It is incredibly disappointing that, instead of ensuring the masses that the rising numbers of muggings in the city -- one incident even resulting in the death of a police constable -- a Dhaka Metropolitan Police official instead chose to remind us all of the virtues of personal responsibility.
No one ever wants to be robbed, and a lot of people are often left with no choice but to carry valuable possessions such as money with them in the dead of the night due to their working hours, which is why the DMP official's words come off as especially tone deaf.
The fact of the matter is that our law enforcement has long struggled with a lack of public faith, due to reasons such as rampant culture of bribery, harassment, police brutality, and entrenched corruption. Our police officers are meant to make us feel safe, and while they should indeed be the bane of criminals and wrong-doers, the rest of us -- citizens who are nothing less than law-abiding -- should not have any cause to fear police officers.
This is anything but the reality.
At the end of the day, maintaining law and order becomes a much easier task when the people trust those who are in charge of upholding it.
To that end, sweeping reforms are in order in not just how the police are expected to conduct themselves with the public but perhaps even in its recruitment mechanisms. There can be no tolerance for those who exhibit behaviours that run counter to the principles inherent to the profession, for example last year's incident where a constable was spotted verbally abusing a woman on the streets for no good reason cannot become an allowable attitude.
The police are supposed to serve and protect above all.
