I am scared of Policemen
Posted on August 24th, 2013
Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Dehiwela
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ As a child, I remember, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ in our small village, there used toƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ be a single cop ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” known as ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-policekaranƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” and our mothers used to terrorize us into doing the right thing always, be it eating our spinach, studying or not sinning, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ saying ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…- Policekaran will comeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. This instilled in us such fear that even when we have not done anything wrong, the mere sight of any police, even quite later, used to make my heart beat faster with fear. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It took me quite a while into my teenage years ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ to realize that we do not have to fear the police. Rather they are there to safe guard us from evil doers.
Then the sight of a policeman used to bring ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ a sense of peace, trust, feeling ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ of safety ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and confidence. While the war was ragingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ on, seeing a cop or an armyƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ personnel brought a sense of protection.
And now, the fear has returned, for a different reasons, which needs no elaboration. Are they truly policemen or not is the first question that comes into my mind. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Are they going to demand a bribe, will they support me or the thief if it comes to a situation, if police happen to come in a white van what does it mean? Questions. Will they use their sense of right and wrong or just obey commands like robots, Questions. They are no more a sight of solace.
Even a traffic cop is a sight for worries. They do not stand at the traffic lights rather stand far away hidden and jump when they feel like to catch an errant motorist. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I was copped by such ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-hidden copƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ on the day the President announced that the policemen should not hide behind trees rather stand to be seen by the motorists. When I told him that they are not supposed to do so, he was not only unaware of such instructions but also defended his position! His reasoning was twofold. One is that the state needs these fines(!), and when I said our state does not need such paltry sums to survive, he said, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-we have to produce some complaints when we are on duty ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” if we stand at the traffic lights no one will break the lawƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚!
The tragedy of the whole situation is that most of these policemen are youth ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” they are not being instilled with the sense of right and wrong. They are going to grow up to be tomorrowƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s leaders with all the wrong false values like what happened to the army deserters. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But then, who cares in our country?
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sent by :
Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Dehiwela
August 24th, 2013 at 1:38 pm
Re: ““we have to produce some complaints when we are on duty – if we stand at the traffic lights no one will break the law”!
The same is true for cops abroad, in most countries. They feel they have to justify their pay. It is up to the head cop, the IGP,
to set the matter straight, that no one needs to be fined in vain for cops to maintain their jobs. At least, Lanka cops are not armed to the teeth as some in the west !
Recent events to defame the Army & Police (Weliweriya) with rough riots in the dark with petrol bombs, sand filled bottles and attempts to wrest away guns from Army men do not help the ordinary people of Sri Lanka either. Who was responsible these riots in the dark ?
Also, perhaps fears instilled in childhood never quite go away ?
August 24th, 2013 at 3:05 pm
Fran,
The responsible were identified in the Welieriya report.
The president SPERATED the ministry of law and order from the ministry of defence after the report was released.
The army conduct was WRONG. Otherwise NO NEED to change the setting!!!
Good move by the president.
What Mareena indirectly tells is she wants a likable Sharia Police instead.
August 24th, 2013 at 8:50 pm
Our police are far better than some countries with values still in the stone age.
Lets see….
If you are raped in Arabia, you need 4 male witnesses or else you are charged (and beheaded or honor killed) for committing adultery!
If you are a woman, you testimony against a criminal is worth half that of a man!
If a baby under your care dies, you end up beheaded (like Rizana) regardless of being responsible for the death or not.
… amputations, beheadings, floggings, stonings the list goes on….
Even dinosaur exhibits aren’t safe from these cops!!!!
August 24th, 2013 at 9:07 pm
Though there are problems, compared with many other countries, the Sri Lankan Policeman is a good officer (this applies to the WPC also)
August 25th, 2013 at 1:20 am
These local lads are no good. Our dictator President has decided to recruit from abroad. Soon the local lads will be
replaced from policemen from Syria, Iraq, Afganisthan, Egypt, Pakisthan, Iran, Tunisia etc. They are the best in the business. No more fears. Enjoy!
August 25th, 2013 at 5:56 am
Isn’t this wonderful news!!
“WASHINGTON – The FBI is concerned that Americans may be fighting in Syria and could bring terrorist tactics back to the United States, but US officials say there is a small number of US citizens fighting with Syrian rebels.
FBI Director Robert Mueller told ABC News in an interview aired on Friday that the terrorism threat that began in Afghanistan and Pakistan has now “migrated” to places including Syria, Libya, Egypt and Yemen. OH! REALLY?
“You have individuals traveling to those venues, you are concerned about the associations they will make, and secondly about the expertise they will develop and whether or not they will utilize those associations, utilize that expertise, to undertake an attack upon the homeland,” Mueller said in the interview.
“So, yes, we are concerned about that, and, yes, we are monitoring it,” he said.
Places like Syria may end up harboring “radical extremists who want to do harm” to the United States, according to Mueller, who will leave his FBI post next month after 12 years.
US government officials and private experts monitoring the 2-1/2-year-old civil war in Syria have said Americans and other foreigners were taking part in the fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. Some experts said it had become a pilgrimage destination for Sunni Muslim militants.
One U.S. national security official estimated on Friday that only a handful of Americans are currently fighting in Syria, although other officials have said several dozen U.S. citizens have cycled through the country since fighting began.
An American woman was killed this year in the company of Syrian rebels in Idlib province.
A former U.S. soldier was arrested on his return to the United States in March and charged with conspiring to use a rocket-propelled grenade in Syria. Investigators said he acknowledged fighting with Syrian rebels, including the Nusra Front, which Washington says is a branch of al Qaeda.
U.S. and European security officials have said they are more concerned about the traffic in and out of Syria of would-be fighters from European countries, including Britain, France and Germany. European nationals often can easily enter the United States without obtaining an advance visa.
European officials have said that at any one time – including the present – they believe that as many as 70-100 British citizens are fighting in Syria with anti-Assad rebels, many of them with the Nusra Front.
Due to permissive European travel rules and Syria’s geographical location, counter-terrorism officials say it is difficult to track the movements of European citizens, and sometimes Americans, who go to Syria to fight with rebels.”
— Reuters
May be the cowards will run back home after Sunni rebels’ chemical attack last week.
August 25th, 2013 at 8:15 am
Lorenzo,
You say “The responsible were identified in the Welieriya report.
The president SPERATED the ministry of law and order from the ministry of defence after the report was released”.
What about the person who died from the ‘missiles’ from the rioters who came in the dark ? No responsibility or accountability from the rioters ?
What would you have done if you were in command of the Army unit there at that time ?
We say that the govt. has been MUZZLED for the sake of peace, prior to CHOGM !!
August 25th, 2013 at 1:50 pm
Fran,
NO.
It has nothing to do with CHOGM. The HEAD of the LAW AND ORDER ministry is an army general.
IF it was for CHOGM its head would be a civilian and the ministry would not be directly under the president.
There was NO SUCH PERSON identified in the army report which blames the administration of the army for the 3 deaths.
IF I were the commander of the army, I would COME PREPARED. I would NEVER allow smashing of cameras, shouting filth at clergy, shooting to death school boys and indiscriminate shooting at churches.
Anyway the president has made a decision to SPLIT the ministry of defence from law and order which is GOOD. That is because the army was misused in the incident.
Unfortunately it was SECTIONS of MISGUIDED army that ALSO went rioting in Welieriya. There were 2 riots there. It will NOT happen again.
August 25th, 2013 at 2:04 pm
This is the culprit for the spread of cancer.
“The Saudi “charm offensive” still applies to the EU and all over the west as well as to the US, viz:
“..The official Saudi newspaper in English, Ain al-Yaqeen, published an article on March 1, 2002 describing the Kingdom’s efforts at supporting Islam worldwide. It claimed that the Kingdom had spent “astronomical” sums of many billions establishing thousands of mosques, madrassas and Islamic centres in non-Muslim countries in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Africa and Asia.
Among the biggest projects was the King Fahd Islamic Center in Malaga, Spain. In addition, the Kingdom has established a number of academic chairs in some of the most respected universities in the developed world in order to “encourage understanding of the true nature of Islam by explaining clearly Muslim beliefs and by correcting misconceptions and misrepresentations”. Especially mentioned are the King Abdul Aziz Chair in Islamic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara; the King Fahd Chair in Islamic Sharia Studies at the College of Law at Harvard University; the King Fahd Chair in Islamic Studies at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) at the university of London and the provision of a resident professor for the Prince Naif Department for Islamic Studies at the University of Moscow..”
– babsbarron.freedombulwark.com/archives/179#sthash.naTSRUPx.dpuf”
August 26th, 2013 at 4:57 am
Hi Lorenzo, these crafties spend all this money to make other countries xxxxlam. The reason is, when oil runs out or an alternative energy source comes, that will be the end of middle east. What you going to do? Farming? If the world is xxxxlam, no problem, you can be a guest anywhere in the world. That’s is the only reason.
The day people going to be using less and less oil not too far away. Every good thing has to come to an end. So they are planning ahead. Already electric car can be used worldwide. The technology is there. But all the countries in the world won’t promote it. The reason is, governments around the world make a lot of money when they sell petrol to the customers. Lucky for these guys. But the party can’t go on!