Knife in children's playground on Barons Street — police delayed 40 minutes
In a Riga children's playground, a teenager attempted to hand a knife to an adult amid a conflict with a father. Police did not arrive for more than 40 minutes following the call.
Incident on Barons Street: knife in children's playground, police delayed
In Riga, at the large children's playground on Barons Street, on 6 October at approximately 20:00, a disturbing incident occurred — a knife appeared in a group of teenagers, but police took a long time to respond to the call. Rafiks Misirovs described what happened in a Facebook post, which was published by nra.lv.
According to his account, he was at the children's playground with his daughter when a nearby group of teenagers began swearing loudly. Misirovs twice pointed out the behaviour to the young people, but without result. On the third occasion the conflict escalated — an adult youth in the group aggressively advanced towards Misirovs, who struck him in the face.
The situation became even more serious: one of the teenagers ran over with a knife and attempted to hand it to the adult youth. "I immediately told them to put the knife down," Misirovs recounts.
Other adults had also gathered at the scene, who attempted to break up the conflict. However, the group of youths surrounded Misirovs together with his daughter and did not let them leave. At approximately 20:15, the man asked the children's playground administration to call the police.
After approximately 30 minutes, police had still not arrived. Misirovs himself called again and informed them of the knife and that the group was still there. "I was told that there were other calls and I had to wait in line," the man says. Even after the next 40 minutes, the situation had not changed — police again refused, citing the queue.
Misirovs pointed out that playground staff confirmed that this group of teenagers regularly frequents the playground. "Such situations simply must not be ignored," he emphasised, adding that he would contact the police again to report what had occurred.
Source: Google News LV — Crime (lv)