Sworn to Silence: Vigilantism

Image by Marxchivist via Flickr

Cop # 1 – This cop is presently under suspension for insubordination. He took it upon himself despite strict orders from superior officers to arrest a suspected drug pusher during a hot pursuit operation. He was able to apprehend single-handed the suspect with several drug sachets in his possession and had him charged in court. The suspect, who turned out to be a scion of an influential family, later got off the hook by proving through witnesses that the drugs were planted by no less the apprehending officer.

Cop # 2 – A be-medaled officer who figured in a shoot-out with suspected car-nappers. He got himself in the hot seat from a TV news clip showing him pumped a bullet into the head of a wounded suspect. What was not caught on camera was the suspect with a gun in his hand about to shoot back at him.

Cop # 3 – Assigned as undercover in the vice squad for the past two years, he had more than his share of tales of woes and gory scenes of brutal murders perpetrated by drug-crazed people and serial killers. Stories from prostitutes as young as 15-18 years old about their sad plight into a life of prostitution; how they were recruited from far-flung villages with promises of a better life in the big city only to end up exploited and forced to give sexual favors in brothels, massage parlors and sleazy bars.

Cop # 4 – A beat patrolman, he is still mourning the loss of his teenage daughter who was brutally raped and murdered by young hoodlums. Her body was found one morning in a grassy secluded lot naked with her head and face bashed to a bloody pulp. The perpetrators were known neighborhood thugs but for lack of witnesses because of fear of reprisal, the criminals remained free.

The four policemen met one night in a funeral parlor during the wake of the murdered daughter of the 4th cop. During a serious discussion about their individual concerns related to their job as police officers, they arrived at a mental list of such concerns, thus:

1. The drug problem has now become unabated and seriously affecting quite a number of young people who with their addiction has turned into a life of crime. Drug suppliers and pushers have become bold in their nefarious activities confident that they have people – rogue cops on the take and people in the justice department who are in their payroll to take care of them. Drug money has spelled the difference between righteousness and apathy.
2. The wheel of justice is so slow, what with the backlog of cases in the courtrooms a mile long. No matter how guilty a criminal is, the outcome most often goes in his favor because he has the money or the financial backing to hire a “talented” lawyer or to sway decisions in his favor. And sometimes because of money, he gets off with a lesser offense and may spend a brief time in jail to be release again to go back to his criminal activities. When you get to apprehend a criminal who to your mind is guilty beyond doubt, your time and duties as a police officer gets eaten up by filing a case against the suspect yourself, attend to endless court hearings yourself, only to end up frustrated if the suspect gets released due to a few operational lapses during his apprehension or for some “technical” reasons.
3. There is a shortage of penal facilities where a jail’s capacity of, say 500 inmates is jam-packed with as many as 2,000 or more convicts including inmates awaiting sentencing. The inhuman conditions inside jails give rise to nothing but thoughts of escape by inmates at times made possible courtesy of corrupt guards and jail officials and flimsy construction of jail facilities as well. Youthful offenders are mixed with seasoned criminals which instead of rehabilitating them turns them into professional law-breakers.

In the course of their discussion, they also made mental notes of these concerns:

1. The church frowns and is quite vocal against any type of summary executions. The Church even had been instrumental in the ban on capital punishment or death penalty and abortion as well. Though the Church is not happy with increasing incidents of deaths from criminal elements they instead blame the authorities for inefficiency and incompetence.
2. Human rights advocates are always actively promoting their defense of victims of summary killings but maintain a tight-lip stance towards the human rights of hapless victims of thieves, murderers, rapists and other criminals.
3. There are so many flaws in the judicial and penal systems that still leave much to be done legislatively.

The judicial and social equation has always been in the favor of the rights criminals at the expense of countless innocent lives lost. The public has lost trust and confidence of the law authorities. Peace and order has so much deteriorated with ever increasing incidents of crime sowing fear among the populace. Something has to be done! And in the cold silence of the funeral chapel the four cops swore an oath – a code of conduct of VIGILANTISM!

Two weeks later, newspapers reported the death of a known criminal gunned down in front of his house by unknown helmeted assailants on motorcycles. A few days later a convict with a string of cases to his record was gunned down in front of a courthouse by motorcycle-riding assailants. Then later a tattoo-clad body with a bullet hole in his head was fished out from the sea who turned out to be a long-wanted drug pusher. Then another convict just out of prison still with the release papers in his hand was gunned down in front of his wife as they were about to board a cab, his death courtesy of another motorcycle-riding assassin.