Two long-awaited legal cases emerged out of Latvia last week. In the first case, the Riga Regional Court sentenced two men to short jail terms for physically assaulting a black man last summer. The State Police stressed that it was the first instance of justice being served for a race-based attack in Latvia, which occur with shameful regularity. In the second case, a court in Dobele, in eastern Latvia, sentenced a woman an eight-month jail term for hawking illegal alcohol, the very kind that sparked a minor epidemic in that part of the country last year and chalked up 13 deaths, according to the latest figures.
Believe it or not, law enforcement authorities are actually doing something about two of Latvia's endemic social problems.
In the alcohol poisoning trial, the woman, 43, admitted her guilt and, in a plea bargain deal, the court waived the sentence in exchange for a vow to never again engage in this illegal activity. She is poor, has no property and, in her words, sold the noxious brew 's a combination of ethyl alcohol and water that, when drunk even in small quantities, leads to toxic hepatitis 's to make ends meet. Naively, she claimed that people wouldn't sell the poison if they had regular jobs.
To be sure, though the case is welcomed, it is the tip of the iceberg 's or the bottom of the barrel, perhaps. There are dozens, if not hundreds of women like the one in Dobele, and though they should all be brought to justice, Latvia's police need to work the bottom wrung of the ladder with the aim to crack down on the vermin higher up 's the very network that distributes the industrial-strength alcohol. Curiously, the Dobele woman told the court that she regularly bought the raw material for her home brew 's the ethyl alcohol 's from an unidentified supplier on a monthly basis. Who are these distributors? Why are they not also in court? These are questions every Latvian deserves an answer to. Police can bust every last petty trader, but until they nail the scum flagrantly hawking the poison, knowing full well it won't be used for its designated purpose, it won't do much good. Legally, prosecuting distributors of ethyl alcohol is very challenging, but if there's political will, it can be done. If you can't get them for illegal intent, suing for tax evasion normally works.
The significance of the verdict in the racist attack cannot be overstated. Finally, Latvia's police and prosecutors have shown a semblance to moral beings when it comes to a hate-based crime, and now the message has been sent out. Still, it is way too early in the battle for self-praise. Much law-enforcement work, much of it gritty and thankless, needs to be done. For years now there have been reports that much of the latest string of attacks on dark-skinned foreigners is part of a larger, organized plan. Without belaboring this theory to the point of conspiracy, it would be appropriate to remind Latvia's authorities that, as with the moonshiner in Dobele, simply busting a couple thugs won't make a dent in the social disease of racism. Here, too, there are plenty of higher-ups that need to be brought to justice, and only with patience and political will can authorities achieve the necessary results.
