Petromir Genchev is 34 years old from Vratsa, he has been working as a patrol police officer in the local regional police department for ten years. In 2021, he registered with the Registration Agency a union, which was quickly identified as an organization of gays in the police. The police officer from Vratsa is married, has two small children, and was identified as bisexual on one website.
“Whoever does what in his free time from work and in his personal life is his personal business and it should not interest anyone, Genchev is categorical. – Our union is not only for people with a different sexual organization, but for everyone, who feel discriminated against on any grounds or grounds.”
The organization is registered as a Union of Employees of the Ministry of the Interior for Equality and Integration. And anyone who feels discriminated against because of some mark – ethnicity, religion, sexual organization or something else, can seek our legal help, even if he is not a member of the union, explains the patrol policeman.
“Even if they have such problems, the colleagues from our system do not dare to complain, even when we offer them protection and quality legal assistance, says Genchev. – We do not have rights in the union, but if necessary and if there is a complaint, we hire a lawyer to help with the defense. We have good lawyers available who deal with discrimination cases.
Not a few of Genchev’s colleagues from Vratsa believe that he has selfish motives and has registered this union because, as its chairman, he is protected from dismissal. However, none of them wanted to be quoted and publicly share their opinion, conveniently hiding behind their official position and referring us to the press center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
He refused to comment on the new trade union and the commander of the department of the union policeman Tsvetelin Petrov, stating that he does not care at all what Genchev does in his off-hours, who for him is a good and responsible policeman, and for everything else we should ask the “big bosses” in the Ministry of the Interior. Petromir himself says that he has heard this accusation many times, and after the registration of the union, colleagues asked him how much money they gave him to “do this thing, or which NGO is behind it.
“I don’t have permission from my colleagues to mention their names and their place of work, but from them I know about many cases in the regional offices in Vrachansko of harassment against them because they are Roma or Muslim or there is suspicion about their sexual orientation. We helped some to defend their rights, but most are afraid of attracting more whites if they complain and demand equality in the workplace.”
When it was registered, the union for equality and integration had a dozen members, but now half of them remain, all from the Vratsa police department. The others became alarmed and worried after many media outlets announced that the union was only for police officers of non-conventional sexual orientation and left.
The only woman in this group gave up her union membership because she was subjected to such pressure and harassment from colleagues that she almost quit her job at the Ministry of the Interior. However, the remaining five defined themselves as heterosexual, but feeling threatened in some way at their workplace and ready to defend their rights and those of their colleagues.
Petromir Genchev insists that this core does not necessarily fight for the growth of the membership, and does not collect membership fees. But for a long time he has been trying to get a meeting with one of the frequently changing ministers of the interior or any head of the system, in order to officially present the union and thus legitimize it. He hopes that then his colleagues and from the country, with whom he has spoken during various police seminars and trainings, will join the union.
“It is true that police officers already have seven different unions, but their professional activity is mainly social, they are fighting for better pay, for modern regulation of working conditions, says Genchev. The colleagues there are doing their job very well and we support them , because we are in the same cube as they say. But we have another specific niche, and I am convinced that our union is in great need, no matter that it is not felt yet.”
But there are many police officers who, however, confuse things and feel neglected if the assistance they seek does not turn out to be available. “I had to explain many times exactly what the Anti-Discrimination Law provides. The fact that a colleague treats you badly because he doesn’t like you for some reason, for example, is not discrimination,” explains Genchev.
Therefore, the trade unionist policeman is looking for all possible ways to reach the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He shared that he will mainly plead for the introduction of good European practices in police work and support for changes in the Criminal Code. Because it lacked, for example, the crime of hate motivated by homophobia. Therefore, many colleagues do not know how to react in such cases and define them as hooliganism, but this did not clarify things at all.
“Such crimes are of higher public danger, and therefore the punishments should be greater. Many of the victims of such hate crimes do not dare to complain to the police, because they do not see the point in doing so, given that the law cannot protect them.”
Genchev says that his desire to present the problems of the discriminated to the public and to the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is to start a debate at all. And as soon as there is a debate, eventually a solution to this problem will be reached, he expresses his optimism.
2023-12-25 19:00:00
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