law enforcement officers arrived, they turned off the computers and used other tricks to detain the offenders. Traffic police officers intercepted the hooligans as they were leaving the gas station. Moreover, it involved a pursuit, as it turned out, one of the men was driving drunk and without a license. Viktor Senko emphasized that the awardees in the campaign are only a small fraction of caring people ready to help a stranger, to prevent a crime or offense.

"We don't need everyone to perform heroic deeds. The main thing is that people at least report a committed offense or crime. And this, fortunately, happens often. However, it is not uncommon for citizens themselves to actively participate in apprehending a criminal, detaining them until the police arrive. Moreover, there have been no cases where someone exceeded the limits of necessary self-defense or caused serious harm to the offender. All this indicates that our society is healthy and continues to develop progressively," the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate added.

Ekaterina Knyazeva. Photos by Alexander Khitrov. BELTA.