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CROSS TALK

All between police and people

Consideration is a mutual thing. If people need to understand the limitations of police, police need to understand what people expect of them. Police need to realise that it bothers people when drug dealers walk free, but addicts are thrown in jail.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan
The police commissioner of Dhaka gave a prognosis of growing crime rate in the city, when last week he told us on a television
show it was nothing but a matter of perception. This is exactly what painkillers do when we take them to reduce our pains. This is what anesthesia does when patients arc cut up on operation tables. This is also what addicts do when they drink or smoke intoxicants to overcome their frustrations in life. At times the best way to forget pain is to numb your feelings. What you don't feel doesn't exist.
The commissioner used the same line of reasoning to refute claims made by the talk show host, who was grilling him with statistics. The host argued that crime rate has been up in the city during this Eid season, but the commissioner contested him blow by blow. He questioned the authenticity of the data. And he persisted saying that the perception of people was that this city is safe. The host couldn't defend his data. He couldn't even ask for the source of his guest's knowledge of that perception. The show looked like two blind men oddly shuffling to lead each other.
This is where you need a movie break. In Frank Capra’s 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life, the decision of a man named George Bailey to commit suicide brings about the intervention of his guardian angel. The angel walks Bailey through his hometown to see that it would have been an evil place if George's works were rescinded. One can't deny that Dhaka would have been lot more dangerous without its police.
The commissioner rightly said there is no country in the world which doesn't have crime. He talked about certain "no go" neighbourhoods in New York, such as Bronx, which are so crime infested that people don’t dare visiting them. The point he made was as clear as a whistle. Dhaka doesn't have any such neighbourhoods, which is proof police have been doing their job.
This is what is known in logic as illicit negative, a fallacy that arrives at
protect this city. Every time the host threw him a question, he behaved like a tennis player eager as ever to return a serve. He was more interested to score points; he didn't come to answer questions.
But that doesn't change the fact that people arc more scared of this city than before. More crimes are being committed here. There are neighbourhoods which are considered less safe than others. Certain
an affirmative conclusion from a negative premise. We don't have any "no go" neighbourhood in this city. We don't live in any such neighbourhood. Therefore, we are living in a safe city.
The commissioner was loaded with facts and he fired them all, more in self-defense than telling how he will
parts of the city are risky after certain hours. Rest of the city is no better day or night. People are not safe even in their bedrooms. Rapes arc common. Murders arc frequent. Mugging is a routine thing like traffic jam.
It's not fair to blame everything on police. The population of this city has
grown manifold. The city is bursting at seams. People have become reckless and ruthless. Moral values have dissipated. Dishonesty and deceit are rampant. The entire nation is floating on rage.
Under the circumstances, one must have a reasonable expectation of what police can do. They cannot cover every neighbourhood, every street corner and every blind alley. They do not have enough logistic support and manpower to mop every inch of the city looking for criminals before and after a crime.
But then consideration is a mutual thing. If people need to understand the limitations of police, police need to understand what people expect of them. Police need to realise that it bothers people when drug dealers walk free, but addicts arc thrown in jail. It also bothers them when innocent people like Limon and Kadar fall victim to police brutality. People want to know what happened to Ilyas Ali, Chowdhury Alam or scores of others who have disappeared from this city.
These are most recent of a long string of facts that have shaped public perception of police. The media may be guilty of tweaking that perception at its will. What about the police? Last week the police commissioner got us really worried. He sounded like he was more interested to protect the perception than the people of this city.
He also convinced us that we are becoming a fragmented nation. Police live in their world. We live in ours. Crimes fester in the cracks and crevices between two worlds. Both police and criminals come from people. The commissioner should know they are different not because how they see people, but because how people see them.
The writer is Editor, First News and an opinion writer for The Daily Star.
Email: badrull51@yahoo.com