Policing system needs an autopsy

“Despite of even senior retired police officers openly talking about the serious collapse of the policing institution in the country the Sri Lankan public refuses to take serious notice of the failure of the primary institution of law enforcement in the country.”
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By Basil Fernando

(November 05, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) Many reactions to the killing of B Sivakumar by several policemen in an attempt to arrest him treat the issue as a matter of malice of society rather than an issue of extrajudicial killing by a group of policemen. If the matter is looked at from the point of view of extrajudicial killings by policemen, then the incident would not be treated as some sort of an exception at all, but rather as one of many such killings that are happening in Sri Lanka almost every day. The Sri Lankan police are notorious for extrajudicial killings. Whether the killing happens by way of misadventure in the attempt to make an arrest, or a deliberate killing under the pretext of self-defense, is not significant. In all instances, the police officers are responsible for the murder of the person.

However, the Sri Lankan public refuses to deal with the matter as a problem of policing in the country. The police are supposed to have the training and the discipline to deal with arrest and are expected all the time to act rationally and to use their discretion in doing so. However, the Sri Lankan police in making arrests so often behave more like a bunch of hounding dogs attacking prey. For the prevalence of this mentality, it is those who control the policing system who are responsible. However, today there is no one to take such responsibility.

To understand the frequency of the use of such irresponsible behavior, all that one needs to do is to recall some of the well-published cases in recent times. The case of the two boys who were murdered at the Angulana police station was one of the most recent incidents to receive wide publicity. The case of Nipuna Ramanayake, who was beaten up severely by several police officers associated with the family of the director of criminal investigations in Colombo, Vaas Gunawardene, was another.

The case of Gerald Perera, a torture victim who was arrested for no other reason than having the name of Gerald, is also well-known. The police officers after arrest took him to a police station and beat him until he suffered from renal failure. Later, the officers apologized to him and his family for arresting him on a mistaken identity. When he complained about the matter and the Attorney General filed an action against the police officers in Negambo High Court, he was assassinated before he could give evidence.

Sugath Nishantha Fernando of Negambo was a complainant in a bribery case and subsequently a torture case against several police officers in the Negambo area. He was first threatened with death if he did not withdraw the cases he had filed before the Supreme Court relating to torture. His pleas to all Sri Lankan authorities to provide him protection against death threats were not responded to by anyone. He was also assassinated in broad daylight by two unidentified gunmen and, despite of one year having passed since the incident, no one has been arrested for the murder. Thereafter, his family has been constantly threatened with death and has to live in hiding. The two children have not been able to go to school since their father’s death due to the fear of being abducted and assassinated.

The list of such extrajudicial killings can go into many thousands. Just at the beginning of this year, in a book that I published under the title “Recovering the authority of public institutions in Sri Lanka” available here (Click) , I narrated summaries of 200 cases of police brutalities on ordinary citizens, mostly from the South. Even that is just a fraction of the actual number of brutalities caused by the police in the country.

Despite of even senior retired police officers openly talking about the serious collapse of the policing institution in the country the Sri Lankan public refuses to take serious notice of the failure of the primary institution of law enforcement in the country.

Instead, the breakdown of the law in the country is ignored and the general talk is about the breakdown of morality and humanity of the society as a whole. However, such breakdown within the society happens only when the law enforcement system of the country breaks down. Society cannot cure itself without first curing the breakdown of the basic mechanisms of law enforcement.

What is needed today is a post-mortem of this terribly collapsed institution of policing in Sri Lanka and the law losing its grip on society. If this issue is not addressed, no amount of psychological analysis or sermons about spiritual paralysis will be of any use.

-Sri Lanka Guardian