189:Aren't your policemen wonderful

"Aren't our policemen wonderful" is a very hackneyed cliché*. Sometimes I don't fully realize what a good job Russian policemen do. I can only speculate what is happening here but moments before the photo was taken the policeman in the photo went up to the first babushka in the line and tried to wrestle from her the small bag of potatoes, or whatever it was she was trying to sell. She was a very determined babushka and held onto the bag with great energy. He kicked away the box and crate she had been using as a table, you can see them in the foreground, and she slunk away. The rest of the babushkas were allowed to stay. Perhaps the one he chased away was in the wrong trades union? There is much in Russia that is a mystery to me.

*A hackneyed cliché is a hackneyed cliché! A nice example of tautology!

Definition of hackneyed

adjective

• (of a phrase or idea) having been overused; unoriginal and trite:hackneyed old sayings

Definition of cliché

noun

• 1a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought:that old cliché ‘a woman’s place is in the home’the usual worn-out clichés about the English
  
• Definition of tautology

  noun (plural tautologies)

  [mass noun]
  

  • the saying of the same thing twice over in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style (e.g. they arrived one after the other in succession).