Crimes are for real [ Tongam Rina ] Two major crimes occurred in Itanagar one after another which have been widely reported in the media and discussed on social networking sites. Vijaya Bank was looted at Rajiv Gandhi University campus in broad day light in August. The perpetrators not only looted money but shot a bank employee as well. One of the arrested is allegedly behind three other bank robberies. One can’t help but wonder why some people have been given the freedom to execute one loot after the other. Isn’t such repeated daring offences reflection on the judiciary and policing in the state? More recently, a prominent businessman was abducted from his home and subsequently killed. In the meantime, the police department and state government have announced establishment of five check gates within the Capital Region to check crimes. It clearly is a nervous tactic by the govt to reassure the citizens and business community who are obviously panicky. There are check gates already at Banderdewa and Gohpur/Hollongi, which are major entry points to the capital region. Many of you who use personal cars will agree that checks are at the most basic. A careless scan of the faces and one is let in. Vehicles coming in are checked, not the outbound ones. A tribal looking face need not even budge from the car as if the tribals are not capable of committing crime and Arunachal the only state where people with Mongoloid features reside. The body language of the security personnel suddenly changes when a big car approaches. With easy money to be made from unfair business practices and day light extortion, big air conditioned cars are not out of bounds for anymore. Ages ago once yours truly returned home late night from office with a colleague when a security personnel stopped the car. When we announced that we were coming from a newspaper office, the guy said, “tumhara matha main likha nehi hain ki tum journalist ho”. The response was unexpected and sounded rude. But today I wish we get to hear the same response more often. Atleast that would be reassuring- how much our capital has changed. These days the bumpy ride home is not something that yours truly look forward to. Many people are seen brawling near the roads while bikes without lights scare others on the road. The road show happens every night while there are no signs of police anywhere. Interestingly, the police in a meet with the press opined that the day-to-day violation of traffic rules was helping criminals flee easily after committing crimes. That is a rather difficult argument to buy. Isn’t it the duty of the police themselves to ensure violations are not committed? If people are blatantly violating norms, is it not a failure of the police to enforce even this basic law? The slew of measures announced by the police after these incidents is genuinely laudable. But beleaguered as it is with a shortage of funds and a much more acute shortage of officers and personnel, can we really expect them to be able to deliver on these assurances? Only time would tell if the city becomes a safer place. In the meanwhile, we citizens will have to also bear the responsibility of looking out to preventing crimes from happening and responding alertly when they do. All it calls for is to shake off our complacency and realise that today crimes like these are not mere newspaper items- they are real.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 00:28:58 +0000
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