Kolkata safe at night?

City’s safe at night… from its policemen

Abhishek Law
KOLKATA, 26 Oct.: It’s late on Friday night. There are three passengers, all men, in the car, a nondescript older-model Maruti Zen. The car has no front number plate. For all that anyone knows, the men could be Maoists or suicide bombers or anti-social elements.
Over a period of two-and-a-half hours this car drives through a dozen police barricades in the city. At only one place is the driver asked to slow down, then waved off. At other places, the car doesn’t arouse even a little curiosity. One reason, of course, is that many of the check-points are unmanned, the policemen either asleep or missing.
The three men weren’t terrorists, and at least this car posed no threat. To check how safe the city is at night, and how vigilant its policemen posted at various check-points are, a team from The Statesman decided to evaluate the quality of night policing.
The car we used, a rather scruffy looking silver Zen, had no Press sticker. And we had removed the front number plate, in the hope that might rouse our men in uniform. After all, each check-point is supposed to have at least two policemen on duty, one of them armed.
We were a little concerned that a trigger-happy policeman might shoot first and ask questions later in this surcharged atmosphere. So we had instructed the driver to approach each barricade slowly, and to stop immediately if asked to. But we needn’t have worried.
When we drove through police barricades at the Lenin Sarani-Wellington Square intersection, and then at the Chowringhee-Lenin Sarani intersection, there were no policemen present.
We then drove to the AJC Bose Road-Alimuddin Street intersection. The check-point was manned, but the policemen seemed unalarmed by our presence, or that of a car without a front number-plate.
At the AJC Bose-Shakespeare Sarani intersection, we encountered a barricade but there were no policemen. At the Gurusaday Road-Ballygunge Circular Road check-point, policemen were present but seemed disinterested as we drove by.
Next, we drove to Rashbehari Avenue where, for the first time, we were asked to slow down by the constable on duty at the barricade. But that, it seems, was all; having taken a cursory look, he waved us on.
Ten minutes later, we drove past a heavily manned check-point on Bijon Setu, headed for the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. We could see at least five policemen, two of them armed. Once again, the presence of a car without a number plate provoked no response.
We proceeded to the Bypass, and between 12.55 and 1.35 a.m. twice crossed the Chingrighata-Beliaghata Road intersection where a police barricade had been placed. We weren’t stopped on either occasion.
What, we asked ourselves, was the point of the barricades? And just how can an unmanned check-point deter criminals? Many of the barricades were at dimly-lit spots; it seemed to us that the only likely consequence was an accident. Had Kishenji come calling last Friday night, he would have laughed his way out of the city.

The above report of the Statesman does not surprise me.
The city police are made up of pot-bellied aging persons who have been rendered inactive by 30 years of CPM misrule.
We saw how they scrambled for protection like rats when the American Consulate was attacked on 22nd Jan, 2002.
They move only if the party bosses instructed them to move.
They are fit only to collect money from trucks and tempos who may enter the city at night.
These vehicles do not stop.
They just throw a Rs 5/- coin or maybe a Rs 10/- note and move on. I don't know what is the exact going rate now.
The policeman, like a beggar, then goes and picks up the coin from the road.
Anybody who follows a truck/tempo on the VIP road can observe this sequence of events.
They are fit only to harass the poor so much so that now the poor are fighting back and we saw the result it Lalgarh / Midnapur.
They are fit only to take their haftas from promoter, hawkers and petty criminals. I say petty because the bigger criminals pay directly to the Ministers. We saw that in the Vedic Village episode and in the Rizwan case.
Have you noticed that the Rizwan case is more or less closed as "Suicide"?.
How much money 10 / 15 / 20 crores passed hands is anybody's guess?
We shall never know.
Buddha sleeps on.