Our confidence in our law and order system is so dangerously close to rock bottom that you can hardly blame the average person for not giving a damn about whether or not a perpetrator of a terrible crime gets his day in court. We roll our eyes when we hear Western-liberal claptrap about how even bad guys, even the ones caught red-handed, deserve fair trials.
There has long been a general feeling that the police won’t do their job. People perceive our law enforcement personnel to be incompetent, apathetic, and deeply corrupt and lacking in ethical training. Civilians would rather deal with their problems themselves, or even suffer in silence. There seems to be little hope that uniformed personnel will do anything good for the community, or improve their track record. With good reason, we are a deeply cynical bunch.
Recently, the ruling party decided to form resistance committees to crack down on violence that is currently being unleashed across the country by hartal-enforcers of the BNP-led coalition. Acts of arson, vandalism, and sabotage have gone on unchecked, and the Awami League is hoping these resistance committees, comprising of party members in plain clothes, will come down on these subversive activities with a firm hand before handing culprits over to the police.
Given that we are yet to see mob justice as the deeply troubling thing that it is, resistance bodies might look like a good idea. But this cannot and should not ever be the way of doing things in a nation that wants to be peaceful, progressive, and respectful of the rule of law.
No matter how daunting the task, we absolutely must fix our broken law enforcement system. We need serious reform, and outsourcing the job of the police is not a viable solution.
There is great risk in people taking the law into their own hands. It is a dangerous practice that invites anarchy, and flies in the face of the democratic principles we otherwise pretend to stand for. Allowing for vigilante justice opens up possibilities of all other kinds of violations of people’s rights, and the waters can get muddied very quickly.
There is no shortage of opportunists simply waiting to take advantage of a chaotic situation. During sprees of hartal-violence, there are often individuals with no actual party loyalty who join in and cause random destruction just for the fun of it.
The same danger is there when a group of people who are not actual law enforcement think they have the right to enforce justice through their strength in numbers. Situations can easily get out of hand, and a frenzied mob is never a good thing.
Recently, seven suspected robbers in Narsingdi were caught while attempting to flee, and beaten to death by village locals. The robbers won’t be getting a whole lot of sympathy from anyone, and that’s fine. However, there can never be any excuse for beating people to death on the streets. Murder is murder, no matter who it is being done to.
We live in a land of laws, no matter how problematic its enforcement. The robbers, once caught, should have been handed over to the police. We cannot flagrantly flout the rule of law, while at the same time expecting the justice and law enforcement system to improve.
It is the job of the police to handle criminals, and it is the job of our courts to administer punishment. Everybody does, indeed, deserve a fair trial, and just because someone has instigated the anger of a mob, it does not mean they deserve to be killed right there on the spot.
Our police force needs a lot of work. Police personnel must be trained more rigorously. This includes not just training on how to be more effective, but also ethical and sensitivity training. We need to be able to trust our policemen to maintain law and order, and to protect the innocent.
Corruption in law enforcement is rampant all over the world, but in Bangladesh the situation looks particularly hopeless. Changes need to be made everywhere, from hiring practices to salary structures. Stern disciplinary action must be taken against crooked officers. Given the way things are now, this might seem like a tall order. But that does not mean we should throw our hands in the air and give up.
The police, just like everybody else, have a job to do. And we must demand that they do it.
