Tourism
Never in a month of Sundays: why crime still pays
by Seymour Touns
November 2005
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A tourist bus disgorges passengers
in Bucharest. Such buses are preyed on by Bucharest’s street
mafia. |
For some time now I have advocated the creation of tourist-friendly zones in Bucharest, with the Lipscani district, the Amzi/Athene Palace area and Dorobanti all featuring on my wish list. The recent opening of the Garden of Remembrance on Piata Revoloutii renewed my hope that finally a new culture of beautification and tourism was emerging in the city. I was therefore alarmed and horrified to hear recent reports of an increasing wave of crimes targeting foreigners and visitors on the streets of the capital. Leslie Hawke’s account of her attack on Calea Victoriei (see Vivid, September 2005) and the bludgeoning incidents of crimes in the now deserted night-alleyways of Lipscani (ibid, Trudy Boos), filled me with a sense of despair that the (albeit embryonic) attempts to clean up the physical appearance of the city are being undermined by the strengthening physical grip of street crime.
Discussing this trend with some foreign residents, it is clear that these isolated incidents are far from being the case, and that official reports of pick-pocketing, muggings and extortion are only the tip of a mafia-organised ring of corruption and crime against foreigners that never reaches the ears of the authorities or the press. For instance, it appears that in recent months the area around the Athenee Palace Hotel alone has witnessed an escalating number of thefts and staged attacks. A former resident of three years who returns regularly on business was only last month badly beaten and robbed on Strada Episcopiei having left the hotel casino with his 1,000 RON winnings minutes earlier. Another foreign resident recalled how he was followed in his car by a blacked-out Mercedes ‘taxi’ parked in front of the Athenaeum, only to be deliberately rear-ended by the Mercedes in a distant northern suburb. The taxi driver then demanded he pay 2,000 euros in exchange for not involving the police. A resident of over ten years, explained that such “accidents” are commonplace for cars with foreign plates or hire-car logos. “It’s good business for the mafia who see foreign drivers as easy targets who can be intimidated into paying in euros,” he told me.
Yet apparently the line of corruption goes deeper. I am reliably informed that these criminal elements often work in cahoots with hotel employees and security guards (and even the police) who give them the nod on the movements of visiting rich-pickings, and who also willingly mediate the supply of prostitutes for a cut of the fee.
To test the allegation, I recently decided to position myself amid a crowd of foreign visitors disembarking from a coach in front of a hotel at midday. Deliberately appearing disorientated and vulnerable, I was almost immediately approached by a man in his 30s who spoke in English, asking a well-rehearsed string of rapid fire questions: “How are you?”; “This first time in Bucharest?”; “You want girls? I have car” (pointing to a big Mercedes). This was all observed by the hotel’s security guard, who did nothing to stop the deal. Naturally I declined the offer, but can well imagine the dangers of theft or attack I may have been exposed to had I accepted. And if anything had happened, under the circumstances I would hardly have been in a position to go the police clutching my empty wallet and bruises – a point that these unofficial ‘tour-operators’ know only too well. My test was hardly scientific and if you go looking for ‘night-services’ then you accept the associate risks, but it did prove at least that these people do not only hunt at night and definitely do target foreigners.
If you live in Bucharest you are regularly approached by kids running rackets in the streets and know to keep well away. I too believe I know the scams and can deal with them. Likewise I believe I know who and who not to speak to, but first time visitors do not. And whilst I would always advise against late-night strolls through dark streets (as I would in London for example), I would hitherto have thought that the well-lit Bucharest tourist hubs were a safe place to walk, in what is generally a safe city with decent and honest people. The mafia and mafia-taxi providers however are far from decent and honest. Knowing what I now do, would I let my visiting friends wonder these same streets alone, unaware of the hidden dangers? Never on a month of Sundays.
The pathetic Bucharest mini-mafia (for let’s face it, if they were really powerful they’d at least be making millions in diamond smuggling or money laundering) continue to survive because the police allow them to, in return for kick-backs from the foreigners they extort. The knock-on effect is that foreign victims of such crime paint all Romanians with the same brush, and then go home to ward off other would-be visitors with their horror stories. What is more worrying is how, despite 15 years of post-revolution progress, Romania still hasn’t shaken off this mentality of corruption. I spent many years living in Poland and Czechoslovakia in the mid 1990s where even then both countries had rid themselves of the small time mafia wannabes. Much as I want to see Romania join the EU, I fear that the country is in many ways still too immature and unsophisticated for modern day Europe.
So what can be done? For their part, the hotels hosting foreign visitors need to employ legitimate security guards to protect their guests from these criminal rings. They should also install Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) to observe the activity outside of their hotels and car parks. CCTV has proven to be an effective deterrent against street crime all over Europe, and is so easy and cheap it is frankly irresponsible not to make use of it. As for the government, they could easily and simply get rid of these parasites (if they wanted to) by demanding the police arrest them (they know exactly who they are) and then name and shame them in the press. It is also high time that the pointless key-stone cops who man the traffic intersections directing the traffic were re-deployed to do some real civil protection on the streets where they are needed.
I know the new government has a lot on its plate. I know that cash is tight, and I know that Rome wasn’t built in a day. But I also know that an increasingly powerful ring of mini-mafia crime is way down on the government’s list of priorities.
However, if demographic government equates to guaranteeing a secure society for all, then immediate and decisive intervention is necessary to prove that crime really does not pay and that anyone, be they resident or visitor can feel safe on the streets - not just on a Sunday but any day.