Things That Bang

Do the Indian cops need a good PR department? If one rapes ten get judged by the deed done by another. One is corrupt five other honest cops who live within their meager salaries are never taken into account. They do our dirty work- deal with psychos, rapists, murderers and many times they land up even in the middle of domestic disputes.

They deal with the dregs of society, the kind of psychological damage that can happen dealing with shitheads day in day out can be harrowing. But do we think about it? We assume they have to do their jobs. Yes, they get paid but they put their lives on line which we don't with our jobs. That kind of distance we civilians cannot bridge nor can we ever understand the kind of stress they suffer from their supposed jobs.

Its easy for us as a society not to like them. Stories of deaths while in custody are common - one was reported today in Bangalore Mirror and it tends to happen more so with the lower classes who cannot afford lawyers. For them the cops are worse than wolves but the cops on their end say that they aren't there to treat the criminals or their helpers with kids gloves.

They show politeness only to the middle class and may be are more than accommodating for those with fat bank accounts. These are once again popular myths and have some truth to them.

But the Indian cops also keep the law and order machinery working, mostly. Our traffic cops suffer debilitating lung diseases, their lives are shortened due to the pollution but does any of us see that? We shrug them off, we are indifferent towards them- they are doing their jobs, right?

We talk about their inner darkness but why do we find it tough to accept that its their brutal nature that saves us also?

There are two sides to a story and we need to be balanced in our judgment towards our police force.