Those lawless lawmen

Protesing police misdemeanour

Image and impact
One has to, unfortunately, admit that in public estimate, the law-enforcers appear as an agency more to implement and enforce the objectives of the government in power and to help the affluent sections of the society. Their independence and impartiality is suspect. Such an unfortunate state of affairs is the direct result of the lawman's acting contrary to the public interests and expectations. Many enforcers believe that people should acknowledge their authority with abject submission and remain ever ready to oblige them in every possible way. In respect of powers vested with the policemen in the penal code, it needs to be said that they may use force under some limiting circumstances but that should be kept down to the minimum necessary level.

Some lawmen forget that nothing is more cowardly and unconscionable than a person in police custody being beaten or shot to death and nothing inflicts deeper wound on our constitutional culture than a public servant running berserk regardless of human rights. The policy of killing suspected dacoits and terrorists in the so-called 'crossfire' is inherently messy, involving as it must an inordinate amount of lying about matters of life and death. This is downright insulting for a professional body of public servants dedicated to the upholding of law.

While the above is the bitter reality, misguided policemen and other enforcers fell that they have a divine right to crush the self-respect of individuals they come in contact with. They do not realise that their overt actions indulged in brazen disregard for the principles of the rule of law and civilised conduct adversely affect police discipline and make a mockery of the signboards "Police is the friend of people" displayed at the gates of police stations. People derisively say that the inscription on these signboards should, in the fitness of things, be: "All hope abandon, ye who enter here."

Unfortunately, the frequency of instances of police excesses make it ominous indeed. The police atrocities are standing testimony to the fact that the police, who are supposed to be protectors of the citizens, have themselves been indulging in not only dubious and deplorable but also criminal activities. Since the image of the police reflected by the mirror of public opinion conforms to what the police and police culture are, both the police image and police culture are tarnished despite the very good work done by many. By resorting to practicing lawless law enforcement, which obviously is a contradiction in terms, the police inevitably further tarnish their already much tarnished image. Paradoxically, lawless police officers are in demand in the affected area. They produce short-term spectacular results that prove illusory.

Salutary judicial intervention
The concern of our apex court to keep the police on the democratic path is gratifying. A people whose consciousness of the rights is poor, a land where legal services at the initial stages are rare and investigative personnel often resort to third degree methods -- these and a host of other realistic factors must come into the consideration of the court while interpreting and effectuating the fundamental rights of the suspect accused. On the subject of alleged offence of bodily injury to a person while in police custody, if there is evidence that the injury was caused during the period when the person was in police custody the court may presume that the injury was caused by the police officer having custody of that person during that period, unless the police officer proves to the contrary. There is logic in this assumption because the experience of concerned persons have shown that the atrocities within the precincts of the police station are often left without direct evidence to prove who the offenders are. Such stance on the part of the court are expected to put an effective brake on the criminal proclivities of delinquent police officers.

We have to remember that in Bangladesh where stricter penal laws are enacted to curb the terrorist menace and where the enforcement of the laws are principally done by the police not trained to a necessary or desired level, there is always a likelihood of the abuse of powers by police in negation of the individual rights. We need to make a realistic approach to reconcile individual rights, liberties and privileges and individual duties, obligations and responsibilities towards the collective interest.

The policemen must be made to justify the arrest apart from his power to do so. It has to be impressed upon him that the existence of power to arrest is one thing and justification for it is quite another. While disciplining the deviant policemen has to be done from within the department, the selective activism of the apex court will hopefully have a healthy deterrent effect on the potential law-breaking enforcement personnel.

Ground reality and remedy
Bangladesh police suffers from a colonial past and a legacy of coercion. In colonial times, the police was an agent of imperial brutality and earned an image of being anti-people. However, in our democratic polity, police is the first servant of the people; it is not to be used as it used to be, that is to perpetuate particular party's rule. To effectively prevent misuse of police force, the infiltration of political elements into the organisation rendering the outfit incapable of providing impartial and efficient service must stop. This is of paramount importance because large number of incidences of torture in various forms and harassment of political opponents reportedly take place at the behest of the government in power.

Legal aid, sincere in nature, must come along almost the time a member of the weaker section of the society is arrested. Such a step will reduce the possibility of wrongful confinement, false incrimination in offences and the pangs of torture and the possible physical deformity, if not death in police custody. In this connection reference may be drawn to the observation of the Indian Supreme Court in 1986 when it said that the failure of a criminal court to provide legal aid to a person who cannot engage a lawyer to defend himself at a criminal trial will entitle him to acquittal.

Another preventive measure would be aggressive investigative journalism to expose the gross misuse of power by police. This will, hopefully, substantially deter the way-ward lawmen.

One may not know that the life style of the overwhelming majority of our policemen is no different from the ordinary Bangladeshis. Let any prudent man enter the Rajarbag Police Lines and see for himself what the policemen eat, where do they live and what is their take home pay. Let him also find out the average working hours of a policemen. It is strongly likely that he will mostly find ungrudging sons of the peasants of Bangladesh ever ready to the call of duty. Like ordinary Bangladeshis they have reconciled to their fate and quietly wait for a better tomorrow. Like their countrymen they display infinite patience. The acts of a few black sheep must not be allowed to smear the virtues of toiling policemen. The bad hats must be dealt with an iron hand at the very first instance of criminality. The unholy alliance between criminal policemen and corrupt politicians must be broken and the performance of both should be under constant scrutiny. The recruitment process of subordinate police functionaries have to be sanitised to prevent the entry of undesirable elements and drastic disciplinary actions relating to delinquent police officers must not be interfered with. These are not tall orders. We need them to bring sanity in our governance scenario.

Finally, let all concerned remember that the police are vested with the authority to use legitimate force against the citizens and this mandate to use force to curb violence raises the key issue that the police themselves should not indulge in unnecessary violence or excessive use of force. The task before the supervisors should be to ensure that the police use force and authority with restraint and only in unavoidable circumstances. While the ultimate accountability of the police is to the people, the police must respect the law of the land. They are not licensed to become law-breakers themselves. Let the most visible symbol of government authority be a helping arm for the public instead of being a coercive arm of the state.

Muhammad Nurul Huda is a former Secretary and IGP