The Clearing

I guess you are talking about policemen in India, but I still don't get it why making these "antisocial" guys into cops is going to help the situation. What cops in India generally want out of harassing you is a small bribe and not the pleasure of harassing you. I've had several encounters with traffic cops here and none were needlessly rude. Their general attitude might be rude as compared to cops in the US, but in the US the people treat cops with the same respect. Atleast in Delhi, theres no respect in the people for the law and to expect respect in return is stretching their patience. Besides that, being a traffic policeman in Delhi is not as easy as it seems. Apart from working for basically peanuts, they have to stand at the most polluted junctions (they have the highest risk of respiratory disorders according to the Patel Chest Institute) and every other day a traffic cop is runover by some underage kid jumping a red light. Its hard to keep a sunny disposition in these circumstances don't you think?

Also, Happy Birthday!

-Mudit
 

Mudit, when I wrote the post I was hoping to get away with keeping things vague as far as which cops I was talking about was concerened, but looks like there's no getting away now. Firstly, I have to agree that my experience with cops here has been similar to yours, very courteous etc. Despite that, I think I was still talking about the cops here. Part of it was a reaction to watching `Cops' on TV where more often than not the arrested person is this really poor hapless fellow whose only crime was to smoke some weed as an escape from this poor hopeless existence, and to how self-righteously and unconflicted the cops behave as if it is a crime for these people to be poor. Hope I'm not over-extrapolating here too much... I was reminded of this post recently too when this unarmed African-American guy died of multiple (50!!) gunshot wounds at the hands of three cops on the day of his marriage. Did you hear about that one?


I agree with what you are saying about traffic cops in India--that they can also be viewed as victims. But, think about other cops, think about how all-powerful even a constable can be to, for instance, people living in the slums. And, I bet being in that position, whatever the `victim' aspects are, is also a setup where poor people are at the mercy of this seemingly all powerful cop. What do you think?

And, thanks for the wish!