According to a complaint by a worker at a hospital, one of the two police officers accompanying a female patient used physical and verbal violence against her while they were waiting at the hospital for psychiatric evaluation. Specifically, when the girl (who is noted to have been handcuffed) got up from the chair she had been in for about 3 hours, the policeman reportedly got angry, pulled her by the hair, threw her down, kicked her, slapped her and violently pushed her to sit down again. She hadn’t provoked him or tried to escape, or done anything to justify his violence. When the employee protested, considering the behavior unacceptable, the two police officers told her to “mind her work.”
In a state governed by the rule of law, the actions of the police authorities must be governed by certain principles such as the principle of legality, the principle of proportionality, the prohibition of the abusive exercise of police power, and the respect and protection of human rights .
Although the police may use force in order to enforce the law, this does not mean that all use of force on their part is legal. On the contrary, the arbitrary use of violence is a dangerous phenomenon for a democracy.
The responsibilities of the police authorities and the behavior they must display in the exercise of their duties are regulated by Presidential Decrees 141/1991 and 254/2004. Furthermore, the transfer of a patient to a public psychiatric clinic for evaluation, must be carried out under conditions that ensure respect for the dignity of the patient, as stipulated in article 96 paragraph 5 of Law 2071/1992.
In this particular case, the alleged conduct of a police officer towards a patient whom he was accompanying to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation, and the unnecessary and excessive verbal and physical violence that appear to have been used, are absolutely reprehensible in a state governed by the rule of law.
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