Without the cooperation, and perhaps even collusion of the police, such a social class could not have arisen, let alone survived. Creating his ill-fated patriotic front, the Great Deregulator had sacrificed first the army, then the police to a bankrupt political project. The main objectives, let us remind ourselves, of a police force are to keep public peace, to protect the lives and property of citizens, and to uphold the constitution. In the former Yugoslavia, the corruption of the police was managed generally with efficiency. With the arrival of the multiparty system, the ground was set for the dissolution of Yugoslavia, while the compartmentalization of the Balkan wars brought about new circumstances and obligations, at which time the forces of the State Security Service were called upon.
Policemen discuss openly six week tours of duty at the front lines, two to three months at a time.
How the policemen who endured that felt, only they will live to tell. They returned from there with experiences which are best left untold. That is one part of the story of our present police force. T he other part concerns the growing use of the MUP in serving party rather than state interests. Policemen have naturally rebelled and continue to rebel against such instrumentalization, though in vain, as the chiefs know well who it is they serve.