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Might makes right. Doesn't it? Of course it does. In a universe in which there are too many squirrels and only so many nuts to go around, conflict arises. And according to Nietzsche, "God is dead", and so the only way to deem which squirrel gets the nut is through the doctrine of force.
Now, force can be a proactive thing, but more often than not, it breeds violence, the really unpleasant kind of force. And this is where species begin to require an arbiter. A protector. A neutral force to counterbalance and mediate opposing factions. And, thus, were born the police.
No, not these guys. They're The Police. We're talking about the police. The men with guns and khaki and boots and camoflauge and hard faces. Although both do involve stings.
These men in black, a picture of constant vigilance in this AP photo above, are standing guard on a Cairo street on Police Day, which also incidentally falls on the anniversary of the 2011 uprising in Tahrir Square, in the Haram district of Cairo, Egypt, on Monday, January 25, 2016. As many as 50 police officers were killed in 1952, when they refused to stand down in the face of the British Army's invasion of the Ismaïlia police station. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2009 declared January 25 an official holiday in recognition of the policemen's sacrifice.
Ironically, Mubarak's opposers chose this day in 2011 to launch their mass protests, which led to the January 25 Revolution in Tahrir Square, in which the dictator was ousted. The run-up to the anniversary has seen a rise in security measures as well as a new wave of arrests in downtown Cairo.
This AP image might have been quite a paradoxical sight if the band Guns and Roses had not already familiarised us with the oxymoronic juxtaposition contained in its name. Here, an Egyptian policeman embodies both the agression of a firearm as well as the peaceability of a flower bouquet, given to him by supporters on Police Day.
When citizens take to the streets in defence of a cause or to bring about a real political change, such actions often take the form of public disturbances. In these situations, a police official, solely concerned with quelling the chaos and restoring normalcy, is forced to become rigid and use force...
... like in this Reuters image above, in which a riot policeman is seen "tearing up" as his comrades fire tear gas during clashes with protesters in Kasserine, Tunisia, last week. Several thousand youths demonstrated on January 21 outside the local government office in Kasserine, the impoverished central town where protests began after a young man killed himself after apparently being refused a public job.
The phrase "Law and Order", in itself, contains suggestions of both the punitive as well as the stabilising. Conceivably, this is a tough balance to maintain, especially during times when the police must clash with the very civilians they are assigned to protect and safeguard.
... such as in the above AP photo, where we see a police officer go down while trying to detain a left-party activist during a protest against the death of Indian student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad, on January 25. The past week saw a slew of protests around the death of Vemula who, along with four others, was barred from using some facilities at the Hyderabad University.
As homo sapiens evolved as a social being, there came the family, then the tribe, the community, the village, the nation. All these are conglomerations of individuals that cohere in unity. But for every united front or group, there is an attendant exclusion of "the Other". All those who do not share our interests, don't hold our principles and opinions, or support other sports teams, could fall under this category. The more "Others" there are, the more boundary lines and segmentation. The more lines of separation, the more conflict, the more work for the arbiter...
... as seen in this AP photo. Here, Turkish paramilitary police officers recover the body of a migrant boy from the shoreline near the Aegean town of Ayvacik, Turkey, on Saturday, January 30. A boat carrying migrants to Greece had hit rocks off the Turkish coast and capsized, killing at least 33 people, including five children, according to news reports. While around 75 migrants have been rescued, rescue workers are trying to reach others believed to be trapped inside the wreckage of the boat, which sank shortly after departing from Ayvacik.
Sometimes, all a policeman can do, when the situation on the ground is being dictated by larger forces above his control, is...
...to stand aside and let the innocent victims pass. In this Reuters image, a resident of Kurdish-dominated Turkish city of Diyabarkir flees from Sur district, which is partially under curfew, on Wednesday, January 27. Security forces killed 20 Kurdish militants in southeast Turkey while three Turkish soldiers died in a rebel attack, the military said on Wednesday, as authorities widened a curfew in Diyarbakir. Hundreds of locals, including children and the elderly, fled curfew-bound areas as gunfire and blasts resounded and police helicopters flew overhead.
And sometimes, the man with the gun must be a stooge of the ruling dispensation, and act violently to defend the decisions and actions of his master...
... as in the case of riot police, who are seen — in this Sunday, January 24 AP photo — forming a cordon in a square in Rabat, as teacher trainees marched in the Moroccan capital, denouncing government measures that would trim the education branch of the public sector through cuts in subsidies and jobs. Teacher trainees have been protesting throughout the country for the past few months, and the response from security forces during some demonstrations has been violent.
And at other times, the law is totally dictated and enforced by the security forces. Especially in nations where democracy is still only a bud, and might literally makes right...
... as in the nascent democracy of Myanmar, where the junta continues to wield a great deal of power. On Tuesday, January 26, hundreds of Yangonese families were left high and dry after government officials bulldozed their homes, illegally-built on land near a military-owned beer factory. In the AP photo above, a Buddhist nun confronts the riot-geared policemen and officials as the slum-dwellers of Mingalardon stand around, no match for the giant cranes behind them destroying their lives.
The thousands seeking refuge in European countries must feel the same sense of angst. Driven out of their homes, scorned at the shore of their neighbouring country, and then gassed out of their encampment, the life of a refugee is not to be envied. The Calais "Jungle" in France, reportedly full of people from the terror-torn Levant region seeking to enter the U.K. for a normal life, is routinely targeted by authorities seeking to smoke the migrants out of the camp. Often using arson and teargas.
The above AP photograph shows a new piece of artwork by British artist Banksy opposite the French Embassy in London. It depicts the young girl from the musical Les Miserables with tears streaming from her eyes as a can of CS gas spews its fumes from beneath.
Talking about works of art, the discipline of corps can make for a spectacle of sheer beauty and artistry. In this PTI photo, paramilitary personnel march in a formation of Da-Vinci-esque symmetry in Agartala on January 26, India's Republic Day, even as French President François Hollande was present in New Delhi the same day to watch a grand display of India's military might at Rajpath. Might or not, the army way of life instills a great deal of discipline and spiritual fortitude in its practitioners...
...Take Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, for instance. He is known to have rejected a secure job under the British administration, and yet gone on to serve a short stint in the military wing under the same administration — just because he liked the discipline. On the occasion of his 119th birth anniversary last week, the government declassified files about the freedom fighter's life. Bose had a sense of fiery nationalism that seeped over into military nationalism, something that created rifts between him and the former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, who subscribed to the views of the peace-loving M.K. Gandhi.
In the PTI image above, school children take out a rally in tribute to Bose on January 23 in Agartala, Tripura, and, hopefully, take a leaf out of the Netaji's book on the importance of discipline and rigour.
When it comes to discipline and rigour, the Chinese seem to have upped the ante with their first-ever field drills in the Gobi desert on Tuesday. As part of their winter training, the Marine Corps of the People's Liberation Army underwent live-fire drills, as shown in the Reuters photograph above, "confrontational exercises" and counter-terrorism drills. The above photograph shows Lanzhou soldiers jumping through a flaming hoops during a training session at a military base in Tianshui.
But at the end of a long violent day, you just want to take your dog out for a walk while watching the setting sun smear the sky with its crimson palette.
All said and done, it's important to remember what we need the men with guns to really protect — life and liberty. Might may make right, but it won't make it right.
