By Maxwell Pereira
In my email traffic the other day I had one from this young couple who wanted to adopt a baby. It was the lady who addressed me, but did not elaborate the reason why they preferred to adopt, just said, “…need some help – my husband and I are going ahead with bringing home a baby and give it tender loving care… required adoption papers also include a Police Verification from the SHO - that we do not have a criminal record… the police station when approached told us this will not be done easily, the application has to be submitted to the DCP Office on a stamp paper; from where after some ground work the papers will be sent to our local police station to work on; ….the run around’s been for some time…. no complaint, but an appeal for help; could you please guide…. the adoption papers have to be submitted within a stipulated time… my husband and I hold valid Indian passports, and both work as managers for good organisations”.
I replied and assured the lady she’d done right, the procedure she’d been told was also right – but to expedite, if in her opinion my ‘superannuated’ intervention would help, I’d oblige by speaking to either the SHO or the DCP. I waited not for her response, but rang up the concerned DCP, apprised him of the lady’s plight passing on to him her particulars, arranged for her an appointment, and then rang her back asking her to meet the DCP the next morning at the appointed hour.
Before the sun could set the next day, I was inundated with quite a few emails of thanks and appreciation – starting from the baby-adopting lady herself and from others she had spoken to about her unbelievable experience. She was euphoric with her delight. She with her husband had been to the DCP’s office that morning, who had heard her out patiently, and when she had finished, just presented her the verification certificate she had sought – with the compliments of the police department. Can any one really measure the mountain of goodwill the DCP earned for Delhi Police that day!?
350 words: 19.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interaction, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Friday, 19 August 2005
Sunday, 7 August 2005
Funding Law Enforcement Infrastructure
By Maxwell Pereira
An American criminologist once told me, that the American media is cautious about criticising or exaggerating inadequacies in the law enforcement machinery; lest this criticism becomes the basis for concerned enforcement authorities to clamour for more personnel, more equipment, vehicles and technology – basically, more infrastructure. Thereby pinching the pockets of a people who have to pay more to the local administration who provide these services.
In most developed countries, people pay for their policing through the local bodies. Police departments function under the local city administration, under a Mayor or whatever other designation the local administrator is called, who hires and fires the person/s employed to satisfy the particular needs of its citizens according to requirement and performance. So a non-performing policeman gets the immediate boot, and a force less provided for gets the additional infrastructure needed without much ado.
So people are also wary of demanding indiscriminately for additional infrastructure, since in the end it is they who have to pay for it through hard cash collected at the local level, and not through indirect or phantom central taxation systems that do not touch or impact most and pinch only a fraction of the citizenry, leaving the majority non-payers of tax also as the major votaries for infrastructural demands. Under the circumstances, it is for the discerning populace to understand and decide which is better, and what they want.
In our own existing system where police as a State Subject for areas of governance is under the control of the State machinery and its budget, supplemented by the Central budget – the onus of deciding whether or not the police infrastructure is adequate, resting solely and I repeat solely on the shoulders of that Ministry or the Secretariat babu, who considers it his birth right to shoot down every new proposal for additional infrastructure that lands on his desk. This, not because there is no merit in the proposal, but because of a carefully cultivated psyche with which he has armed and engulfed himself over decades of sustained brainwashing from the powers that be, to do so!
Hence the perpetual cry of indiscriminate demands, of inadequacies in infrastructure – not only in the police departments, but across the board in all walks of governmental activity. In my opinion, this will continue forever till the present system continues and the burden rests on the vicious babu’s frail and ever burdened frame.
Against this background, comes the Supreme Court’s recent suggestion to the Centre to keep aside a particular sum of money in every law henceforth enacted by Parliament to deal with the financial burden imposed on the judiciary to enforce the legislation. Suggested by the apex court as one of the steps to make the justice delivery mechanism faster and cheaper in matters involving civil disputes, the idea is laudable… and it is hoped the Centre will give serious thought to ensure the judicial impact assessment of every law (being) enacted… Especially to work out in advance it’s financial and budgetary impact, including an estimate of the likely number of civil and criminal cases arising there from – and the courts, staff and infrastructure needed to deal with it!
The court has also urged the Centre, through the Finance Commission, to consider providing funds required to bear conciliation and mediation costs, pointing out otherwise these costs could act as a deterrent to the popularity of the Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanisms already available.
The apex court’s commendable and path-breaking suggestion actually boils down to, and needs to be viewed in the larger context of the adequacy/ inadequacies in the overall law enforcement machinery – encompassing the entire justice administration system, and not just the judiciary. No doubt judiciary is an important and culminating rung in the State’s criminal justice administration system to render justice to its constituents, but what is important is not to lose sight of the fact that the police and the prosecution wings are also the inevitable and crucial channels which the justice delivery mechanism has to wade through before reaching the judiciary for ultimate delivery of justice. Not only that, not to be ignored too are the prison/correctional services that follow a judicial verdict and are so impacted, needing inclusion in the overall impact assessment of a new law (being) enacted. In this context need one to really spell out the plethora of social legislations that also clutter up our basket of laws crying out for effective enforcement?
The infrastructural adequacy of each of the wings in the overall Criminal Justice Administration System, including the judiciary, is crucial for its health. That the adequacy of the infrastructural health of police departments – the first and the cutting edge rung of the CJAS – is a matter of constant concern needs no elaboration.
What needs to be realised is the fact that by virtue of it being the first rung and the visibly impacting strong arm of the government to enforce laws, the police are saddled with inherent powers to enforce every law and new enactment, and especially the penal provisions therein. This, irrespective of whether or not a separate department is created by the Government for the purpose of enforcing the new law. Consequently, it is this fact that needs to be borne in mind and suitably addressed by the government while sending up any new law for Parliament to enact. It is this fact that also needs to be borne in mind by Parliamentarians both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and ultimately by the President, before finally making any law that needs enforcement.
900 words: 07.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interaction, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
An American criminologist once told me, that the American media is cautious about criticising or exaggerating inadequacies in the law enforcement machinery; lest this criticism becomes the basis for concerned enforcement authorities to clamour for more personnel, more equipment, vehicles and technology – basically, more infrastructure. Thereby pinching the pockets of a people who have to pay more to the local administration who provide these services.
In most developed countries, people pay for their policing through the local bodies. Police departments function under the local city administration, under a Mayor or whatever other designation the local administrator is called, who hires and fires the person/s employed to satisfy the particular needs of its citizens according to requirement and performance. So a non-performing policeman gets the immediate boot, and a force less provided for gets the additional infrastructure needed without much ado.
So people are also wary of demanding indiscriminately for additional infrastructure, since in the end it is they who have to pay for it through hard cash collected at the local level, and not through indirect or phantom central taxation systems that do not touch or impact most and pinch only a fraction of the citizenry, leaving the majority non-payers of tax also as the major votaries for infrastructural demands. Under the circumstances, it is for the discerning populace to understand and decide which is better, and what they want.
In our own existing system where police as a State Subject for areas of governance is under the control of the State machinery and its budget, supplemented by the Central budget – the onus of deciding whether or not the police infrastructure is adequate, resting solely and I repeat solely on the shoulders of that Ministry or the Secretariat babu, who considers it his birth right to shoot down every new proposal for additional infrastructure that lands on his desk. This, not because there is no merit in the proposal, but because of a carefully cultivated psyche with which he has armed and engulfed himself over decades of sustained brainwashing from the powers that be, to do so!
Hence the perpetual cry of indiscriminate demands, of inadequacies in infrastructure – not only in the police departments, but across the board in all walks of governmental activity. In my opinion, this will continue forever till the present system continues and the burden rests on the vicious babu’s frail and ever burdened frame.
Against this background, comes the Supreme Court’s recent suggestion to the Centre to keep aside a particular sum of money in every law henceforth enacted by Parliament to deal with the financial burden imposed on the judiciary to enforce the legislation. Suggested by the apex court as one of the steps to make the justice delivery mechanism faster and cheaper in matters involving civil disputes, the idea is laudable… and it is hoped the Centre will give serious thought to ensure the judicial impact assessment of every law (being) enacted… Especially to work out in advance it’s financial and budgetary impact, including an estimate of the likely number of civil and criminal cases arising there from – and the courts, staff and infrastructure needed to deal with it!
The court has also urged the Centre, through the Finance Commission, to consider providing funds required to bear conciliation and mediation costs, pointing out otherwise these costs could act as a deterrent to the popularity of the Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanisms already available.
The apex court’s commendable and path-breaking suggestion actually boils down to, and needs to be viewed in the larger context of the adequacy/ inadequacies in the overall law enforcement machinery – encompassing the entire justice administration system, and not just the judiciary. No doubt judiciary is an important and culminating rung in the State’s criminal justice administration system to render justice to its constituents, but what is important is not to lose sight of the fact that the police and the prosecution wings are also the inevitable and crucial channels which the justice delivery mechanism has to wade through before reaching the judiciary for ultimate delivery of justice. Not only that, not to be ignored too are the prison/correctional services that follow a judicial verdict and are so impacted, needing inclusion in the overall impact assessment of a new law (being) enacted. In this context need one to really spell out the plethora of social legislations that also clutter up our basket of laws crying out for effective enforcement?
The infrastructural adequacy of each of the wings in the overall Criminal Justice Administration System, including the judiciary, is crucial for its health. That the adequacy of the infrastructural health of police departments – the first and the cutting edge rung of the CJAS – is a matter of constant concern needs no elaboration.
What needs to be realised is the fact that by virtue of it being the first rung and the visibly impacting strong arm of the government to enforce laws, the police are saddled with inherent powers to enforce every law and new enactment, and especially the penal provisions therein. This, irrespective of whether or not a separate department is created by the Government for the purpose of enforcing the new law. Consequently, it is this fact that needs to be borne in mind and suitably addressed by the government while sending up any new law for Parliament to enact. It is this fact that also needs to be borne in mind by Parliamentarians both in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and ultimately by the President, before finally making any law that needs enforcement.
900 words: 07.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interaction, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Monday, 1 August 2005
Needed for Gurgaon – A Commissionerate
By Maxwell Pereira
I know I am running the risk of the powers that be and their secretariats – especially those who push pens to assist these very powers to reign and govern – raising eyebrows. And perhaps of also incurring the wrath of the bureaucracy with my conviction that it is high time Gurgaon gets a Police Commissionerate! For I fear the legendary rivalry between the Services – the IAS and IPS, is bound to stand in the way and cloud the real issues. But if all concerned were to sit up and give it a serious thought, I am quite sure they’d invariably arrive at the same conclusion.
The recent violence in Gurgaon involving the agitating workers of a local subsidiary of the Japanese Honda Company, and the countrywide debate that erupted – in the print media, in a cross-section of television channels, and even in the nation’s Parliament – consequent to the projectedly questionable manner in which Gurgaon Police handled the whole episode, has indeed thrown up yet again the issue of the much needed police reforms in the country, and of raising the level of policing in Gurgaon and other satellite townships surrounding Delhi in the National Capital Region (NCR) – to bring it on par with the level of policing available in Delhi.
It was one thing facing television cameras last weekend in NDTV’s media debate “The Big Fight” to counter effectively and answer the barbs and accusations levelled through venom-spewing articulation of a fiery co-panellist Trade Union leader and MP in the ruling coalition Gurudas DasGupta, against police in general and their specific role in handling the Gurgaon agitation and the violence… It is quite another, erasing the adverse public perception of the connected events as was projected and presented by a biased and sensation crazy channel competition.
This, in the face of media reports that very morning claiming admission by Haryana DGP Nirmal Singh that his force could have behaved better, acted more tactfully, and planned adequately in advance. He also did right, in sending a firm message through this medium right down to his rank and file that he did not approve of policemen beating the public, that they should have exercised restraint while controlling agitated workers even in the face of provocation from agitators by taking recourse to violence resulting in the breaking of their DSP’s hands! Is this pontification enough, though?
That the issue of police reforms is languishing for the past fifty-eight years of our Independent existence as a sovereign nation is an oft repeated statement. The Gurgaon incidents have merely highlighted this need yet again. How serious is the current Government in addressing this long festering cancer by taking this bull by its horns is to be seen. But narrowing down to the immediate, as would want to be done by crisis managers, it is necessary for the centre and the concerned state authorities to give an urgent thought to policing Gurgaon in the context of the NCR.
Rapidly growing Gurgaon with a townscape that puts visions of a mini-America on the mind screens of new visitors to the place is fast taking the shape of a Metropolis par excellence. Every conceivable MNC has established shop here or is in the process of establishing. Some of the country’s biggest developers like the DLF (with Five phases of developments already in place), the Ansals with their own including Palam Vihar, Sushant Lok and the like, and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) – are all vying with each other to provide the place with internationally competitive housing, office complexes, malls, food plazas, theatres and entertainment places.
More builders and construction giants have acquired all the land surrounding Gurgaon Township and its approach roads, especially on the Gurgaon-Sohna Road, for top of the line luxury condominiums, Hotels and a plethora of projects. Gurgaon already has two major Industrial Estates and InfoTech cities, with more in the offing.
All of which means, there is also simultaneous need to upgrade the services, in this case of the police set up, to meet the challenges thrown up of a bustling metropolis. The fact that this new city borders on Delhi the nation’s capital where the resources far exceed in comparison to its poor neighbour, makes the need for Gurgaon police upgradation all the more glaring.
It is said the Haryana Government has already addressed the Union Home Ministry in this regard. Comparing itself with the level of policing available in Delhi, it has sought for Gurgaon additional infrastructure, manpower, vehicles and equipment in the form of 5000 additional personnel, 424 motor vehicles and 308 motorcycles, more housing and upgradation in telecommunications, and equipment for surveillance and crowd control including the riot-control vajra vehicles designed and fabricated especially for Delhi Police by the DRDO.
The state should not stop at this. For proper law and order management and control, it should also ask for a Police Commissionerate, to do away with the dual control of the police by the DM/SP set up which hampers quick planning and effective execution among other things, in times of need. The Commisionerate confers on the field police officers the executive magisterial powers which is paramount for high density urban policing, unlike rural policing the superintendence of which has been vested with revenue collectors with powers of a District Magistrate. This is what will really bring policing in the NCR region on par with the level that Delhi is blessed with. Police Commissionerate in the NCR Districts of UP and Haryana surrounding Delhi, could start with Gurgaon.
900 words: 01.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interation, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
I know I am running the risk of the powers that be and their secretariats – especially those who push pens to assist these very powers to reign and govern – raising eyebrows. And perhaps of also incurring the wrath of the bureaucracy with my conviction that it is high time Gurgaon gets a Police Commissionerate! For I fear the legendary rivalry between the Services – the IAS and IPS, is bound to stand in the way and cloud the real issues. But if all concerned were to sit up and give it a serious thought, I am quite sure they’d invariably arrive at the same conclusion.
The recent violence in Gurgaon involving the agitating workers of a local subsidiary of the Japanese Honda Company, and the countrywide debate that erupted – in the print media, in a cross-section of television channels, and even in the nation’s Parliament – consequent to the projectedly questionable manner in which Gurgaon Police handled the whole episode, has indeed thrown up yet again the issue of the much needed police reforms in the country, and of raising the level of policing in Gurgaon and other satellite townships surrounding Delhi in the National Capital Region (NCR) – to bring it on par with the level of policing available in Delhi.
It was one thing facing television cameras last weekend in NDTV’s media debate “The Big Fight” to counter effectively and answer the barbs and accusations levelled through venom-spewing articulation of a fiery co-panellist Trade Union leader and MP in the ruling coalition Gurudas DasGupta, against police in general and their specific role in handling the Gurgaon agitation and the violence… It is quite another, erasing the adverse public perception of the connected events as was projected and presented by a biased and sensation crazy channel competition.
This, in the face of media reports that very morning claiming admission by Haryana DGP Nirmal Singh that his force could have behaved better, acted more tactfully, and planned adequately in advance. He also did right, in sending a firm message through this medium right down to his rank and file that he did not approve of policemen beating the public, that they should have exercised restraint while controlling agitated workers even in the face of provocation from agitators by taking recourse to violence resulting in the breaking of their DSP’s hands! Is this pontification enough, though?
That the issue of police reforms is languishing for the past fifty-eight years of our Independent existence as a sovereign nation is an oft repeated statement. The Gurgaon incidents have merely highlighted this need yet again. How serious is the current Government in addressing this long festering cancer by taking this bull by its horns is to be seen. But narrowing down to the immediate, as would want to be done by crisis managers, it is necessary for the centre and the concerned state authorities to give an urgent thought to policing Gurgaon in the context of the NCR.
Rapidly growing Gurgaon with a townscape that puts visions of a mini-America on the mind screens of new visitors to the place is fast taking the shape of a Metropolis par excellence. Every conceivable MNC has established shop here or is in the process of establishing. Some of the country’s biggest developers like the DLF (with Five phases of developments already in place), the Ansals with their own including Palam Vihar, Sushant Lok and the like, and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) – are all vying with each other to provide the place with internationally competitive housing, office complexes, malls, food plazas, theatres and entertainment places.
More builders and construction giants have acquired all the land surrounding Gurgaon Township and its approach roads, especially on the Gurgaon-Sohna Road, for top of the line luxury condominiums, Hotels and a plethora of projects. Gurgaon already has two major Industrial Estates and InfoTech cities, with more in the offing.
All of which means, there is also simultaneous need to upgrade the services, in this case of the police set up, to meet the challenges thrown up of a bustling metropolis. The fact that this new city borders on Delhi the nation’s capital where the resources far exceed in comparison to its poor neighbour, makes the need for Gurgaon police upgradation all the more glaring.
It is said the Haryana Government has already addressed the Union Home Ministry in this regard. Comparing itself with the level of policing available in Delhi, it has sought for Gurgaon additional infrastructure, manpower, vehicles and equipment in the form of 5000 additional personnel, 424 motor vehicles and 308 motorcycles, more housing and upgradation in telecommunications, and equipment for surveillance and crowd control including the riot-control vajra vehicles designed and fabricated especially for Delhi Police by the DRDO.
The state should not stop at this. For proper law and order management and control, it should also ask for a Police Commissionerate, to do away with the dual control of the police by the DM/SP set up which hampers quick planning and effective execution among other things, in times of need. The Commisionerate confers on the field police officers the executive magisterial powers which is paramount for high density urban policing, unlike rural policing the superintendence of which has been vested with revenue collectors with powers of a District Magistrate. This is what will really bring policing in the NCR region on par with the level that Delhi is blessed with. Police Commissionerate in the NCR Districts of UP and Haryana surrounding Delhi, could start with Gurgaon.
900 words: 01.08.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
For interation, available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Tuesday, 26 July 2005
A Bit of Bobby Bashing
By Maxwell Pereira
Shocking! No. Not done! Something not expected of the London Bobby! Not expected of any police force or enforcement authority for that matter – the killing of an innocent in the name of fighting terrorism.
The British police have understandably come under fire for brutally killing Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent man who was in no way connected with the Thursday Sept 21 attempted bombings in London. Shock and anger all around, locally, internationally, as it emerged that the man shot dead by policemen in plainclothes in front of terrified commuters at the Stockwell underground Metro station in south London on the Friday that followed was neither carrying a bomb as had been alleged nor was he among the four men suspected to be behind Thursday's incidents.
The man whom even Tony Blair had initially claimed in front of television cameras was "directly linked" to the investigation of Thursday's attacks, was found after verification as having no connection whatsoever to the bomb attempts. Then on Sunday, Prime Minister Blair said “This is a tragedy. The Metropolitan Police accepts full responsibility for this. To the family, I can only express my deep regrets."
The PM however defended the shoot-to-kill policy, saying such action only applied when lives were believed to be at risk. The head of Scotland Yard has further gone on to say that he won't change the groundrule: "Shoot to kill, in order to protect." Scotland Yard also said the shooting had been a "tragedy'' which was regretted by the Metropolitan Police.
It would be interesting for socio-analysts and human rights activists to compare the this and the resultant scenarios that emerged in respect of killings of like nature, of innocents, in Britain and in India. For India has long been accused by everyone all over, and particularly the Rights Watchers, who invariably have made it their pleasure to do some India bashing on this score.
It is obvious the London shooting has added to the pressure on a police force that's already stressed. Stunned eyewitnesses have stated how they saw a man chased by policemen in plainclothes, who shot him from point blank range as he stumbled while trying to get on to a train that had just pulled in. As he tripped and fell, officers pinned him down and pumped at least five bullets into him as passengers watched in horror. The police had continued to fire long after he was dead.
To most onlookers and perhaps the pursuing policemen too, the Brazilian Menezes looked an Asian who was seen running on to the train hotly pursued by three plainclothes officers. One of them was carrying a black handgun — they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him.
Carefully study every word of how the act was described by the onlookers. This was not the act of rational sane normal human beings – be they policemen, but of those paranoid, highly stressed, under pressure to face something for which they were not fully prepared. Under pressure from a people with their stiff upper lip who boasted of the stocism, their resilience, to carry on come what may. All the great stoicism and resilience at risk of cracks in the edifice, when the second wave of bombings were attempted.
When India cried hoarse for years as a victim of terrorism, the world merely paid lip service. For the so called developed great western nations – be they of the Americas or those of the European continent, such who indulged in acts of violence, in attrocities and innocent killings in the name of Kashmir, Punjab or the North-eastern separatist movements, were all mere militants and insurgents fighting for a cause; patriots who had a just agenda. They were no terrorists nor described as such, by any of these nations.
But now when its their turn, and the agitated aggrieved have started knocking at their very door, they have woken up to the reality of terrorism, and its facets have dawned on them. Everyone agrees now that these are terrorists, their acts are of terrorism. No one says that these are Jihadis with a cause, who perhaps have cherished suppressed anger enough to be motivated enough to discard their own life and be suicide bombers. To justify victimising innocents by their acts of violence. As perhaps it is now right for those fighting terrorism to kill innocents “to save the people”.
And how easy for us to blame it on a religion, without really trying to tackle the route causes which are all so glaringly visible!
A word before I end, on the pol;ice reaction. The Indian police over years of tackling terrorism have honed their skills on the lint stone of experience. Their expertise hasn’t come in a day, be it in their efficiency in anticipating likely terrorist moves, interception and surveillance, collection of intelligence, or in ground level execution. The brashness and highhandedness being exhibited by the American enforcer and his British counterpart is the reaction of an inexperienced bumbling amateur. Given time, things should change…. I hope without having to face more acts of terrorism!
850 words: 26.07.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Comments:
Anthony Pereira : London: 26 July 2005
For an ex cop, I have to say that was a rather one sided article. While most people, including me, feel the shooting was over the top, you have to put it into perspective.
From that of the police:
- its the day after the failed bombing attempt
- the man emerged from a house under surveilence
- when challenged, he fled
- reportedly wearing some sort of a belt with wires protruding
- with officers in persuit, he runs into a tube station!
- he keeps running and gets onto a train.
- is he? is he not? can they take the chance? would you?
- they shoot, not 5 but 8 shots, killing him.
From that of the victim:
- he's off for a day of work to apparently install an alarm
- suddenly a bunch of hard looking chaps confront him, possibly with guns visible
- perhaps images of Brazillian shanti towns and the violence that goes with that cause him to run away
- he doesn't stop, perhaps thinking he's going to be mugged
- deciding to run into what might normally be a safe environment, he enters the tube station
- whatever his reasons, he doesn't stop, and the rest we know.
Its too difficult to point fingers. What if they hadn't shot him? What if he had been another bomber? Its no point trying to ask what if. The police did what they had to do. They got it wrong. And trying to say that the police are inexperienced at fighting terrorism is clearly wrong. They've had it for several decades with Northern Ireland and the bombing campaigns of the 80s.
But, suicide bombings clearly are a new kettle of fish. Its no longer just on TV, its here. As the cliche goes, the rules of ngagement have changed.
If you want to pick out mistakes:
The poilice: they should never have even let him get anywhere near the tube station. He should have been caught as soon as they decided to stop him. If they had to, they should have shot to disable when he was less of a threat, i.e. outside in the open.
The victim: he should neve have entered the tube station. The day after bombing attempts, with the place swarming with cops. He should have stopped and surrendered himself, whether they be cops or muggers.
Shooting him was not a mistake. They didn't have a choice. Shooting him 8 times in the head, that was a bit much. Using these scenarios to say how good the Indian Police are, just rings hollow I'm afraid. If you say that they'd have done something differently, given the situation, you'd have to have a pretty good example.
MP(In response)
I don't see myself disagreeing with any of your analysis, any of your comments and reactions.
While it is heartening to note the reactions viewed and voiced from diferent angles, from different perspectives etc, I am at the same time disappointed in my own inability to have driven home a very pertinent point that I have tried to make in the article. The point u have missed is about the minimal but pertinent comparison I have made between Indian and British conditions... and the stubborn bias that has refused to go from the Brit or western mind while dealing with or concerning India and Indians.
What would an Indian father have felt, watching television and listening to how an Asian youngster was killed point blank without giving him a single chance to explain or be verified. And for a full 24 hours the police giving no details of the killing, the identity of the victim, and so on. The victim so ruthlessly killed with no explanation, could have been any father's son!!!!
Being an ex-cop, one can picture exactly how things work.... and the article was written from that perspective. When praise was due, I gave it - that was in my article two weeks ago, on "Covering Bomb Blasts". I still admire the manner in which technology support has quickly been assimilated, analysed and disseminated to identity the likely killers (attempted bombers) by releasing their photographs from surveillance cameras and so on. But when I see bungling, I am equally perceptive and harsh in my treatment of the same.
I have relentlessly advocated against killing even the worst criminal without warning and by taking him unawares. Ninety percent of the so called encounters in India are in reality just pumping in bullets into the one killed after surrounding him, cornering him, and without giving him an iota of a chance at survival. Delhi Police Commissioner Nikhi Kumar lost his job only over one such encounter in broad daylight in Connaught Place where innocents mistakenly thought to be dacoits were killed by the special hit squad. And I saw exactly that stuff kind of stuff emerging from the much lauded Bobby. I still hold, the reaction to kill in the manner it was done, was the act of someone totally removed from reality of life, someone totally stressed out, and without control of his own senses or faculties.
And how come the Ashes are fought over at Lords? If just prior to a cricketing season there is a bomb blast in India, what is the reaction of the teams fro Britain Australia and so on? And how often are travel advisaries given by these nations and mostly USA to their citizens, not to travel to India because of unsafe conditions? Life shd go on as normal when things happen on the streets of London or the tube of London, killing dozens of innocents. But avoid India when things happen here. Don't let things normalize, or appear normal. Ha....
Well, there are arguments on either side. It is never one sided.
What thrills me most amidst all this debate, is the very thought that my son has taken pains to read through my articles and reacted to it.
Shocking! No. Not done! Something not expected of the London Bobby! Not expected of any police force or enforcement authority for that matter – the killing of an innocent in the name of fighting terrorism.
The British police have understandably come under fire for brutally killing Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent man who was in no way connected with the Thursday Sept 21 attempted bombings in London. Shock and anger all around, locally, internationally, as it emerged that the man shot dead by policemen in plainclothes in front of terrified commuters at the Stockwell underground Metro station in south London on the Friday that followed was neither carrying a bomb as had been alleged nor was he among the four men suspected to be behind Thursday's incidents.
The man whom even Tony Blair had initially claimed in front of television cameras was "directly linked" to the investigation of Thursday's attacks, was found after verification as having no connection whatsoever to the bomb attempts. Then on Sunday, Prime Minister Blair said “This is a tragedy. The Metropolitan Police accepts full responsibility for this. To the family, I can only express my deep regrets."
The PM however defended the shoot-to-kill policy, saying such action only applied when lives were believed to be at risk. The head of Scotland Yard has further gone on to say that he won't change the groundrule: "Shoot to kill, in order to protect." Scotland Yard also said the shooting had been a "tragedy'' which was regretted by the Metropolitan Police.
It would be interesting for socio-analysts and human rights activists to compare the this and the resultant scenarios that emerged in respect of killings of like nature, of innocents, in Britain and in India. For India has long been accused by everyone all over, and particularly the Rights Watchers, who invariably have made it their pleasure to do some India bashing on this score.
It is obvious the London shooting has added to the pressure on a police force that's already stressed. Stunned eyewitnesses have stated how they saw a man chased by policemen in plainclothes, who shot him from point blank range as he stumbled while trying to get on to a train that had just pulled in. As he tripped and fell, officers pinned him down and pumped at least five bullets into him as passengers watched in horror. The police had continued to fire long after he was dead.
To most onlookers and perhaps the pursuing policemen too, the Brazilian Menezes looked an Asian who was seen running on to the train hotly pursued by three plainclothes officers. One of them was carrying a black handgun — they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him.
Carefully study every word of how the act was described by the onlookers. This was not the act of rational sane normal human beings – be they policemen, but of those paranoid, highly stressed, under pressure to face something for which they were not fully prepared. Under pressure from a people with their stiff upper lip who boasted of the stocism, their resilience, to carry on come what may. All the great stoicism and resilience at risk of cracks in the edifice, when the second wave of bombings were attempted.
When India cried hoarse for years as a victim of terrorism, the world merely paid lip service. For the so called developed great western nations – be they of the Americas or those of the European continent, such who indulged in acts of violence, in attrocities and innocent killings in the name of Kashmir, Punjab or the North-eastern separatist movements, were all mere militants and insurgents fighting for a cause; patriots who had a just agenda. They were no terrorists nor described as such, by any of these nations.
But now when its their turn, and the agitated aggrieved have started knocking at their very door, they have woken up to the reality of terrorism, and its facets have dawned on them. Everyone agrees now that these are terrorists, their acts are of terrorism. No one says that these are Jihadis with a cause, who perhaps have cherished suppressed anger enough to be motivated enough to discard their own life and be suicide bombers. To justify victimising innocents by their acts of violence. As perhaps it is now right for those fighting terrorism to kill innocents “to save the people”.
And how easy for us to blame it on a religion, without really trying to tackle the route causes which are all so glaringly visible!
A word before I end, on the pol;ice reaction. The Indian police over years of tackling terrorism have honed their skills on the lint stone of experience. Their expertise hasn’t come in a day, be it in their efficiency in anticipating likely terrorist moves, interception and surveillance, collection of intelligence, or in ground level execution. The brashness and highhandedness being exhibited by the American enforcer and his British counterpart is the reaction of an inexperienced bumbling amateur. Given time, things should change…. I hope without having to face more acts of terrorism!
850 words: 26.07.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Comments:
Anthony Pereira : London: 26 July 2005
For an ex cop, I have to say that was a rather one sided article. While most people, including me, feel the shooting was over the top, you have to put it into perspective.
From that of the police:
- its the day after the failed bombing attempt
- the man emerged from a house under surveilence
- when challenged, he fled
- reportedly wearing some sort of a belt with wires protruding
- with officers in persuit, he runs into a tube station!
- he keeps running and gets onto a train.
- is he? is he not? can they take the chance? would you?
- they shoot, not 5 but 8 shots, killing him.
From that of the victim:
- he's off for a day of work to apparently install an alarm
- suddenly a bunch of hard looking chaps confront him, possibly with guns visible
- perhaps images of Brazillian shanti towns and the violence that goes with that cause him to run away
- he doesn't stop, perhaps thinking he's going to be mugged
- deciding to run into what might normally be a safe environment, he enters the tube station
- whatever his reasons, he doesn't stop, and the rest we know.
Its too difficult to point fingers. What if they hadn't shot him? What if he had been another bomber? Its no point trying to ask what if. The police did what they had to do. They got it wrong. And trying to say that the police are inexperienced at fighting terrorism is clearly wrong. They've had it for several decades with Northern Ireland and the bombing campaigns of the 80s.
But, suicide bombings clearly are a new kettle of fish. Its no longer just on TV, its here. As the cliche goes, the rules of ngagement have changed.
If you want to pick out mistakes:
The poilice: they should never have even let him get anywhere near the tube station. He should have been caught as soon as they decided to stop him. If they had to, they should have shot to disable when he was less of a threat, i.e. outside in the open.
The victim: he should neve have entered the tube station. The day after bombing attempts, with the place swarming with cops. He should have stopped and surrendered himself, whether they be cops or muggers.
Shooting him was not a mistake. They didn't have a choice. Shooting him 8 times in the head, that was a bit much. Using these scenarios to say how good the Indian Police are, just rings hollow I'm afraid. If you say that they'd have done something differently, given the situation, you'd have to have a pretty good example.
MP(In response)
I don't see myself disagreeing with any of your analysis, any of your comments and reactions.
While it is heartening to note the reactions viewed and voiced from diferent angles, from different perspectives etc, I am at the same time disappointed in my own inability to have driven home a very pertinent point that I have tried to make in the article. The point u have missed is about the minimal but pertinent comparison I have made between Indian and British conditions... and the stubborn bias that has refused to go from the Brit or western mind while dealing with or concerning India and Indians.
What would an Indian father have felt, watching television and listening to how an Asian youngster was killed point blank without giving him a single chance to explain or be verified. And for a full 24 hours the police giving no details of the killing, the identity of the victim, and so on. The victim so ruthlessly killed with no explanation, could have been any father's son!!!!
Being an ex-cop, one can picture exactly how things work.... and the article was written from that perspective. When praise was due, I gave it - that was in my article two weeks ago, on "Covering Bomb Blasts". I still admire the manner in which technology support has quickly been assimilated, analysed and disseminated to identity the likely killers (attempted bombers) by releasing their photographs from surveillance cameras and so on. But when I see bungling, I am equally perceptive and harsh in my treatment of the same.
I have relentlessly advocated against killing even the worst criminal without warning and by taking him unawares. Ninety percent of the so called encounters in India are in reality just pumping in bullets into the one killed after surrounding him, cornering him, and without giving him an iota of a chance at survival. Delhi Police Commissioner Nikhi Kumar lost his job only over one such encounter in broad daylight in Connaught Place where innocents mistakenly thought to be dacoits were killed by the special hit squad. And I saw exactly that stuff kind of stuff emerging from the much lauded Bobby. I still hold, the reaction to kill in the manner it was done, was the act of someone totally removed from reality of life, someone totally stressed out, and without control of his own senses or faculties.
And how come the Ashes are fought over at Lords? If just prior to a cricketing season there is a bomb blast in India, what is the reaction of the teams fro Britain Australia and so on? And how often are travel advisaries given by these nations and mostly USA to their citizens, not to travel to India because of unsafe conditions? Life shd go on as normal when things happen on the streets of London or the tube of London, killing dozens of innocents. But avoid India when things happen here. Don't let things normalize, or appear normal. Ha....
Well, there are arguments on either side. It is never one sided.
What thrills me most amidst all this debate, is the very thought that my son has taken pains to read through my articles and reacted to it.
Tuesday, 12 July 2005
Covering Bomb Blasts
By Maxwell Pereira
A lesson or two there in the London Blasts for us here in India, and more particularly for the Indian media. But before I proceed, a pertinent question: Did anyone come across a single travel advisory from any of the so-called developed lot of the world telling their citizens and travellers not to travel to London or the UK because of the blasts? Isn’t it routine and customary for all these countries, especially the USA and the UK to rush with travel advisories to their own countrymen not to make India a travel destination each time a blast occurs or other minor violence erupts in Delhi or elsewhere in India?
That having been said, now some observations to educate ourselves for the better – I hope. I am not an Anglophile, and yet cannot but help admire the manner in which the Brits handled the crisis. More importantly, on how the local and the international media reacted to and covered the calamity. Neither on the very day nor on days that followed did I see a single word of criticism, accusation, and acrimony. Not of the Government in power, not of the police handling the aftermath, not of the supportive services that battled to meet the crisis and its fall-out.
What one witnessed instead throughout the last six days, is alongside the factual reportage without sensationalism, copious amounts of prayers and empathy with the victims, praise and appreciation for the public services that rallied round in response – all bringing out the resilience, the stoicism of a multicultural people of grit, with subtle handling of the sympathy factor, of the aid and succour to the needy, efforts to put the city back on its rails.
In the entire coverage not once did I see any clip of a VIP visit to the scene of blasts? Only relevant and pertinent reactions of leaders, of those in authority and administration, starting from the Prime Minister, the Mayor, Home Secretary and the Commissioner London Metropolitan Police. Their crisp and sombre words of shock and horror side by side accounts of the government’s and the administration’s response, the morale boosters required, their words of appreciation for those now tasked with mopping up the aftermath – for the police, the paramedics, hospital and ambulance services, the fire services and the vast number of volunteers who rallied to lend a hand.
Thrust all the while, on holding the people together, on efforts to appease and control the inevitable anger, the wrath and the backlash from enraged Britons towards visually distinct minorities. How unlike a ‘Modi’ reaction! The media and most of Britain’s political and intellectual elite bending over backwards to pull the nation from stereotyping or blacklisting with over-reaction the ‘foreigner’. Gently, encouragingly manoeuvring the reportage and the coverage, on discussions and visuals to inform the public without sensation or rancour. The silent yet frenetic cries for help of those looking for the ‘missing’ not neglected.
I heard the Home Secretary interviewed on television making no bones of the fact that there was intelligence failure and everyone agreeing with him that in such a case like the London blasts, there was no way for anyone to know in advance or be forewarned with pointed intelligence regarding exact locations, nature or possibility of the occurrence.
And I heard Prime Minister Tony Blair in an attempt to face facts candidly telling his bloodied and grieving countrymen that no amount of security measures alone could protect them from attack, because “all the surveillance in the world cannot stop someone from going on a bus to blow up innocent people”. Contrast this with Man Mohan Singh, or any Indian PM at that, making such a statement and the resultant political, people, and media reaction to such here in India!
One should think there were no failures. That there’d be no enquiries. Of course there must’ve been many. But no, all that could wait, even as intense activity to investigate and solve the blast riddle were on: scrutiny of records and intelligence inputs, the collection collation sifting sorting linking and analysis of information and clues, the scanning of surveillance camera tapes, the searches and raids, the interrogation of suspects. For the moment of present management what was of paramount importance was to be ensured – solidly, silently, steadfastly.
Not a word of criticism of the police or of the intelligence services. Instead the media concentrating on putting across aptly that all the past intelligence collected would now come into play, which with the ongoing and undertaken investigations with the help of forensics looking for types of devices used, and to establish identities, the connections, international links if any – would all help unravel the jigsaw puzzle, the plot and the manner in which it was executed. To lead to expected inevitable arrests and bring to book the perpetrators. The sensitivity and finesse with which the entire horror, the accompanying trauma and the resultant aftermath was handled by the administration and the media, just commendable.
For an Indian here in India, and especially for our own grand media, a million things to react too even as mere onlookers. We’d be missing sorely the scenes we are used to on TV screens, the headlines and narratives in our newspapers. Where are the breast beatings, the melodrama! Where is the sensation? …the accusations and the pointing of fingers? ….the playing of the blame game? …and the screeching for heads to roll? Where are the scenes of scores of AK-47 armed policemen escorting Advanis and Patils to the scene instead of going about their jobs of looking for clues?
And of course, where are the repetitive everyday headlines – “Police at Sea” “Police groping in the dark” “police still have no clue” Did we see a single of these in all the coverage of the London blasts?
900 words: 12.07.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
A lesson or two there in the London Blasts for us here in India, and more particularly for the Indian media. But before I proceed, a pertinent question: Did anyone come across a single travel advisory from any of the so-called developed lot of the world telling their citizens and travellers not to travel to London or the UK because of the blasts? Isn’t it routine and customary for all these countries, especially the USA and the UK to rush with travel advisories to their own countrymen not to make India a travel destination each time a blast occurs or other minor violence erupts in Delhi or elsewhere in India?
That having been said, now some observations to educate ourselves for the better – I hope. I am not an Anglophile, and yet cannot but help admire the manner in which the Brits handled the crisis. More importantly, on how the local and the international media reacted to and covered the calamity. Neither on the very day nor on days that followed did I see a single word of criticism, accusation, and acrimony. Not of the Government in power, not of the police handling the aftermath, not of the supportive services that battled to meet the crisis and its fall-out.
What one witnessed instead throughout the last six days, is alongside the factual reportage without sensationalism, copious amounts of prayers and empathy with the victims, praise and appreciation for the public services that rallied round in response – all bringing out the resilience, the stoicism of a multicultural people of grit, with subtle handling of the sympathy factor, of the aid and succour to the needy, efforts to put the city back on its rails.
In the entire coverage not once did I see any clip of a VIP visit to the scene of blasts? Only relevant and pertinent reactions of leaders, of those in authority and administration, starting from the Prime Minister, the Mayor, Home Secretary and the Commissioner London Metropolitan Police. Their crisp and sombre words of shock and horror side by side accounts of the government’s and the administration’s response, the morale boosters required, their words of appreciation for those now tasked with mopping up the aftermath – for the police, the paramedics, hospital and ambulance services, the fire services and the vast number of volunteers who rallied to lend a hand.
Thrust all the while, on holding the people together, on efforts to appease and control the inevitable anger, the wrath and the backlash from enraged Britons towards visually distinct minorities. How unlike a ‘Modi’ reaction! The media and most of Britain’s political and intellectual elite bending over backwards to pull the nation from stereotyping or blacklisting with over-reaction the ‘foreigner’. Gently, encouragingly manoeuvring the reportage and the coverage, on discussions and visuals to inform the public without sensation or rancour. The silent yet frenetic cries for help of those looking for the ‘missing’ not neglected.
I heard the Home Secretary interviewed on television making no bones of the fact that there was intelligence failure and everyone agreeing with him that in such a case like the London blasts, there was no way for anyone to know in advance or be forewarned with pointed intelligence regarding exact locations, nature or possibility of the occurrence.
And I heard Prime Minister Tony Blair in an attempt to face facts candidly telling his bloodied and grieving countrymen that no amount of security measures alone could protect them from attack, because “all the surveillance in the world cannot stop someone from going on a bus to blow up innocent people”. Contrast this with Man Mohan Singh, or any Indian PM at that, making such a statement and the resultant political, people, and media reaction to such here in India!
One should think there were no failures. That there’d be no enquiries. Of course there must’ve been many. But no, all that could wait, even as intense activity to investigate and solve the blast riddle were on: scrutiny of records and intelligence inputs, the collection collation sifting sorting linking and analysis of information and clues, the scanning of surveillance camera tapes, the searches and raids, the interrogation of suspects. For the moment of present management what was of paramount importance was to be ensured – solidly, silently, steadfastly.
Not a word of criticism of the police or of the intelligence services. Instead the media concentrating on putting across aptly that all the past intelligence collected would now come into play, which with the ongoing and undertaken investigations with the help of forensics looking for types of devices used, and to establish identities, the connections, international links if any – would all help unravel the jigsaw puzzle, the plot and the manner in which it was executed. To lead to expected inevitable arrests and bring to book the perpetrators. The sensitivity and finesse with which the entire horror, the accompanying trauma and the resultant aftermath was handled by the administration and the media, just commendable.
For an Indian here in India, and especially for our own grand media, a million things to react too even as mere onlookers. We’d be missing sorely the scenes we are used to on TV screens, the headlines and narratives in our newspapers. Where are the breast beatings, the melodrama! Where is the sensation? …the accusations and the pointing of fingers? ….the playing of the blame game? …and the screeching for heads to roll? Where are the scenes of scores of AK-47 armed policemen escorting Advanis and Patils to the scene instead of going about their jobs of looking for clues?
And of course, where are the repetitive everyday headlines – “Police at Sea” “Police groping in the dark” “police still have no clue” Did we see a single of these in all the coverage of the London blasts?
900 words: 12.07.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira:
Available at: 3725 Sector-23 Gurgaon-122001;
mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Monday, 13 June 2005
Serial Killers…
By Maxwell Pereira
Serial killers are a neglected lot in India. They do not get attention particularly as a deseased kind. They do not get picked up nor listed for indepth study by social scientists and the medical fraternity – those specialising in fields for mental, psychological and psychiatric disorders. So much so, the dubious distinction for the highest number of psychopathic serial killers goes to the United States of America which claims 85% of the world’s reported and listed such. I do not believe this to be true. India has its sizeable share of serial kilers too. And they need the attention, in addition, of both – our NCRB and the BPR&D too.
It is like in Sikkim, when I went there immediately post merger, it was supposed to be a crimeless state – a Shangrila! For there was no infrastructure, nor organized system, to record, investigate and prosecute the majority of social aberrations that occaured outside towns. It was to my unfortunate lot to literally ‘bring’ crime to Sikkim, by recording incidents for proper follow up. So by burying heads Osterich-fashion in the sand and believing we do not suffer from the chronic malaise of the mentally sick who kill fellow beings compulsively in a repeated fashion, we cannot wish away the fact of an abundance of unstudied serial killers ‘midst us.
The latest in the never-ending stream of serial-killer reportings in India, is the gang of youngsters – 19-22 years, arrested by West Delhi police ten days ago: Mukesh aka Saif, Tarachand aka Khopri, and Ashwini aka Sanjay aka Judi already in police custody, and two more – Ajju and Pawan aka Tori, still at large. These specialised in sodomising poor roadside victims for fun, then killing them for whatever pittance they possessed. Unknown vagabonds, laborours, rickshaw-pullers, even an old woman – listed as their victims in the ongoing investigations… Whose bodies with multiple stab wounds on the neck, chest and abdomen, were invariably recovered nude, indicating sexual assault.
The most apt of descriptions clubs ‘serial killers’ as individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were usually unknown to them beforehand. Their crimes committed as a result of a compulsion that, in many but not all cases, having roots in the killer's (often dysfunctional) youth, as opposed to those motivated by financial gain (e.g. contract killers) or ideological/political motivations (e.g. terrorists). Often, this compulsion linked to the individual's sexual drive.
The credit for the term "serial killer" is disputed – coined by FBI agent Robert Ressler or by Dr. Robert Keppel in the 1970s so that criminologists could distinguish those who claim victims over a long period of time from those who claim multiple victims at once (mass murderers), or the spree killer.
For standardisation, the three types are defined: (i) Serial killer – someone who commits three or more murders over an extended period of time, with cooling-off periods and periods of normalcy between crimes, a state described as the "mask of sanity" by criminologists Hervey Checkley and Robert Hare. There is frequently, but not always, a sexual element to the murders.
(ii) A mass murderer – an individual who kills three or more people in a single event and in one location. The perpetrators sometimes commit suicide, meaning knowledge of their state of mind and what triggers their actions is often left to more speculation than fact. Mass murderers caught have sometimes claimed they cannot clearly remember the event.
And (iii) a spree killer, who commits multiple-murders in different locations over a period of time that may vary from a few hours to several days. Unlike serial killers, these do not revert to their normal behaviour in between slayings.
Serial killings are mostly carried out by solitary individuals. There are examples in all three categories, where two or more perpetrators have acted together. The instant captures of West Delhi can be cited as example too. Researchers have decided that multiple hands happen in about a third of the cases. Then serial killers are generally, but not always, male – though female exceptions are not unknown.
Studies have indicated that serial killers are specifically motivated by a variety of psychological urges, primarily power and sexual compulsion. They feel inadequate and worthless, often owing to humiliation and abuse in childhood or the pressures of poverty and low socio-economic status in adulthood, and their crimes give them a feeling of power, both at the time of the actual killing and also afterwards. The knowledge that their actions terrify entire communities and often baffle police forces adds to this sense of power. This motivational aspect separates them from contract killers and other multiple murderers who are motivated by profit. It is also true that people do things for multiple motivations too.
About their cooling off period. After a murder, temporarily, they feel satiated until their homicidal urges resurface. The time period between murders can vary between a few days to several years and will often decrease the longer the offender goes unapprehended.
Serial killers frequently have extreme sadistic urges. Ones who lack the ability to empathize with the suffering of others are frequently called psychopathic or sociopathic, terms which have been renamed among professional psychologists as antisocial personality disorder. Some serial killers engage in lust and torture murder, loosely defined terms involving, respectively, mutilation for sexual pleasure and killing them slowly over a prolonged period of time.
Serial killers are known to plead ‘not guilty’ by reason of insanity in a court of law. The legal definition of insanity is based on whether the defendant knows the difference between right and wrong; the level of premeditation and the lack of any obvious delusions or hallucinations necessary to successfully commit multiple murders without getting caught make this defense extremely difficult.
950 words
13.06.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira: 60 Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110001
Available at mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Serial killers are a neglected lot in India. They do not get attention particularly as a deseased kind. They do not get picked up nor listed for indepth study by social scientists and the medical fraternity – those specialising in fields for mental, psychological and psychiatric disorders. So much so, the dubious distinction for the highest number of psychopathic serial killers goes to the United States of America which claims 85% of the world’s reported and listed such. I do not believe this to be true. India has its sizeable share of serial kilers too. And they need the attention, in addition, of both – our NCRB and the BPR&D too.
It is like in Sikkim, when I went there immediately post merger, it was supposed to be a crimeless state – a Shangrila! For there was no infrastructure, nor organized system, to record, investigate and prosecute the majority of social aberrations that occaured outside towns. It was to my unfortunate lot to literally ‘bring’ crime to Sikkim, by recording incidents for proper follow up. So by burying heads Osterich-fashion in the sand and believing we do not suffer from the chronic malaise of the mentally sick who kill fellow beings compulsively in a repeated fashion, we cannot wish away the fact of an abundance of unstudied serial killers ‘midst us.
The latest in the never-ending stream of serial-killer reportings in India, is the gang of youngsters – 19-22 years, arrested by West Delhi police ten days ago: Mukesh aka Saif, Tarachand aka Khopri, and Ashwini aka Sanjay aka Judi already in police custody, and two more – Ajju and Pawan aka Tori, still at large. These specialised in sodomising poor roadside victims for fun, then killing them for whatever pittance they possessed. Unknown vagabonds, laborours, rickshaw-pullers, even an old woman – listed as their victims in the ongoing investigations… Whose bodies with multiple stab wounds on the neck, chest and abdomen, were invariably recovered nude, indicating sexual assault.
The most apt of descriptions clubs ‘serial killers’ as individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were usually unknown to them beforehand. Their crimes committed as a result of a compulsion that, in many but not all cases, having roots in the killer's (often dysfunctional) youth, as opposed to those motivated by financial gain (e.g. contract killers) or ideological/political motivations (e.g. terrorists). Often, this compulsion linked to the individual's sexual drive.
The credit for the term "serial killer" is disputed – coined by FBI agent Robert Ressler or by Dr. Robert Keppel in the 1970s so that criminologists could distinguish those who claim victims over a long period of time from those who claim multiple victims at once (mass murderers), or the spree killer.
For standardisation, the three types are defined: (i) Serial killer – someone who commits three or more murders over an extended period of time, with cooling-off periods and periods of normalcy between crimes, a state described as the "mask of sanity" by criminologists Hervey Checkley and Robert Hare. There is frequently, but not always, a sexual element to the murders.
(ii) A mass murderer – an individual who kills three or more people in a single event and in one location. The perpetrators sometimes commit suicide, meaning knowledge of their state of mind and what triggers their actions is often left to more speculation than fact. Mass murderers caught have sometimes claimed they cannot clearly remember the event.
And (iii) a spree killer, who commits multiple-murders in different locations over a period of time that may vary from a few hours to several days. Unlike serial killers, these do not revert to their normal behaviour in between slayings.
Serial killings are mostly carried out by solitary individuals. There are examples in all three categories, where two or more perpetrators have acted together. The instant captures of West Delhi can be cited as example too. Researchers have decided that multiple hands happen in about a third of the cases. Then serial killers are generally, but not always, male – though female exceptions are not unknown.
Studies have indicated that serial killers are specifically motivated by a variety of psychological urges, primarily power and sexual compulsion. They feel inadequate and worthless, often owing to humiliation and abuse in childhood or the pressures of poverty and low socio-economic status in adulthood, and their crimes give them a feeling of power, both at the time of the actual killing and also afterwards. The knowledge that their actions terrify entire communities and often baffle police forces adds to this sense of power. This motivational aspect separates them from contract killers and other multiple murderers who are motivated by profit. It is also true that people do things for multiple motivations too.
About their cooling off period. After a murder, temporarily, they feel satiated until their homicidal urges resurface. The time period between murders can vary between a few days to several years and will often decrease the longer the offender goes unapprehended.
Serial killers frequently have extreme sadistic urges. Ones who lack the ability to empathize with the suffering of others are frequently called psychopathic or sociopathic, terms which have been renamed among professional psychologists as antisocial personality disorder. Some serial killers engage in lust and torture murder, loosely defined terms involving, respectively, mutilation for sexual pleasure and killing them slowly over a prolonged period of time.
Serial killers are known to plead ‘not guilty’ by reason of insanity in a court of law. The legal definition of insanity is based on whether the defendant knows the difference between right and wrong; the level of premeditation and the lack of any obvious delusions or hallucinations necessary to successfully commit multiple murders without getting caught make this defense extremely difficult.
950 words
13.06.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira: 60 Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110001
Available at mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Monday, 16 May 2005
Indecent Proposal
By Maxwell Pereira
It was the morning of September 7, 2003 when we were informed at Anand Vihar Police Stattion by Dr Rajan, on duty at the Shanthi Mukund Hospital in East Delhi, that a private nurse engaged to look after a comatose deaf and dumb 70-year old patient, had been raped and assaulted by the hospital auxiliary help, sweeper Bhura. The police registered a case on the statement of ward boy, Vyas Sharma, who following his nose on sighting bloodstains on the floor outside a bolted toilet door, had stumbled on to the victim inside. The girl had injuries on her face, and managed to tell the rescuer that she had been sexually assaulted.
Later in her statement, the victim gave details. That sweeper Bhura had tried to outrage her modesty while she was sleeping on a bench in the old patient’s room, and on her threatening to report against him, he had thrashed her mercilessly, tried to throttle her and raped her. When she regained consciousness she had found herself in the toilet with the door bolted from the outside.
For reasons of their own, the Shanti Mukund Nursing Home referred the victim to GTB Hospital for further treatment, even as the police lost no time in arresting the accused. A thorough investigation was also ensured, ‘midst all the accompanying public fury and the connected media, politician, government and women’s groups interventions, that any such case would naturally attract. And, apart from associating a lady police officer with the investigation of the case right from inception, the police also pressed into service its area Rape Crisis Intervention machinery through NGOs Pratidhi and Swanchetan, to counsel and provide possible succour to the victim and her family in the given circumstances.
Within four days of the incident, the victim’s right eye damaged during the assault, developed complications – ending up with the attending doctors completely removing it and further adding to the trauma. This led to more furore with allegations of medical negligence.
On the recommendation of the National Commission for Women, an inquiry committee was constituted then by the DelhiGovernment to look into the procedural and the medical lapses on the part of the hospitals involved. This medical board appointed by the Director Health Services was tasked to ascertain whether adequate and appropriate treatment was provided by both hospitals to the victim, whether there was any lapse or negligence on the part of the attending doctors or in providing treatment, and whether there was any lapse in providing the required security to the private Keralite nurse at Shanti Mukund. In its findings, the Board indicted the hospitals and many individual doctors severly for their role in the entire episode – but it is not known what action followed thereon.
An elaborate exercise was also undertaken all over, to evaluate the safety of nurses working in different hospitals generally, so that recurrence of such incidents could be avoided. The public outcry and the media attention attracted, necessarily made those in authority, the elected representatives and prominent party big-wigs and similar, to jump in the fray and join the bandwagon to say their bit, show their face, or make their presence felt.
Which also prompted some of these worthies, including the government, to declare sizeable compensation packages to the victim. But amidst all, one witnessed some other unsavoury human facets as well. Much as the case deserved sympathy and empathy for the sheer heinous nature of the assault, the mental trauma and agony suffered over the rape and the loss of an eye, there was no derth of drama and intrigue too on the part of whoever that could provide it, including the victim’s family who were not at all bereft of their own machinations or deftness at handling the matter.
Over time, the Shanti Mukund rape case slipped from public mind, as other rapes and more issues edged out the presence of its memory from one’s mind. All the while, the criminal case progressed. The charge-sheet had been filed and the trial went on. The police ensured that the witnesses deposed, and the prosecution did its job of conducting the trial. The case got the attention of the special fast track courts constituted by the Delhi Hight Court to try some sensational cases in the public eye with a view to ensure speedy justice. Till one day recently, the case burst on to the screen yet again with a bang – with Bhura’s conviction on judgement day.
This infamous case though, will not now be erased from public memory that easily. It will go into the annals of history, not just for the conviction, but for the attrocious and preposterous offer of the accused expressing condescendinly his willingness to marry the victim – made to the court on sentencing day before it could pronounce the sentence. It will be remembered for the manner in which the presiding authority of the court in turn, referred this indecent proposal to the victim prosecutrix for her consideration, justifying its act with the explanation that it was open to the prosecution to oppose the proposal and seek its dismissal. This shocking remembrance, despite the judge finally dealing out the maximum sentence of life imprisonment to the accused, after outright rejection by the victim of the outragious offer.
Strange indeed are the ways of the world. What would have happened if the girl had said yes! Would the judge have given a different sentence then even though there is no provision in law to consider it as a mitigating circumstance? What else? …well, one lives and learns!
900 words
16.05.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira: 60 Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110001
Available at mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
It was the morning of September 7, 2003 when we were informed at Anand Vihar Police Stattion by Dr Rajan, on duty at the Shanthi Mukund Hospital in East Delhi, that a private nurse engaged to look after a comatose deaf and dumb 70-year old patient, had been raped and assaulted by the hospital auxiliary help, sweeper Bhura. The police registered a case on the statement of ward boy, Vyas Sharma, who following his nose on sighting bloodstains on the floor outside a bolted toilet door, had stumbled on to the victim inside. The girl had injuries on her face, and managed to tell the rescuer that she had been sexually assaulted.
Later in her statement, the victim gave details. That sweeper Bhura had tried to outrage her modesty while she was sleeping on a bench in the old patient’s room, and on her threatening to report against him, he had thrashed her mercilessly, tried to throttle her and raped her. When she regained consciousness she had found herself in the toilet with the door bolted from the outside.
For reasons of their own, the Shanti Mukund Nursing Home referred the victim to GTB Hospital for further treatment, even as the police lost no time in arresting the accused. A thorough investigation was also ensured, ‘midst all the accompanying public fury and the connected media, politician, government and women’s groups interventions, that any such case would naturally attract. And, apart from associating a lady police officer with the investigation of the case right from inception, the police also pressed into service its area Rape Crisis Intervention machinery through NGOs Pratidhi and Swanchetan, to counsel and provide possible succour to the victim and her family in the given circumstances.
Within four days of the incident, the victim’s right eye damaged during the assault, developed complications – ending up with the attending doctors completely removing it and further adding to the trauma. This led to more furore with allegations of medical negligence.
On the recommendation of the National Commission for Women, an inquiry committee was constituted then by the DelhiGovernment to look into the procedural and the medical lapses on the part of the hospitals involved. This medical board appointed by the Director Health Services was tasked to ascertain whether adequate and appropriate treatment was provided by both hospitals to the victim, whether there was any lapse or negligence on the part of the attending doctors or in providing treatment, and whether there was any lapse in providing the required security to the private Keralite nurse at Shanti Mukund. In its findings, the Board indicted the hospitals and many individual doctors severly for their role in the entire episode – but it is not known what action followed thereon.
An elaborate exercise was also undertaken all over, to evaluate the safety of nurses working in different hospitals generally, so that recurrence of such incidents could be avoided. The public outcry and the media attention attracted, necessarily made those in authority, the elected representatives and prominent party big-wigs and similar, to jump in the fray and join the bandwagon to say their bit, show their face, or make their presence felt.
Which also prompted some of these worthies, including the government, to declare sizeable compensation packages to the victim. But amidst all, one witnessed some other unsavoury human facets as well. Much as the case deserved sympathy and empathy for the sheer heinous nature of the assault, the mental trauma and agony suffered over the rape and the loss of an eye, there was no derth of drama and intrigue too on the part of whoever that could provide it, including the victim’s family who were not at all bereft of their own machinations or deftness at handling the matter.
Over time, the Shanti Mukund rape case slipped from public mind, as other rapes and more issues edged out the presence of its memory from one’s mind. All the while, the criminal case progressed. The charge-sheet had been filed and the trial went on. The police ensured that the witnesses deposed, and the prosecution did its job of conducting the trial. The case got the attention of the special fast track courts constituted by the Delhi Hight Court to try some sensational cases in the public eye with a view to ensure speedy justice. Till one day recently, the case burst on to the screen yet again with a bang – with Bhura’s conviction on judgement day.
This infamous case though, will not now be erased from public memory that easily. It will go into the annals of history, not just for the conviction, but for the attrocious and preposterous offer of the accused expressing condescendinly his willingness to marry the victim – made to the court on sentencing day before it could pronounce the sentence. It will be remembered for the manner in which the presiding authority of the court in turn, referred this indecent proposal to the victim prosecutrix for her consideration, justifying its act with the explanation that it was open to the prosecution to oppose the proposal and seek its dismissal. This shocking remembrance, despite the judge finally dealing out the maximum sentence of life imprisonment to the accused, after outright rejection by the victim of the outragious offer.
Strange indeed are the ways of the world. What would have happened if the girl had said yes! Would the judge have given a different sentence then even though there is no provision in law to consider it as a mitigating circumstance? What else? …well, one lives and learns!
900 words
16.05.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira: 60 Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110001
Available at mfjpkamath@gmail.com & http:/www.planetindia.net.maxwell
Monday, 28 March 2005
Come into my Parlour ….!
By Maxwell Pereira
A while ago, the Delhi Police were seemingly bitten by an obsession to chase after the mushrooming massage parlours in town. Not without reason, the unsavoury hovering image of their propensity to be used as sleazy joints selling sex – always real, was rampant and glaring, assuming alarming proportions enough to attract adverse concerns for the community. A visit to the classified and other ad columns of daily papers is educative – how openly, suggestively, and aggressively the ‘services’ at these parlours are advertised, with nothing left to imagination or conjecture, despite whatever police intervention there’s been or is imminent.
Then after every raid, detailed accounts in news columns, of various services offered, the innovative masquerading adopted, and the sex objects used. The star-lets that fly in and out for a weekend binge, the house wives from so called decent backgrounds out for a quick buck with or without the knowledge of their spouse. And horrifyingly, of even tender lasses, be they from university hostels or the next door neighbourhood, who could always do with a bit more of the moolah to keep up with the latest fashion trends or the new model of the mobile phone in the market!
I am not sure what’s happened to these raids – for over the past few weeks now, one has hardly read any coverage on such raids by the police. Is it better sense, or for some other consideration? For surely, the parlours continue to exist and operate like before! Does it mean they operate now under police protection, supervision or active monitoring!?
I would be worried though, at any overly police interest in such activity, which should frankly be the sole concern of the local community. Through their RWA (Residents’ Welfare Association), may be as part of the Bhagidari stake for people’s common good as a whole. A valid and wider reason for this: Decent scientifically managed massage parlours are a necessity, since they tend to fulfil a community’s therapeutic needs. Properly managed, kept clean and transparent with whatever checks and balances prescribed, this activity can not only be a boon, but also an impetus to our famed medico/ physio-therapeutic tourism.
Massage is known to be the oldest and simplest form of medical care. Egyptian tomb paintings depict people being massaged. In all Eastern cultures, it has been continually pactised since ancient times. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine – a Chinese book from 2700 BC, recommends “breathing exercises, massage of skin and flesh, and exercises of hands and feet" as the appropriate treatment for complete paralysis, chills, and fever."
Massage was among the principal methods for relieving pain, adopted by Greek and Roman physicians. And Julius Caesar had a daily massage to treat neuralgia. In the 5th century BC, Hippocrates the father of modern medicine wrote, "The Physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing... for rubbing can bind a joint that is too loose, and loosen a joint that is too rigid”. Not the least our own Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine, places great emphasis on the therapeutic benefits of massage with aromatic oils and spices. Practiced widely in India, it is now a craze in the developed world too.
Down the ages, doctors like Ambroise Pare – a 16th-century physician to the French court, praised massage as a treatment for various ailments. Swedish massage, most familiar to Westerners, was developed in the 19th century by Per Henrik Ling – a Swedish doctor, poet, and educator. His system was based on a study of gymnastics and physiology, and on techniques borrowed from China, Egypt, Greece and Rome.
Physiotherapy, originally based on Ling's methods, was established in 1894 with the foundation of the Society of Trained Masseurs. During World War-I patients suffering from nerve injury or shell shock were treated with massage. London’s St. Thomas Hospital had a department of massage until 1934. Later though, massage was eclipsed by breakthroughs in medical technology and pharmacology, as physiotherapists began increasingly to favour electrical instruments over manual methods of stimulating the tissues.
It is unfortunate that Massage lost some of its value and prestige with the unsavoury image created by "massage parlours”. This image is fading elsewhere in the world as awareness of its value and therapeutic properties keeps growing – even as we in India, despite our world famous ayurvedic massages, are still wallowing in the mire of the unsavoury image and usage, such parlours convey.
There is need to realize that Massage is now used in intensive care units, for children, elderly people, babies in incubators, and patients with cancer, AIDS, heart attacks, or strokes. Most hospices in the developed world have some kind of bodywork therapy available, and it is frequently offered in health centres, drug treatment clinics, and pain clinics. A variety of massage techniques have also been incorporated into several other complementary therapies, such as aromatherapy, reflexology, Rolfing, Heller-work, and osteopathy.
Today "massage is to the human body what a tune-up is for a car" – not anymore something for just feeling good. Losing the ancient stigma associated with blue light and red light districts for its re-juvenative or therapeutic value, it is a holistic therapy that reduces the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, increases blood circulation and lymph flow, relaxes muscles, improves range of motion, and increases endorphins, the body's natural painkillers. Therapeutic massage compliments and enhances medical treatment and helps people feel less anxious and stressed, relaxed yet more alert. Authorities may like to note!
900 words
28.03.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira: 60 Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110001. (tel-23718822).
The author is available at http://www. maxwellpereira.com and maxpk@vsnl.com ; mfjpkamath@gmail.com
A while ago, the Delhi Police were seemingly bitten by an obsession to chase after the mushrooming massage parlours in town. Not without reason, the unsavoury hovering image of their propensity to be used as sleazy joints selling sex – always real, was rampant and glaring, assuming alarming proportions enough to attract adverse concerns for the community. A visit to the classified and other ad columns of daily papers is educative – how openly, suggestively, and aggressively the ‘services’ at these parlours are advertised, with nothing left to imagination or conjecture, despite whatever police intervention there’s been or is imminent.
Then after every raid, detailed accounts in news columns, of various services offered, the innovative masquerading adopted, and the sex objects used. The star-lets that fly in and out for a weekend binge, the house wives from so called decent backgrounds out for a quick buck with or without the knowledge of their spouse. And horrifyingly, of even tender lasses, be they from university hostels or the next door neighbourhood, who could always do with a bit more of the moolah to keep up with the latest fashion trends or the new model of the mobile phone in the market!
I am not sure what’s happened to these raids – for over the past few weeks now, one has hardly read any coverage on such raids by the police. Is it better sense, or for some other consideration? For surely, the parlours continue to exist and operate like before! Does it mean they operate now under police protection, supervision or active monitoring!?
I would be worried though, at any overly police interest in such activity, which should frankly be the sole concern of the local community. Through their RWA (Residents’ Welfare Association), may be as part of the Bhagidari stake for people’s common good as a whole. A valid and wider reason for this: Decent scientifically managed massage parlours are a necessity, since they tend to fulfil a community’s therapeutic needs. Properly managed, kept clean and transparent with whatever checks and balances prescribed, this activity can not only be a boon, but also an impetus to our famed medico/ physio-therapeutic tourism.
Massage is known to be the oldest and simplest form of medical care. Egyptian tomb paintings depict people being massaged. In all Eastern cultures, it has been continually pactised since ancient times. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine – a Chinese book from 2700 BC, recommends “breathing exercises, massage of skin and flesh, and exercises of hands and feet" as the appropriate treatment for complete paralysis, chills, and fever."
Massage was among the principal methods for relieving pain, adopted by Greek and Roman physicians. And Julius Caesar had a daily massage to treat neuralgia. In the 5th century BC, Hippocrates the father of modern medicine wrote, "The Physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing... for rubbing can bind a joint that is too loose, and loosen a joint that is too rigid”. Not the least our own Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine, places great emphasis on the therapeutic benefits of massage with aromatic oils and spices. Practiced widely in India, it is now a craze in the developed world too.
Down the ages, doctors like Ambroise Pare – a 16th-century physician to the French court, praised massage as a treatment for various ailments. Swedish massage, most familiar to Westerners, was developed in the 19th century by Per Henrik Ling – a Swedish doctor, poet, and educator. His system was based on a study of gymnastics and physiology, and on techniques borrowed from China, Egypt, Greece and Rome.
Physiotherapy, originally based on Ling's methods, was established in 1894 with the foundation of the Society of Trained Masseurs. During World War-I patients suffering from nerve injury or shell shock were treated with massage. London’s St. Thomas Hospital had a department of massage until 1934. Later though, massage was eclipsed by breakthroughs in medical technology and pharmacology, as physiotherapists began increasingly to favour electrical instruments over manual methods of stimulating the tissues.
It is unfortunate that Massage lost some of its value and prestige with the unsavoury image created by "massage parlours”. This image is fading elsewhere in the world as awareness of its value and therapeutic properties keeps growing – even as we in India, despite our world famous ayurvedic massages, are still wallowing in the mire of the unsavoury image and usage, such parlours convey.
There is need to realize that Massage is now used in intensive care units, for children, elderly people, babies in incubators, and patients with cancer, AIDS, heart attacks, or strokes. Most hospices in the developed world have some kind of bodywork therapy available, and it is frequently offered in health centres, drug treatment clinics, and pain clinics. A variety of massage techniques have also been incorporated into several other complementary therapies, such as aromatherapy, reflexology, Rolfing, Heller-work, and osteopathy.
Today "massage is to the human body what a tune-up is for a car" – not anymore something for just feeling good. Losing the ancient stigma associated with blue light and red light districts for its re-juvenative or therapeutic value, it is a holistic therapy that reduces the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, increases blood circulation and lymph flow, relaxes muscles, improves range of motion, and increases endorphins, the body's natural painkillers. Therapeutic massage compliments and enhances medical treatment and helps people feel less anxious and stressed, relaxed yet more alert. Authorities may like to note!
900 words
28.03.2005: Copyright © Maxwell Pereira: 60 Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110001. (tel-23718822).
The author is available at http://www. maxwellpereira.com and maxpk@vsnl.com ; mfjpkamath@gmail.com
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