It is so en­cour­ag­ing to read about an arm of the Po­lice Ser­vice which has per­formed so well that it must con­grat­u­late it­self. The In­ter Agency Task Force is a shin­ing ex­am­ple of self-im­por­tance, cel­e­brat­ing its "per­for­mance" over its short lifes­pan, shar­ing with the na­tion the ster­ling con­tri­bu­tion it has made and flat­ter­ing it­self that it has had "suc­cess­ful re­sults."Based on its ac­com­plish­ments one won­ders what the rest of the Po­lice Ser­vice was do­ing, if one force by it­self was "do­ing an amaz­ing job." As "a con­stant force of jus­tice," how come crime es­ca­lat­ed to such an ex­tent dur­ing the very pe­ri­od that this "pres­ti­gious unit" was deal­ing with "crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties in these ar­eas." Were these of­fi­cers the ones cit­i­zens see dur­ing road­blocks garbed in com­bat gear and with high-pow­ered weapon­ry look­ing men­ac­ing­ly at mem­bers of the pub­lic? Law-abid­ing cit­i­zens cow­er in fear when faced with these stern-faced arms of the law, but it is ob­vi­ous to these very cit­i­zens that crim­i­nals do not re­act the same way.One can­not help but won­der if this or­gy of self-con­grat­u­la­tion was paid for by tax­pay­ers or out of the pock­ets of these of­fi­cers. The self-sat­is­fied smile of the Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice says it all.

Karan Ma­habirs­ingh

Freeport