[msrsooraj]

Stop, rewind, play..

A lady (I mean a woman) throws a BRICK at a POLICE. The COP threw the Brick back at her. The officer gets suspended off duty. Nothing happens to the woman.


Wheeeee, I love my country..

[Grr7]

Kiran Bedi has been screaming for Police Reforms since ages. If we really need to take some serious steps from this incidence, it is taking cognizance of working conditions of Police Officials, or should I say the non-official cadre of Police(read homeguards, constables, head constable, ASIs).

This incident police guy is(was) in police since 1998 and got only one promotion to Head Constable couple of years ago. Police job(especially in power center Delhi) is a very thankless job. Prolonged working hours, positional abuse by seniors and lack of basic amenities are something faced by every police man every day.

None of us, except a few gentleman agrees to a direct challan after breaking a signal. We all haggle, plead, boss, throw weight around to evade the right penalty for our wrong doing. We all have been guilty of these acts, or atleast I have been! But now, I am trying to change. Last time I was caught overspeeding near Dhaula Kuan, I apologized to the police personnel, readily accepted my mistake, gave them my license and paid fine(I still have the receipt). In contrary, an aunty with her driver caught just before me kept on arguing how traffic was so bad on previous stretch and the policeman should go there instead of penalizing her, dialing her phone to influence and blah blah stuff. The end result: I paid only Rs.400 despite holding penalty of Rs.1400 (was doing 88kmph in 60kmph zone, hence additional penalty of Rs.1000 for dangerous driving). But the good conduct waived off the Rs.1000 fine from my tally. Oh! And when I was leaving, the aunty was still standing while her driver was searching for the RC, PUC and insurance of his car.

Dealing all this with multiple people for a period of 12 hrs in sweltering heat of 43 degrees Celsius can have its side effects.I am nowhere trying to implicate that police man wasn't wrong or should not be punished. But a serious punishment should also be meted to the lady(though I don't believe that her behavior was anything lady-like!) for dishonoring the law and treating the law keeper as filth(running away first, followed by misbehavior when stopped, followed by abuses, then chappal and then a brick). I wonder why she only limited her allegations to bribery and not alleged molestation and other things on the cop!

It is debatable whether she wanted to throw a brick on policeman or his bike. Brick as such is quite heavy object and despite aiming at policeman, it could have traveled only so far to reach the bike.

Coming back to the point, unless you start treating police man like a fellow human, don't expect them to behave like one. The highest percentage of cases of domestic violence, suicides, alcoholism, chain smoking and other work related ailments are from the police force. Despite being the risky and hassled profile, a head constable receives almost the same salary that of a Primary School teacher!

[mayankk]

I didnt know getting into the police was slave labor, that you were picked off from your home and sold into bond to the traffic recruiters.
If it's a thankless job, if the heat is sweltering, quit. Noone forced you to get into the service.
That being said, I feel that they both committed the same stupidity, man or woman. Just that the cops brick connected. She should face the consequence of all her actions till the time the cop threw the brick.
But that also being said, the quantum of punishment dished out to the cop is appropriate since he's part of the system that is responsible to prevent or punish such behavior.
Bend over backwards to Police the Police.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Grr7

Coming back to the point, unless you start treating police man like a fellow human, don't expect them to behave like one. The highest percentage of cases of domestic violence, suicides, alcoholism, chain smoking and other work related ailments are from the police force. Despite being the risky and hassled profile, a head constable receives almost the same salary that of a Primary School teacher!

Originally Posted by mayankk

I didnt know getting into the police was slave labor, that you were picked off from your home and sold into bond to the traffic recruiters.
If it's a thankless job, if the heat is sweltering, quit. Noone forced you to get into the service.

You're both right, and the same can be said for lots of jobs.

How many of us have, at times in our lives, been bored, unhappy, underpaid, bullied.... the list goes on. If you are young and live at home, and are not the primary wage earner, maybe it is easy to just leave. Most of us, most of the time, think of the bills and decide that maybe it is a good thing we have a job at all.

The biggest luxury item I always wanted: being able to afford to resign on a point of principle!

[swiftdiesel]

Originally Posted by aargee

Here's a similar incident at K.K.Nagar, Madras - http://tamil.thehindu.com/tamilnadu/...?homepage=true



Reply from Police Dept - No one wants to blame the 3 people riding on a single motorcycle, but want to point fingers are policemen who're doing their job. Even though the public has raised a question as why the number was noted & offence could've been charged, the police answers that what if those 3 people are running away after committing a bigger crime? What if that vehicle was stolen? Why should they run away when the policeman signals them to stop? Majority of the people are going fast, not wearing seat belts, drunken driving, no proper documents. People who follow all the rules have nothing to fear from police nor can police do any harm to them

All said and done, the loss of a person's life cannot be compensated with all their arguments put together. Yes, they were in the wrong but all their crime cannot compensate for the life that's been lost for a lathi charge that's gone all wrong. If they tried to flee, the cop can note the number down or get his associate at the next junction to block them. Further, I see CCTVs in all traffic lights and definitely if needed, they can be tracked. In the West no cop is allowed to manhandle a traffic crime. If someone tried to flee, the officers are trained to neutralise them professionally or make their getaway vehicle unusable. Use of lathi to curb a petty crime is archaic and a risk to human life. I'm sure I won't be representing the general consensus but in my humble opinion human life is priceless and should be valued over everything else. I can understand the frustration and emotional response of the public in the way they treated the cop; it's a natural human response when they see a youth lose his life for a cop's action that was out of rage.

[Thad E Ginathom]

What does a traffic policeman even need a lathi for? What next, guns?

There is very little policemen on foot can do to stop a vehicle if the driver does not stop voluntarily. I can understand the frustration, and the offence caused by the attitude of the young guys on the bike, which probably amounted to up yours, cop, catch me if you can, ha ha. But, notwithstanding earlier comments, cops are paid to take the crap, just as, for instance, cold-calling sales people are: they must get majority rejection, with some of it not being too polite, but they cannot and must not retaliate in the forum-unsuitable language they must sometimes want to use.

No, it is never right for police to hit such people with bricks or sticks in these circumstances. It just isn't. It maybe understandable, in human terms, but that doesn't mean that they should go unpunished.

[blackwasp]

I wil hold both the lady as well as the traffic cop at fault here. What ever the incident, a cop should have shown a bit of a restraint and called for back up.

Originally Posted by SDP

No, we won't. We would have possibly a few hundred in the first week. All hell would break loose in the media that week. But by the end of that week, everybody in India would come to know and understand what happens when you throw a stone at a law-enforcement officer.

Next week, the number would come down to a few tens.
My guess is, in about couple of months, people would learn (the hard way), what is appropriate behavior when dealing with law-enforcement entities.

I am actually looking forward to that day.

Actually, while this would help for some time, people will simply start to arm themselves (legally or illegally) using proper weapons or home made guns and this will cause a whole lot more trouble. e.g. a person behind you will draw out his gun as you didn't give him side to overtake etc. At least in India with its corruption, getting a gun will become easier than today !

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Grr7

We all haggle, plead, boss, throw weight around to evade the right penalty for our wrong doing.

In our country we have this habit of negotiating the penalty. The idea is to get bargain price on penalty amount and in the ideal case, get the penalty waived off. First step in this haggle is to assess if the person with authority is corrupt or not.

PS: In Bangalore, police constable cannot issue traffic tickets. Sub-Inspector has to be present at the spot.

[Thad E Ginathom]

After the Chennai dead-biker case, it is announced that traffic police will undergo training to change their attitudes and learn how to handle people.

That's not bad, but frankly, it is a change in the attitude of drivers that would do far more good.

Whilst I resent the ever-present big-brother eye in London that watches every traffic signal, bus lane, and the speed cameras, as being over-the top, such a system would vastly change life on the roads here. What if people knew they would almost certainly be fined every time they ignore a red signal or broke speed limit in dangerous places?

Of course, it would have to be applied to buses, taxis, VIPs, etc as well as everybody else.

[sgiitk]

@blackwasp; In UP Katta's are very common, so what you are fearing is already here. The law is only for us, none for the goondas.

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

What does a traffic policeman even need a lathi for? unished.

During night time, they can use it to break headlamps of vehicles, whose drivers have forgotten the location of their dipper switch.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'm not sure that I'm sorry to hear that!

There used to be a story that, in a certain other country with which I am familiar, that if a cop wanted to give someone a hard time, there was no way out. The car could be perfect, but the cop would mention, "Broken rear light, sir: perhaps you'd like to get out the car and look for yourself." You can imagine how it got broken.

[phamilyman]

For all the earlier outrage on the thread - here's a hindi audio of the incident which shows that the policeman was just asking her for her license but she was being rude and resisting.

He was not really polite but given the average delhi commuter, i wouldnt blame them. its a rough city.
https://soundcloud.com/huffpost-indi...traffic-police

Just a (seemingly) honest policeman doing his job till he lost his mind. and his job.
/of course the audio is a bit too well recorded so i'm a bit suspicious and there's not much road noise till the end. but the audio can be easily verified i'm sure.

[Thad E Ginathom]

If I had been in the same room with the Airtel customer service guy I was just shouting at, he might well have picked up a handy brick. I was not nice. But he's a customer service guy, and this customer has had some pretty lousy service over the past several months, and, as has already been mentioned, taking the crap is part of some jobs: you just don't pick up that brick.

So many pages on, it seems to me that that is the issue, more than the gender of the complainant, which is just the factor that made it news.

According to what I read, bus drivers can even kill people, and they just get sent on a course. By comparison, this cop got a rough deal.

[GrammarNazi]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

If I had been in the same room with the Airtel customer service guy I was just shouting at, he might well have picked up a handy brick. I was not nice. But he's a customer service guy, and this customer has had some pretty lousy service over the past several months, and, as has already been mentioned, taking the crap is part of some jobs: you just don't pick up that brick....

Accepting verbal abuse is NOT a part of anyone's 'Job'!

Ofcourse cop shouldn't have hit the woman, no if's / but's about that.

P.S. : If you've been behaving that way, I suggest you STOP! Who knows, businesses will start employing bouncers to 'deal' with abusive customers like you!