mid day editorial: Speak up for the cops too when they face abuse

Furious with a Maharashtra Security Force (MSF) guard for not letting him park his bike in a no-parking zone, a Central Railway employee and his kin thrashed him brutally on Friday. The incident, captured on CCTV cameras near the ticket window at Tilak Nagar station, shows four people mercilessly thrashing the guard, and kicking him as he fell to the ground.

This was the price the guard paid for doing his duty. A biker was told that he had to move his vehicle out of a no-parking zone. Incensed, he along with accomplices beat up the guard who, fortunately, has not been grievously hurt. The camera surveillance has captured the incident.

This is absolutely reprehensible and sends a wrong message that those in authority can be pushed over and laws flouted with impunity. We are extremely quick to shout about brutality of men (and women) in uniform, their high handedness and bullying. While those cases may be true, we need to be as strident about condemning those who attack security personnel.

There are two sides of the story and it is important that we pay attention to both of them. In a bash-the-authority report, a drug addict had manhandled a policewoman, as she tried to arrest him. She did catch him in the end, after a 100m dash. We have seen policewomen and women traffic constables becoming the target of assaults and violence as they seek to enforce the law. We have to remember that the other side too has human rights and we must speak up for them, just like we do for one side. It may not be 'fashionable' or 'liberal' to speak up for the cops, but when they are right and injustice is done to them, it is up to all those upholders of rights to strike a balance.

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