Who can help you when there's a robbery?

Yesterday morning I saw in world news that President Bush who went to Albania has been received a welcome of a hero or a star. People of Albania were gathered to see the American president. Today morning in world news I saw that some body has robbed the president's watch while he hand shake with people. But white house announced that president just removed the watch and put it in his pocket before he goes to people. When I saw this I remembered something else. I met a friend of mine after a long time. He told me that his house has been robbed. Robbers couldn't find much of money from the house, but they have taken some of the goods at that house. As usually happens, he has gone to the police. Put a complain on their books. Next day police had come to their house. Has taken finger prints. Asked every one whether they know who the thief is. They asked whether there are any suspects. They asked neighbors whether they saw anything happened. Then they started walking around the house and tying to find from which door they entered the house , whether roof is strong enough for the thieves to walk on it , whether thief has entered the house while residents were sleeping last night etc etc. Then they have gone away with a promise to catch the suspects within 1 week. It never happened after months also.

Same thing happened to their neighbors. Some body robbed their house too. Knowing what happened to my friend, they did not expect the help of the law or help of the police. They had couple of under world friends around. They seek the under world help to find their stuff. Within 2 days they found the stuff and everything was returned.

Well now my friend has a fair doubt. Where we should really go when we are in trouble? Even though there's a law in thief country, will it be useful most of the occasions? I'm sure our police can find any sort of crime or any sort of suspect. But do they really care? There's a war in the country and everyday big crimes such as killing, raping etc etc takes place. Police department has only few resources to allocate for all the incidents reported. So day by day, small incidents are neglected. May be these robberies are not worth millions and comparatively small for police department. But for the victims who faced it has much more value for it. May be its’ everything they earned all their life. May be it has much more sentimental value. For such people, when the police never care to find the suspects, that it self is a shock to them. They live with anger and frustration. My friend's little daughter is saying now it self she will never go to police for anything in the future. This is only a primary stage where the society looses its confidence on law. This could ultimately lead to the hatred towards the country.

There are so many criminals around us. Some of them are army deserters and it’s difficult for the police to deal with them. So police thinks its better they mind their own business. I put forward this question with one of the senior police officer whom I met. What he said was, if they are to get information they will have to hit the suspects. Otherwise no one will come voluntarily and say "yes I did it” unless they are out of their senses. But when the police do those human rights organizations comes against them. According to new laws police officers will have to pay compensation personally if they are charges with human rights cases. It’s true that these laws came with a back ground. Police was treating even innocent people very badly at a particular time and some suspects died in the remand. So I'm always standing by the human rights laws. My friend believes that they are any way a pain to the society so let them die. This police officer's question was “then why don’t you go and complain to a human rights organization when you got robbed”. Because when someone steal you, that violates your rights. Hm who knows? Every coin has 2 sides. But I cannot agree with the fact that these police officers are not doing their job properly and using human rights laws as an excuse. What should we do now? Either we should look after our own security as president J R Jayawardana said. Can we rely on police in every case?