Law(lessness) and (dis)Order

It was in the newspapers the other day. A horrible and sad story about a minor girl who was kidnapped, held hostage in Goa and later raped. But the most astounding fact was that, just a few days before the kidnapping, the girl had lodged a complaint of harassment against the perpetrators, with the police - and the police allegedly did not take any action at that time.

The story sound most outrageous because the police failed to act in time...
So what is the problem with our police force? Why are they not protecting us innocent citizens? Why do they just stand by while rising crime rate threatens to rip our society apart? Are they lazy? Are they incompetent? Don't they care?

Actually this is an extremely complex problem whose roots, as per my viewpoint, may go as deep as the fact that we, as a species on the whole, and as a society in particular, are loosing the attribute of moral strength under the stress of every day living - hence the rising crime rate...

But lets not get into such deep philosophy...

Instead, to dissect the problem at a very superficial level, lets start with one basic problem - our watch-dog lacks the necessary sharp fangs. And hence they can't bite down the criminals. If your watch-dog is not fierce enough, is it going to protect your home against thieves?

Now why would one have a watch-dog with not-sharp-enough fangs? To answer this, lets contemplate another question - If your dog has razor-sharp teeth and the first thing it bites is your tender back-side, how would you feel?

Here is a scenario. You are a cop. Your team manages to nab and bring in a few suspects.
But they are soon let out on bail by the court.
Or even more likely, you get a call from your reporting officer ordering you to let the suspects go ("Don't you know who they are? They are related to Mr Famous Politician or Ms Rich Industrialist..."). All your efforts and risks go down the drain as the criminals walk out having the last laugh.
Or the defense lawyers bash you out due to lack of enough evidence...

So, our law-enforcement has it's hands bound by the laws - the very same laws which are supposed to exist in order to protect us and give us justice.

I always wondered why our justice system is so complex, until I placed myself on the stand as a falsely-accused defendant. And then I realized that this so very complex judicial system was in place not just to punish the criminals but to ensure that no injustice is done to an innocent man...

So our system is complex; and our laws are all loop-hole-ridden. And apparently they are made that way with the best of intentions? But why is it that most of the times, the common man does not benefit from them? Instead the greedy and the unscrupulous land up exploiting the loop-holes in our system for their own petty gains...?

So our judiciary system is too complex and our law-enforcement watch-dog lacks the nasty bite... So what does that leave us with to protect ourselves and our near and dear ones?

I remember watching the movie Gangajal (It was supposed to be based on some real life incident). The movie did convince me that taking the law in our own hands is not necessarily a good thing. But somewhere in the middle of the film, when the citizens turn vigilante, it does look like the criminal-minded would think twice before indulging in unlawful activities.

If your watch-dog does not know how to bite, then should you be doing the biting instead?
If your home and your family are in danger, then won't you??