Police And Civilians, An Odd-Couple Marriage

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Police and civilians, an odd-couple marriage
By Achara Deboonme
The Nation 2011-02-14

As the annual love celebration is here, it is worth considering a question: why civilians give high respects to the military but cannot spare some love for the police?

I'm not nuts to ask this question. But it really surprised me if a person who took a full-of-smiles photo with a tank on streets has ever thought that for once they could give police that same kind of admiration.

Indeed, it is understandable. The thorny relationship of police and civilians is comparable to an unhappy couple. They spend time under the same roof, but never find peace of mind when the other one is around. However, when they want to share the inner secrets, it's their mates they yearn for the most.

Indeed. Any unlucky civilians encountering a burglary would feel the same. They desperately want the police to trace the burglars and lost property. In an unsafe neighbourhood, they want patrol police and protection.

But in normal circumstances, they want some space, for peace of mind. They're not comfortable when going to a pub and seeing a bunch of uniformed police officers at the next table. Even though they may come to get some food after work, we can't help thinking that they must have something more than that to do at the pub.

Drivers in particular are annoyed when approaching a barricade. Whatever the police are after, they have to go through a long traffic line. Some could even face silly questions. That was the experience of my colleague who was called to pull over on Srinakarin Road last week.

The questions were:
1. Whose car is this? (Umm, the police must be notified of a stolen car, but the licence plate was the one notified?)
2. Where are you heading? (It was 10pm. There were two places to go at that hour - home or a hangout.)
3. (After inspection of the car), Do you know it's illegal to have fog lights installed? (Wow, my colleague thought about suing the car company for doing so.)
After this question, he asked for a driving licence. He said he would give her a ticket.

She protested. While he held the driving licence, he said he did not want to discuss further as she did not know the law. As she told him to write the ticket and return the driving licence, he repeated what he said. She protested again. To my colleague's surprise, he returned her the licence and told her to go away. As she sped away, she looked back wondering if he really wanted to give her a ticket or he just wanted to terrify her for "something". A car trailing behind also turned on its fog lights but was not called to stop.

She also asked her police friend and he confirmed if this installation was illegal, the car company should have been charged from the beginning.

In a marriage, a happy couple needs to share something in common and have some common ground of understanding.

If the police want to improve their relationship with civilians, it should make clear a common ground of understanding. Regarding traffic rules, there are so many and some keep changing. How many know the speed limit in city areas?

A marriage can be peaceful if the couple can fulfil some of the other's expectations in a give and take manner. For my colleague, it is not yet the right time to tell traffic police "Happy Valentine's Day".

Source:http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/02/14/opinion/Police-and-civilians-an-odd-couple-marriage-30148620.html