Police harassment: When to say, "enough is enough?"
A citizen, On E-mail
It was August 27, a beautiful Wednesday evening. I was heading towards the Wonderland, Gulshan to have the wonderful experience of watching Mars along with my school-going little cousins. We did not want to miss the unique astrological encounter. Anyway, our car just got off the cantonment area past the railway track, where we sat waiting to make a left turn to get on the Uttara road. Suddenly a blue police jeep (License Number: Dhaka-148/Aaw) cut past our car, and made a left turn abruptly in such a way that it scratched the right front side and cracked the headlight of our car. The incident happened around 8.45 PM. Anyway it was not that big a deal; these things happen while driving on the streets of Dhaka. Still, I wanted to chat with the driver of the jeep. I waived my hand to signal the jeep to pull over. Surprisingly enough, they did. But contrary to being apologetic about hitting our car, they felt offended by the fact that we asked them to pull over. It was beyond their wildest dreams. The person who was in the jeep with his family might hold high position in the Police Department. He had uniformed police escort. When our driver was showing the damage of our car, the police driver without listening or even seeing the damage approached our driver and slapped him. Meanwhile, the big boss did not remain idle, and he threatened me that he would send us to the Gulshan Police Station! For what allegation? Is it an offence to show them how they wrecked our car? What kind of examples they are setting to our society with these kinds of irresponsible behaviours? All we wanted was an apology -- a simple but deep word --"sorry". Does the first letter of the word police stands for "Protecting" or "Pressing"? I am not sure. But one thing I know for sure is that the existing dictatorship on the streets must change sooner or later. No one should be above the law, especially not our law enforcement forces!
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