I did not know what was happening at Narodní třída
Stáhnout obrázek
Michal Danišovič is best known as the commander of the intervention against the participants in the demonstration at Národní třída on November 17, 1989. He was born on October 20, 1945 in the village of Biely Kostol near Trnava, and he grew up in poor conditions. He lost both parents and lived with his older brother during his childhood and teenage years. He was trained to be a joiner. He joined the Communist Party after reaching the age of majority. During his military service in Prague, he worked as a driver for the Felix Edmundovič Džeržinský Secondary Vocational School in Hybernská Street, where he first came into contact with the then police forces - the National Security Corps (SNB). After the military service, he joined Letná as a patrolman of the Public Security (VB). He completed his education at police schools and subsequently graduated from the Faculty of Law, so he quickly advanced in the police hierarchy. He was in charge of the criminal department in Prague 7, he was also the head of the VB department in Mělník, the head of the district administration in Prague 6 and finally he became the head of the UK Municipal Administration in Prague in May 1989. In this capacity, he was assigned to manage police measures during the authorized student parade on November 17, 1989. He led the police intervention from the military headquarters at the Congress Center in Prague 4 (then the Palace of Culture). According to him, he did not know until the end of the intervention how brutally the police officers intervened against the students. At the beginning of December 1989, he ended up in pre-trial detention for two months, the trial lasted eleven years, and finally in 2000 he was sentenced to three years on probation for abusing the authority of a public official. In the 1990s, after leaving the police, he established a private security service. He has two children and is active as a pigeon breeder.
