From Some Policemen and a Moral

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G. K. Chesterton

From Some Policemen And A Moral

                             QUESTION # 1

            What happened to G. K. Chesterton?

            G. K. Chesterton was a journalist.  He worked in the "Daily News". Once in holidays, he went to Yorkshire.  He was staying there with a rich and renowned person.  One day he was free from work and was sitting in a wood.  He had a Swedish knife and was practicing the style in which people murdered each other in Stevenson’s novels.  Unluckily he could never hit any tree.

            Suddenly two policemen appeared from somewhere and overwhelmed the whole area.   It seemed there was no one else in the jungle.  They accused him of murder-attempt on the tree and started a detailed interrogation regarding some relevant or irrelevant matters.  They asked him who he was, what the knife was, why was he throwing it, what was his address, trade, religion, opinion on the Japanese war, name of his favourite cat and so on.  The writer tried to convince them that he was a journalist and was staying with “Mr. Blank of Ilkely” and he was working at “The Daily News".

            All these things impressed the policemen and they left as quickly as they had come.  The matter of his being guilty or not was dissolved by the fact that he knew some well-to-do people and was a journalist.

           

Q. No.2:          Why did they release him?

            The policemen entangled him badly in the snare of their complicated irrelevant questions.  They tried to confuse him and get the answers of their own choice.  But when the writer told them that he was a journalist related to an honest and esteemed newspaper called "The Daily News" and that he was staying with very rich and well-known people, they shuddered with awe and terror and released him.  The writer produced an envelope, an unfinished poem and some other documents to prove his statement.

            The policemen were so impressed that the elder of them declared himself as a regular reader and admirer of the writer.  They forgot all about his crime and their accusation.  They disappeared as unobtrusively as they had appeared.

Q. No. 3:         What was Chesterton’s reaction on his release?

            The writer was quite amazed at his acquittal and release.  He asked the policemen why they had acquitted him when he was guilty of cruelty to a green entity.  He further said that the policemen had rushed to him as if he was some villain of the Greek mythology who was trying to spoil a goddess tied to the ground and as if the huge tree was now shattered to pieces, its green blood was wailing and calling out for the "Justice".  It was protesting against the cruelty of a man.  His crime could not be dismissed by the fact that he was Chesterton, a journalist, a well-known person or that he was staying with some wealthy people.

            But to the writer's disappointment, the major part of this speech was made to the silent wood because both the knights had vanished away.  It made him think that they might be fairies whose standard and criterion of crime and punishment was different from the normal human standard.  In their domain, it might be a crime to damage a tree or a blade of grass.  In these terms this event could easily be explained but if the policemen were taken as "real", the situation again became confusing.  They arrested him because he was guilty of something so they should have taken him to the police station for proper proceedings.  And if he was not the criminal then why had they interfered with him and accused him.

            This is what the writer is still unable to understand.  He thinks that if there has been a poor man at his place, who is homeless or who does not know any dignitary, what they might have done to him.  Basically this essay is written to criticize the practices of policemen who question the innocent but let the criminals loose.  They threaten the simple people and impress them with their power and authority.   They accept bribes and can be influenced by aristocrats.  They have no clear knowledge or sense of crime and punishment.  They accuse a person according to his social status.  They acquit a person according to his contacts and connections.  The true essence of the police department has been lost under the cover of worldly and materialistic considerations and recommendations.

           

Q. No. 4:         "Policemen in Chesterton's essay behave exactly like our own Policemen”, Elucidate.

            G. K. Chesterton is a keen commentator of the society and its evils.  His style is very amusing and subtle.  He points out the cancerous diseases of society in a light and humorous way.  “From Some Policemen and a Moral" presents the attitudes and ways of the policemen.

            He narrates an event when he was nearly arrested by two policemen on charge of damaging a tree.  After a heated discussion of half an hour, he was acquitted.  He hardly won his acquittal by proving that he was a journalist and knew some aristocrats. These things impressed the policemen and they neglected his crime, if there was any.

            This provoked the writer to think deeply about the police and their working. He establishes the meaninglessness of police department and its activities by using some super metaphors and symbols. This analysis provokes us to think deeply about the policemen of our own area.

            For some decades, our country has been turned into a police state.  The discretionary powers of policemen are immense.  They do whatever they want and the administration gives them protection.  Generally police department is thought to be a symbol of protection and security but in our country no gentleman dares to pass near a police station.  People try to solve their problems on a local level instead of going to police station because the policemen put them into a swamp of bribes recommendations and injustice.  Even filing of FIR has become a very difficult task and if it is filed the applicant has to provide "tyres" to it in form of money to start or to speed up the proceedings.

            The government cannot control their excesses because of political consideration.  The looting, theft and murders never disturb the police.  Their attention is only to get as much money out of the innocent people as possible.  Too many people die every year in police custody.  Too many lose their youths, languishing in jails on wrong charges.  Not only the accused is punished but also his whole family has to suffer the police-terrorism.  The sanctity of home is violated every day.

            If the accused is some influential man, police never go near him and try to shift the burden of his crime on the shoulders of someone else.  All the drug, gambling and wine business is running under police patronization.  They get monthly "Jagga Tax" from the dons of such business.

            Though policemen have their own problems too but still they are responsible for the deformity in the police department as well as in the general society.  The policemen in Chesterton’s essay were light and trivial but the atrocities and dishonesty of Pakistani police have no bounds.  They are in nobody's control.  They respect no law.  They recognize no moral, religious or ethical code of conduct.

            The government should pay attention to their activities so that the evils of terrorism, gambling, drugs and many other vicious crimes can be wiped out from our society.