We have a saying that duty is greater than the goddess. This means that any duty assigned to you is above all other responsibilities and that you are bound to fulfill it in the midst of any problems or to the letter. It is said that at one time in the past there was a time in Sri Lanka when duty was treated as a goddess.
Today, however, the situation is changing rapidly, and duty is becoming an inefficient service that prioritizes those who come in for work needs to bite or clean their pockets. Still, this would have been even worse today if not for the few who consider duty as a goddess.
The police are one of the most important government agencies in the world. The Active Police of that State has the primary responsibility to protect the people of the State and their property, and to maintain the State in a proper, efficient and peaceful manner free from crime and corruption. Every country where such a police force is active has made great strides today. As long as the police do not do their job properly, the country will never prosper and the country will inevitably become a state of corruption, crime and disorder.
However, some of our police officers are using their official powers to deal with crimes and corruption. This was further confirmed by the recent revelation that a significant number of police narcotics officers set up for drug control were directly involved in the drug trade in Sri Lanka and that some of the officers had special links with various notorious criminals.
Some officers are using various subterfuges to divert criticism from the police due to such ongoing illegal activities. Chief among them is the arrest of a small number of people who claim to be involved in these crimes or rapes and to prevent them from being given to us for a while. Also, to provide a large media coverage of the incident. For this purpose, they are trying to gain popularity by publishing the police operation and the items seized and the officers involved.
However, many of these suspects, who were produced after such a big media show, were acquitted after failing to prove in court that they had committed the crime or rape in a very short period of time. Former Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva has stated that 96% of the criminal cases filed will be acquitted due to the inability to prove them in court.
Instead of trying to change this situation, the responsible agencies, including the police, are holding media shows and constantly pointing fingers only at the public instead of discussing and resolving issues within their department.
Another tactic of the police is to illegally execute several criminal suspects in order to withstand the pressure that comes to the police during the high crime period and to gain the blessings of certain sections of the society by obtaining large media coverage through it. For decades, the illegal killing of such table criminals did not reduce crime in Sri Lanka. It also failed to expose the large number of crimes they had committed and other important people involved.
Meanwhile, the Police Department has launched another media operation. It’s about the CIA, the CIA, theatrical live shows about all sorts of petty crimes and rapes. Some of these have even been produced as mega dramas to this day.
Meanwhile, we have seen a number of similar media shows in the face of the Kovid epidemic. In some cases, Kovid patients have been compared to terrorists. The Minuwangoda garment worker is one such example in the third wave of Kovid. Also, in some cases, police officers were seen scolding people and chasing them away. Meanwhile, we also saw some journalists throwing police at the crowd. We also saw instances where we could not even identify who the journalist and police officer were without the camera in hand.
As the situation escalated, the IGP had to issue a special circular. The circular directed the police not to act in a manner that would cause inconvenience to the public during the inspection of vehicles and persons as well as the implementation of the quarantine law.
The circular was issued in response to reports that police officers were harassing people while inspecting vehicles and people during roadblock duties during traffic restrictions.