Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Social Fabric and the role of modern police


Background: Recently an 18 year old black African-American was shot dead by a white police man in Ferguson (Missouri), US. This led to a tension between the black and the white community in the city. Curfew had to be imposed to maintain law and order.

Sociological perspective:
1. Communal/racial differences exist not only in '3rd world' but the '1st world' nations as well.
2. Police personnels' sensitivity towards community-sentiments is very vital for maintaining the social fabric of a multi-community/caste/religion based society.

Excerpts from the article written by Mr. R K Raghavan, former Director, CBI

"The Ferguson incident highlights the intricacies of policing in the present times, especially in a democracy that has a fractured society. It has lessons for the Indian police as well. Mindless policing divorced from the realities of social inequality can be dangerous. It can tear apart the basic fabric of unity and civilised conduct of citizens in any community. A blending of toughness with the civilised treatment of individuals is the recipe. But then this is just theory, one more easily advocated and expounded than actually possible to practise in a stressful situation that a policemen is often placed in the present day environment."

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/black-city-white-police-and-brown/article6354768.ece

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