Romanian Police: clarifications for the discussions that appeared in the public space

The Romanian Police today published a series of clarifications for the multitude of questions that appeared in the public space after the heads of the institution met with the leaders of some underworld clans to discuss the murder of another important leader in Bucharest.

"CLARIFICATIONS OF SOME QUESTIONS ARISING IN THE PUBLIC SPACE
Did the Romanian Police act correctly or not?
Why didn't you communicate?
Why was it necessary for the Chief of Police to participate in this action?
Is the Chief of Police resigning or retiring?
Why do we have thugs?
Why don't you deconstruct them?
ETC.
They are just a part of the questions and opinions expressed recently in the public space to us, the police.
Because we have the obligation to provide correct information, but also because we also learned something from this event, we will answer here:
The Romanian Police acted legally, correctly, according to all the rules in force, which are not only applied in crisis cases in our country, but also internationally. In any situation of this nature, you analyze and implement the most effective solution, so that the lives and integrity of people are protected. It is not only us who say it, to excuse or justify our action, but experts in crisis management say it, according to the rules of police tactics and information gathering, which are also applied in other states with experience in the management of this kind of events.
We know, there were voices that said why did we allow this event to last so long, why did we allow the vigil to be at home. What no one said, not even us, was that, according to the law, the Romanian Police does not apply sanctioning measures in this area.
We are not going to resume the entire thread of events, we are only going to remind you that this event was analyzed, from two perspectives: limiting the spread of the new coronavirus, respectively, and very importantly, preventing the production of acts of violence, likely to seriously affect public order.
There were quite a few people who said that the police intervened and stopped a wedding in Constanța, and in the case of Bucharest they "allowed the underlings to organize a disgraceful event", carried out for several days. We didn't explain that enough either, so we are now bringing to the public's attention the fact that we have applied sanctions in one case and in the other, for violating the rules in force. Thus, among other measures, more than 250 sanctions were applied in Bucharest, with the funeral continuing to comply with the legal norms. It was also forbidden to distribute the 500 packages, thus managing not to create any outbreak of coronavirus in that area.
However, from the point of view of the production of acts of violence by the clans, likely to affect public order, this fact requires more extensive explanations.
Clans did not appear this year. Over time, extensive operations were organized to destroy them, and their main leaders, sometimes even belonging to consecutive generations, were locked up in prisons repeatedly (the Duduianu family is the third generation in prison, some of them convicted the third time).
The event that generated the current public debate took place as a result of a spontaneous conflict between several people, some of whom have proven criminal activities or come from families known to have activities in the criminal environment.
And here citizens of good faith can rightfully ask questions like: "why didn't you arrest them, did you know about them or should have known them; there was information on the sources and it was known that the barbut was being played in that house for a long time; what did you do?"
We can answer that these aspects are the subject of current checks and ongoing investigations, which will continue until we give an answer based on the evidence, and this will be publicly communicated and assumed by those who make these checks.
What we can say now is that this unwanted event has highlighted a deficient aspect of our current organization:
The departure from our ranks of a large number of professionals, those who know sophisticated police work in the field, people who commanded respect and fear among criminals, can cause syncope in operative moments. We know this and we try to remedy it promptly in every crisis situation that arises.
As a result, today we ended up discussing why the head of the Romanian Police took to the streets to solve the problem, precisely because at that moment it was the only effective operative solution, in Romanian, we had no other solution that would guarantee the success of the operation. Sad but true. (concretely, quaestor Vasilescu was on leave for 5 days, he was called back urgently and solved the problem in 5 hours, and anyway the head of the Romanian Police was not on his first "field trip" since taking office). In conclusion, the quaestor Vasilescu was the only one considered to have the necessary experience to coordinate an operative, he didn't even hide, he didn't do anything illegal, acting according to the "letter of the manual" of police tactics, which every policeman must know. (plus, as you noticed, the operatives knew where the cameras were at all times).
Other questions we answer here.
Why have we not communicated these elements publicly until now? Precisely because operations of this kind by the Romanian Police can only be public at the end of the investigations. Any information that would have appeared in the public space could have compromised the research.
Why didn't we communicate after the funeral, but only when some images appeared? Because the Police operation did not end after the funeral.
Why did they meet at night? Because there was an element of surprise. A late hour was chosen so that there was no possibility for this information to be disseminated quickly to all those who had announced their presence and about whom we had information that they would be present at 14.00.
Why weren't the family members called to the police headquarters for discussions? Because a tactical disadvantage would have been created, they could refuse to show up. (generally, these people are brought to the Police with arrest warrants!)
Does quaestor Vasilescu have to resign? We believe that the argument presented by us above implicitly also provides the answer: the head of the Romanian Police did his duty effectively, solving a complicated problem, according to the written or customary rules of our institution.
We will inform the public about all the final details of this case and promise total transparency. At the same time, we will also operatively expose any kind of manipulation dedicated to purposes of destabilizing the activity of our institution.
Thank you for your attention and understanding!"