For a while now, I have been not been a reporter. So, I am not in direct touch with what goes on in our police stations. A chance meeting with a known police officer here or, a reporter on crime-beat there, still affords me a periodic peek into the functioning of Mysore city police. These are some recent vignettes from such meetings.
A police officer tells me that use of third degree has almost disappeared from our police stations what with the the spread of awareness of human rights. 'We play safe. Why should we take any risk and stick our neck out only to be hauled up by the Human Rights Commission?' In short, what he means to say is that, criminals (commoners among them, of course) are losing fear of the police.
A reporter narrates (in thinly-clad glee) that the other day he walked into a City police station to find that his inspector-friend had turned innovative. The cop sent out a constable to go get some chillies from the vegetable market. The reporter wanted to know the purpose. The inspector was really playing safe. He didn't want to use any third degree on the man (still to be produced before court after being caught for theft). He would instead force-feed the green chillies to the arrested to extract confession. (I, for one, don't believe that Abu Ghraib is too far. It is there all round us).
So much has been discussed on our civic needs. Shouldn't we be voicing our concern to civilize our men in uniform - both inside and outside police stations? In this Cultural Capital, it is not at all uncommon to find a cop wielding his cane on or using force to discipline vendors of fruits and vegetables, and pedestrians from countryside in a hurry to cross the road at traffic signals. The predator spirit with which the traffic cops leap out of their hiding to shock-intercept two-wheeler riders for routine checks is even more common.
Doesn't the City of Palaces need a better advertisement from our law enforcers? Can't the cops be educated about the need for projecting a better image of Mysore (at least) for tourist consumption?
Alas! What dignity the cops cannot assure the locals they cannot be expected to accord visitors. They make no differentiation between Mysoreans and non-Mysoreans. A Palestinian student told me the other day how he stood firm and refused to bribe the cops for a job he had to get done from them.
