Brass Knuckles on a 13-Year-Old in Vlae, a Sharp Object at Bit Pazar, a Gang of Peers in Bitola: When Did Police Bulletins Start Looking Like a School Register?

With brass knuckles, kicks and punches. That's how a group of minors beat up a 13-year-old boy in Skopje's Vlae neighbourhood, near the "Delfina" square. The case was reported by the boy's mother, who says her son was attacked for no reason and that he already knew the attackers.

Skopje police have so far questioned five minors, all aged 15, in the presence of a parent and a lawyer. "Other minors are also being summoned to establish everyone involved in the incident," the Interior Ministry said, promising that once things are cleared up an "appropriate filing" will follow. Five already questioned, and the list isn't closed - all of this for an attack on one 13-year-old child.

Vlae wasn't the only such story in the police bulletins. At Bit Pazar, on October 20 at around 5 pm, a 17-year-old was arrested after a report that he attacked and injured a 15-year-old with a sharp object. In Bitola, a 48-year-old father told police that a group of peers physically attacked his underage son on "Boris Budjevski" Street. There too, the police are still identifying everyone involved.

In Skopje and in Bitola the pattern repeats: kids against kids, in two of the three cases a group against one. And the sequence never changes - first the blow, then a report from a parent, then a police interview with a lawyer present. The institutions show up when there are already injuries.

Where are the schools, the psychologists and the social work centres before it gets to brass knuckles? Is anyone keeping an eye on the kids the victim already "knew" - or are we waiting for the next bulletin? The filing will come. But no filing gives a 13-year-old back the certainty that he can walk past the square in his own neighbourhood in peace.