Rendőrség: Riot Control with Hungary's Finest

Sarah smartly shielding herself from the rowdy JSBP-ers 

How to swarm and arrest a rioter.

         This lovely morning, the JSBP crew found ourselves walking up to Hungary's headquarters for the Riot Control Police force in Budapest.  The headquarters functions as a training ground and boarding area for the police (Walking around This department employs 3,459 men and women in Hungary—there are departments in almost every county of the country!  The Riot Control Police have several units and responsibilities spanning a myriad of events and occurrences in Hungary.  They have an “air force” unit (mostly helicopters), K9 unit, bomb disposal service, counter-terrorist service, immigration control, mounted riot unit, engage in riot control, VIP escorts, provide courier services, have a financial division, and even a professional music band.  The list is expansive and goes on, and on…and on!

Self-Defense against knives

Tank - Shoots 14 mm

Casually holding a
grenade launcher, used to
deploy tear gas -
"not like the French!"

                  After listening to a short presentation (translated by the one and only Ildiko) about the roles and responsibilities of the Riot Control Police, I was still a little confused about the differences between Riot Control and the average police officer.  It turns out that there are a couple reasons for this. I think what might have thrown me off the most was that their uniforms are different.  The police that I’ve seen everyday are not average police officers, they are the Riot Control police (who have more training), and this is most likely because we live in an area with several embassies, so they need to provide an added level of protection.  On top of this, most police officers are limited to their local jurisdiction, whereas a Riot Control officer has jurisdiction throughout the entire country.  Riot Control officers can also be invited into towns and local departments to provide an added level of service; Whitney and Tito were really helpful to my understanding of the difference between the two in equating the Riot Control officers to state police in the United States. 

How to safely pull over someone
who is armed and dangerous!

         When the discussion came to an end, we were led outside to see the different riot control tools employed by the force.  We saw several types of grenade launchers that were used to disperse tear gas as well as the full body gear worn by the officers.  We even had the opportunity to hold the shields that they use to resist against and control large crowds.  From there, we looked at their huge trucks and tanks that make their job a little easier.  

The officer explaining to us the functions of each told us that while it all looked very intimidating, they use the trucks rarely, and some of them are even used to plow snow. 

Take him down!

Scary death truck...
actually less intimidating than it looks:
used to keep crowds out of certain area

         For me, the most exciting part of the whole day was watching officers dressed up in their full gear perform some of their training exercises for us.  They first showed us arrest, escort, and crowd control procedures.  Then one group demonstrated self defense and restrain tactics using batons, or hand-to-hand techniques when facing projectiles or someone with a knife.  The last group demonstrated the procedure for pulling someone over and arresting them in a safe and controlled manner.  It was pretty neat.

         Overall, I enjoyed today, but it was a disappointment for me because I expected something different.  I thought we would have the chance to understand the big 2006 riots, hooligan riots that they deal with, and the dangerous situations they face with on a daily basis, and maybe the opportunity to question issues with policy brutality.  To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect, but thought it would be interesting to learn about certain protocols.  I think this may be where the language barrier becomes a problem in Budapest, and I think that our discussion would have gone in further depth if said barrier didn’t exist.  The whole presentation seemed to be a production to show the system of the force: how it works and what they do.  There was nothing else said about the force, like their mistakes or successes, or developments that have occurred.  That's what I've appreciated about the other field studies trips, we go into depth and learn about the good and the bad (sometimes it's all bad) that have come of different situations.  Nonetheless, I did really, really appreciate being able to see up close the types of weapons and vehicles the force uses, and I thought “show” was very entertaining!  


Here is a video I found about the 2006 riots that I had been hoping to learn about...take the time to watch it as it's very interesting. The rioters were reacting to the release of the PM's secret, confidential speech in which he revealed that the Hungarian Socialist Party had lied to win the 2006 election.  The Riot Police took a lot of heat for using rubber bullets on the crowd, and drew a lot of attention to themselves regarding the question of police brutality.

          

The Spectacle

Central Kavehaz

On another note, after this, we all decided to go to the Central Kavehaz (Central Coffeehouse) to complete one of our assignments from our Hungarian history teacher, Agnes Beretsky.  She is a really enthusiastic and intelligent woman who strives for us to really understand the Hungarian point of view by asking us to do a lot of hands-on activities, or bringing us Turo Rodi (delicious cottage cheese filled chocolate, better than it sounds).  We’ve had to visit museums with a partner, listen to different music, and she even plans on having one of her Hungarian students teach us Hungarian folk dances.  While all of this is usually fun and interesting, it usually involves spending some amount of money that we didn’t budget for!  I think I speak for everyone when I say THANK YOU to Molly for covering the cost of our trip to the coffeehouse!  It was delicious and it was more enjoyable knowing that it was “on the house.”

Yum,

Live and Learn.