Old Post: Law and order

I have been watching 'Law and Order' quite a lot lately. I have been pretty fascinated by the opening lines - "In the criminal justice system, the People are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute offenders" The reason for my fascination being - 1. This is a pretty reasonable, straightforward and understandable-to-layman type of definition of the roles played by crime watchers of the society 2. Because of reason 1, we all know pretty easily what is whose responsibility, and whether or not he or she is playing the role properly. 3. In addition, it reflects a lot about the justice system in democracies, and how they ideally should work. Being an Indian, and watching this American series, I thought how law is being made effective in US. Leaving aside all the dramatization in the series that would provoke anyone's emotions, the main thing to note is that ultimately the offender is punished by the district attorneys. Then this thought came to my mind, why are we not able to stop criminals like this. Why do we have to use extreme measures like Encounters to stop crimes from happening? Aren't we moved enough by how unsafe we make a place if we keep a criminal looming on large? I think the answers lies in ourselves. Isn't it ultimately us who have to take a step forward and do something? Or is it that we doubt our own self to take that step? Or are we just too fond of minding our own when others are getting hurt out there? I think there are too many questions that need some answer. And then I ask myself this question. Would I take that step? Yes. And then probably, someone would tell me that I should not, that court takes a lot of time to settle, that police is corrupt and that the whole society does not care a damn. Ask yourself, isn't it true that all we care about is ourselves? All we think is how we would be? Some people call it being worldly wise, but in this case, I would call it cowardice. To understand the fact that no matter how friendly a snake is to you if its poisonous it's got to hurt someone, does not take an IQ of 200. So why do we still think that we are different from our society? And isn't police supposed to investigate crimes? Or isn't court supposed to give justice fast? Aren't we supposed to go out and make sure we perform our duties, so that we make others aware that they have to do theirs too? That law is not something which is forced, but something we ourselves devise to make our lives easier? How long will it take for the largest democracy on the planet to understand that "In the criminal justice system, the People are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute offenders"....