[Newsletter] Fuck the police.
In which I blearily try to make a coherent post out of two incoherent weeks
Earlier this week I was trying to cross the road to India Gate and was stopped by some policemen standing between two barricades who were trying to look purposeful. They told me that India Gate was closed, and asked who I was meeting. I told them I was meeting a friend. This was true. The friend in question was a student organiser who had told me of a protest happening at India Gate, though the crowd, because of the barricades, appeared to have settled on the opposite side from where I’d crossed. Before I turned to go back, I was overcome by an impish urge and asked a policeman — is something happening here? He asked, what do you mean? I said, to see if I’d get a funny reaction, is there a protest happening here? The huddle of policemen behind him immediately dropped their pretense of purpose, leaning into the conversation like corporate feminists. The policeman asked, what protest? I replied, I don’t know, do you? He said, No, I don’t know. I said, I don’t know either.
I had started the conversation feeling kind of invulnerable — the privilege of someone who has never really stuck her neck out in her life, who thinks she can anglicized-accent her way out of most inconvenient situation — and by the time I’d left and crossed the road, I was close to shitting my pants. Later that same night, another policeman would ask me if I was okay — I had tripped over some cordon chains near the candlelight protest. I was so disarmed that I mumbled I’m fine and hurried away. I should have said what my boyfriend would later recommend for similar situations: fuck you.
North East Delhi’s death toll is now at 42. The Delhi police actively enabled Hindu supremacist rioters who loaded blankets with broken brick for ammunition, who destroyed mosques and dargahs, who burned down Muslim ghettos to the ground. They illegally detained peaceful protesters and activists who were trying to de-escalate mobs. I’ve seen a lot of friends on my Facebook feed share this news, asking: “Still want to give them roses?”
In these times, the only good police officer is an ex-police officer. A few good apples can’t good-apple the rest. It is not that the police are bigoted individuals who can be brought over to the ‘light’, but that their existence structurally depends on how well they can execute the orders of the ruling powers, be those legal or illegal. I was forcefully reminded of this when watching Ayushmann Khurana’s Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan* this evening. There’s a plot point near the end — spoiler! — where a policeman attempting to arrest our two gay protagonists can’t, because of some lawyer shenanigans, and then the Supreme Court strike-down of 377 the very next day. He’s sent away to watch some educational videos on YouTube. Quite a big L for the people of this tiny unknown town in Allahabad, the ones who called the police on these gay men in the first place. We never find out how the policeman answers to these townspeople.
God, a world in which U.P. policemen are stunned into inaction by someone reminding them of criminal law procedure — what a tender world that would be.
* (very cute, very funny. Watch if you’re not a bore and/or for gay rights, whichever reason moves you most)
bhai why is it so hard to understand ki if the legislative is oppressive so will be the executive who carries out their agendas? the take of bad mouthing the sabha while still beimg BRAVE COPS🙏🙏 is so neo-liberal makes me want to kay em ess.