Traveler's Experience with Serbian Police

Hello. As you can see, I'm at the airport here in Serbia,

uh, which wasn't my intention. My intention had been, when I entered

Serbia, that I would walk through it as I've

walked through the rest of Europe.

Um, however, um, I'm just gonna try and be as concise with this as

possible. It... Uh, I was subjected to a, an

unfortunate, um, crime,

uh, very shortly after entering Serbia

that resulted in me

going to the police to make them aware of this crime,

and here's the situation, right?

Nasty individuals exist in every country, so I don't

hold that against the Serbian people.

But I do want to comment on the, uh,

astonishing incompetencies and

moral failings of, uh, the Serbian system.

Um, I, I have no idea why the police were

so unkind about this situation,

immediately fluctuating between talking to

me aggressively, suggesting that, you know, this was not...

This was a lie, even though I was providing evidence and the what,

what could, what could I gain from, from lying to them, uh, to then,

you know, l- making jokes amongst themselves whilst I'm

visibly distressed.

Uh,

it's...

So,

about 10 minutes into questioning by this older, uh,

fairly senior police officer,

sh- every question was so, like, "But why?

You need to tell me this right now." It's like, "I, I understand I'm here to

answer your questions, but y- please ask me them nicely.

I'm not a criminal. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm literally here as a victim."

And I said that like this, you know?

And she

was so mad that I called her out. She said,

"This is not UK. In Serbia, you answer me.

Now, when I say, if I do not like it, you go to...

you spend s- night in Serbian jail." It's like,

what the fuck,

bro?

Y-

What the fuck?

I've just been subjected to something quite horrible.

I'm following a legal procedure. You are flexing

to me, like, you are boasting to me the fact

that you can abuse power

and that you do not care

about being unbiased.

Uh, uh, uh,

and also just this, the, the whole tone is so unkind when I'm

coming to you shaking after a serious incident.

Makes no sense.

And, uh, this was the tone

f- from everyone in the police who was over, like, the age of 50.

But I do have to say two things. The first

is that the, there weren't many, but the younger individuals,

uh, at the police department treated this

situation completely differently,

ap- apologizing, recognizing I was distressed, uh, and also just sort

of working their way through the situation, you know,

in a way that I would describe as appropriate.

And the, and the second thing I have to say was i-

it became obvious to me, uh,

about halfway through my interaction with the police, um,

that, um,

not, not only had th- what, that it had been completely redundant

of me to report the crime, but also that, you

know,

I, I would maybe need help.

And so I asked if I could talk to the British Embassy,

and I did,

and I just wanna give a shout-out to the, to the individuals at the British Embassy

who helped me because, um, I really needed their kindness.

Um, I'd been through something really tough,

and no one was being nice about it at all.

Um, I... But they were. They were very nice.

Um, but also they were just professional and efficient i-

in a very, very

helpful way.

Uh, yeah, so

this is the end of my Serbia journey.

Um, yeah. I don't know, guys. I, I think you can do

better.

You would not have to do much to do better than what you did.

That's all I can say. I'm, I'm, uh, pretty

disgusted at the Serbian police.

I think you're a disgrace to the profession and your country, quite

frankly. Anyway, I'm leaving Serbia.

This, uh, journey comes with setbacks.

This has been my biggest one so far.

But I'm proud of my progress, and I'm proud of the action plan I have

to move forward while still staying true to my commitment

to walk

from Scotland to Hong Kong. And I'm, I'm, I'm,

I'm proud of myself for advocating for myself, even in the face of

bullying.

I'm proud of myself for having the, uh, social skills to

articulate myself while staying cool in a situation that

was completely unfair for

me to be put in. And, uh, I'm proud of myself for coming up with

this

plan to, to, to leave

because sometimes you've just got to be adaptive

and prioritize your safety.

Okay.