When protectors turn predators

Protectors have become predators in all ages. But in recent times, the predatoriness has evidently surpassed all past records. In a modern state, the weak are protected from the clutches of the aggressors by its set organs and agencies where the law enforcement bodies operate at the ground level. Ideally, state institutions and agencies should not have the liberty to indulge in favouritism, corruption and crime. But the fact is, some members go astray and abuse their power and position notwithstanding their training and orientation. In simple terms, they are not disciplined enough.
Offer and acceptance of bribe money have become so pervasive a deviant practice that it is now near impossible to find one organisation with a hundred per cent clean record. But when law enforcers take recourse to all kinds of malpractices in order to claim illegal rewards, its impacts can be devastating. Yasmin, Sima and other victims of police rape and murder point to another angle of the rot -their sexual aberration. Limon, a student, Abdul Kadar, also a Dhaka University student and Shah Alam, a car driver, were at the receiving end of law enforcers' brutality and vendetta for reasons best known to the perpetrators.
The latest two cases involving the disciplined forces best illustrate the unending service indiscipline and moral decay some members of the agencies give in to. In one such case, an owner of an auto-rickshaw which his son used to drive and was the primary source of income for his extended family, paid Tk 100,000 to the muggers who snatched the vehicle at gun point. Yet he was not given the auto-rickshaw back. Last of all, he was reportedly told over phone that the vehicle was in the custody of the detective branch (DB). When contacted, an officer, according to reports in the media, demanded Tk 200,000 for release of the vehicle. His argument was simple and straight, "If you can give Tk 100,000 to the thieves, you have to give Tk 200,000 to the police".
Sure enough, compared to muggers, the status of men in uniform is much higher. But what did the officer really mean to convey by drawing the comparison? In an oblique sense it perhaps highlights the truth that in criminality, their rating is double that of the muggers. Indeed, when men in uniform commit such crimes, it is beyond measure. They have violated the basic tenet of a service that should have been considered noble and professional at its highest.
In another incident, a sub-inspector of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station shot a car driver in both legs allegedly out of personal grudge. The car driver was allegedly implicated falsely in an arms case. Reports have it that the Sub-Inspector (SI) developed an extra-marital affair with the driver's wife and on his instigation she left the driver, filed a case against him and also took away his auto-rickshaw. The driver went to them at Arshinagar, Keraniganj, where the duo -the police officer and the driver's estranged wife - now live together, to ask them for returning his vehicle. Enraged, the SI followed Shah Alam near Agargaon to shoot the latter. Predators with such ulterior motives are more dangerous than criminals to society. If they are not reined in, the law-enforcing personnel will earn the worst possible infamy. This is neither good for society nor for the agency itself.