how does the legal system work in poland?

can anyone tell me, does Poland have a similar system to Spain, where anyone can go into a police station and
'denounce' someone for a crime committed?
in Spain it is called a 'denuncia' and is a hangover from the days of the dictatorship.
If you walked into a police station here in UK and said ooooh my neighbour has an untaxed car and blah blah blah, they would probably tell you to

get lost and stop wasting police time.
How is it in Poland? I am getting the impression that the system there might be more similar to Spain....

Yes. It is called filing a notification of suspicion of the committing of a criminal act.

ah hah, thank you Harry, that is interesting and explains alot.....

you could do it but then everyone would label you a rat for informing.

Bravo sir, you must be a highly intelligent human being.

I suggest you look up "communism", "stalinism" and "socialism" while you're on your quest for discovery, it might help you to draw your conclusions.


Sure and we all know what happens to rats in Poland... They live happily ever after and get to keep their spoils, case in point Jaroslaw Sokolowski, otherwise known as "Masa".

thanks midas, I am intelligent enough thanks, there is no need to be patronising.
I was just asking a question, as I live in the UK and was curious.
I already studied that stuff at uni when I was doing 20th century history.
It does go someway to explaining certain...traits...
Oh and if i was a 'sir' my little symbol would be quite different.

Hi Midas!

My family were Spanish refugees and I have come across numerous people who had lived in Spain, Portugal, Greece or South America under dictatures (just to mention a few) and trust me, it was not any "softer" than in Poland et al. under communism. In fact, fascism and communism have a lot in common so the author's message is not "stupid" to compare Spanish and Polish legal systems so no need to look up in dictionaries. Besides, "communism" and "socialism" do not mean anything if for instance we look at China, which has both a communist government and the most capitalist economy (lending money even to the US) and what Western Europeans call "socialism".

PS : have you ever seen a fascist regime? I have (Spain, Portugal and Greece under the Colonels) and believe me nothing to be excited about. I saw Poland for first time on March 19, 1990.

Apologies for being a bit of a bastard then.

And yes, in my opinion these three words explain nearly all the "traits".

I had a "firma polonijna" in Poland in the 1980's and I'm pretty sure my official file over at the "SB" or whatever they call themselves these days is fairly long. Has a lot to do with literally legions of informants, paid and unpaid, they kept at that time. Street money exchangers ( "cinkciarze" ), prozzers, pimps, taxi drives, hotel employees, anyone in a position that might come in contact with foreigners, you name it. Polish guys who helped us with the business back then were routinely harassed by SB and quite frankly those that didn't mention such an occurence to us came under suspicion immediately, usually for a good reason.



Never said it was. Although I personally believe many left-leaning people in Western Europe, U.S., UK and Scandinavia GREATLY underestimate the sheer scale of ugliness and invigilation that took place in the Eastern Bloc.


China hasn't been communist for decades and its socialism is questionable, look up a certain chap called Deng Xiaoping and his famous "cat quote". They've been teaching that stuff at universities since the late 1970's I think over in China.

Currently China is a... well, kleptocracy/oligarchy is probably the right word. With the oligarchs being "communist" party barons and their connections to the business world.


Sure, I need you of all people to tell me not to be excited by facist regimes. Because I simply love them, they are adorable.

Must have something to do with me being Jewish and my family lore mentioning the names of relatives that got "processed" after passing through the gate adorned with the "Arbeit Macht Frei" quote at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

I mean go adolf hitler, go fascists, everyone on board. <sarcasm>

Nope....dont be so silly. Roz look up Napoleonic Code.

OK Midas! I had thought that you were among the Poles who praise Franco, Salazar, Pinochet, Papadopoulous and the like. Trust me, it was as much hell as it was in Poland et al. My family escaped from Spain into France (there were even camps in Southern France for Spaniards since Franco was on Hitler's). I've also seen numerous Portuguese walking from Portugal into France and also have met a lot of Greek + South American refugees. Both extremes meet and both are evil. On the other side, my husband was Polish (with Jewish born mother) so believe me, I have an idea about life without reading books ;)

Besides, these terms does not mean anything since for instance China is the most capitalistic society in the world inspite of its communist government, all Westen European countries have "socialist" parties, which often are in power and believe me Norwegian, Austrian or French "socialism" has nothing in commun with what was in Central and Eastern Europe (although some countries had softer regime than others).

I personally don't believe in ideology and hate extremists, whatever they are: rightwing, leftwing or religious (ALL religions) - they are all nuts and most dangerous.

Napoleonic Code has little if anything to do with legions of smelly little ******* in Poland typing out letters late into the night which all begin with:

"Uprzejmie donosze/Uprzejmie powiadamiam (...)"

They are called "zyczliwi" in Polish and their abundance has everything to do with the ***** your neighbor in the arse" mentality hammered into Polish brains by 40 years of communism/socialism.

Lol, pomposity shattered by looking a tool....those circles with the cross pointing down yeah....woman sign.......

In US it is called 'dropping a dime'.
Crime Stoppers is an organization that promotes the community involvement in reporting crimes.
It is invaluable in helping police solve crimes.

You're not just rude but also misinformed.

Says who?

How much business did you do in communist/socialist Poland then?

Me

She wants to know about Polish law, it’s a civil law system a system that was first codified under Napoleon.
It’s different to common law.

Or "whistleblowing" and it's strongly encouraged by authorities.


It must be that Americans are communists.Come on over to Ocean City MD mister and I will make OCPD search your car with just one phone call.It has happened to me so I know how it works.

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Well, good thing you're hardly an authority then.


Lol, I'm MUCH more happy dealing with the Police in UK than in Poland and the same would probably apply to the US.

Why?

Because assuming these Police officers went that extra mile to stick one up your poop chute without a good reason in US you do a fairly simple thing:

a) lawyer up

b) sue

In all the former Eastern Bloc states on the other hand going up against the cops, "Prokuratura" or the state in courts is mostly a futile excercise.

Polish IRS routinely kills Polish companies often in a sneaky and underhanded fashion based on informants that were mentioned in the thread and it is a miracle if Poland ends up paying anything at all for it.

I was pulled over and quickly blocked by 3 interceptors because some "good citizen" reported suspicious activity when I was returning lost cell phone for which the owner handed me $20 on a parking lot.


Thanks but no thanks.This is not a perfect world mister.I once went to a court to fight a ticket for tailgating a cop,my word against cop's word and guess what mister,for some reason the judge believed the word of the man in uniform.In addition to ticket I had to pay court fees.

what? Some stranger, on the parking lot, hands you a cell phone and $20 and asks you to return it?
Anyone else believed it?

Wait, and you were tailgating a cop? LOL Everyone's just out to get you!

Can't you read lady?I found a cell phone,ok,it rang,I answered,told the owner where I can meet him,handed it over to him while sitting in my car and he handed me $20 for my troubles.Makes any sense to you?


The point is that I was not,he was just saying I was.

Sure, it is not a perfect world.

Still:

A) United States - Rodney King. Dude gets badly beaten by cops ( who claim to have been acting properly in accordance with binding policy at the time ). Lives to tell the tale and sues, receives 3.8 million dollars:

articles.cnn.com/2012-06-17/us/us_rodney-king-timeline_1_wind-and-briseno-koon-and-powell-laurence-michael-powell?_s=PM:US

Proceeds to go cowabunga with the money and flushes it down the toilet with such projects as a failed rap recording label.

B) Poland - two teenage (19 y.o. ) kids driving a car get mistaken for evil organized crime figures. Because, let's face it, at 19 they really must look the part.

Polish Police in plain clothes decides the best way to stop a car is to run up on it on an intersection with drawn guns. The driver kid sees men with guns running at him and does what I'd also do in Poland - puts the pedal to the floor.

Polish Police in plain clothes decides then that they should just unload with live ammunition. Couple dozen shots fired ( someone really went full retard there ) because, obviously, the best way to stop the car from driving away is to shoot it full of lead until it stops.

One of the kids ends up dead, the other is lucky and is "only" crippled for life, spinal cord injury.

Police found not guilty by the court of appeals in Poland:

poznan.gazeta.pl/poznan/1,36037,6830064,Strzelanina_na_Baltyckiej__policjanci_niewinni.html

All in order says the court, officers feared for their lives so they just went into Rambo mode, no biggie, they're innocent. Expert witness asked to provide crucial testimony in the case is a graduate of the Polish Police School ( laughing so hard at this ).

Oh yeah, 250k usd for the kid who gets to drive around in a wheelchair. So basically won the ******* lottery there compared to good ol' Rodney.

Why am I posting this?

Because you're not gonna get far with a lawsuit aimed at any parts of the state apparatus in Central/Eastern Europe in general, unless it gets sent to Strasbourg ( good luck with that ) and pretty much everyone and their mother knows it.

Whistle-blowing is quite common then on the other hand being summoned up in court as a witness is something that is well and truly dreaded.

And how much do you think would Mr.King get if the whole thing wasn't recorded and shown on TV nationwide?I am not in any case saying that justice system in Poland isn't crooked because it is but in so called western countries including UK it is not that great either.

One great example of how UK justice system works is Simon Walsh case: guardian.co.uk/p/39kgd/tw

I don't know. Let's wait for the results of the Trayvon Martin trial ( no visual record of the incident ) and then we'll find out.


You are seriously comparing the courts of a country well-rooted within the rule of law ( UK ) with courts in Poland ( socialist tradition if any ) that often act like they are located in some banana republic?