Dear Marshall, I could well be wrong and you right on the matter of the originator of the Encounter Killings.
However let me pen my thoughts on your post so that my "brainchild" remark does not appear flippant. I agree that JR is a kind and gentle personality but that does not mean he is not a man of steel when the occasion warrants. See his record in Punjab during the Khalistan troubles. He gave, through the Punjab Police, as good as he got from the militants. Although he did not finish off the task, KPS Gill who did, attributes his success to what JR started and put in place. By the way, Bullet for Bullet is JR's own phrase and not KPS's. In fact it is the title of the book he has written which I own, have read and lent to several of my friends on request. I also agree that JR is all you have said, the good he has done not only for India, but also for Bombay and for his community is well known and well recorded. He once put in his effort to help me merely because I was a Goan and referred to him even though long retired from the CPs post and for that I shall remain grateful. Even on that occasion when I had to meet him a couple of times, the fact that I was referred by a good friend of his did not stop him from doing his due diligence interrogation on me to ensure that I was the victim, needed his help and was not pulling a fast one. That was an excellent eye opening event in my life. I met several top officers including the current CP Satyapal Singh who was a Zonal DCP then, based at Bandra police station and got a first hand view of how Bombay Police functions and the manner in which the judicial court system relates to what they do. What I am trying to say Marshall is that JR the top cop need not be held to the same standards as JR the kind and gentle man. You say JR would not have done somthing like that completely outside and against the law. I am of the opinion that the good guys have often to do their own balancing act and if what they have to do can save lives and a large city for which they bear responsibility, than they will sometimes albeit reluctantly do it. Police forces all over the world face the same dilemma and deal with it sometimes in rougher ways. Everbody in Toronto including the criminals respect the TPS (Toronto Police Services) and know them to be much kinder and definitely more mannerly to the public than any US city PD but people who know will tell you and often the press lets out that they are no angels. In the end the public and the politicians want the job done and on some occasions the court will acknowledge this and bring judgements accordingly. If you have a keen eye, you will see this happening all the time. Coming back to JR and Bombay of the time, the city was plagued with organized gangs. Matka the gambling scourge was bringing in revenue to criminals that made prohibition like a plaything. Flush with funds the criminals took on bigger and bigger enterprises. Shootings were rife. Extortion was extended to Bollywood, builders, car dealers and even successful medical practitioners. The police and administration was sinking in corruption. The force was then and even to this day largely untrained in investigations, crime prevention and community based policing. Is it any stretch in these circumstances to imagine the Chief Minister summoning JR the city's CP to give him a mandate to clean the town up any which way he saw fit with the promise that he would protect him and make the Bombay High Court "understand" what was being done? Perhaps Marshall you have misunderstood the tone of my post as being critical of JR. Far from it. Like other Goans I hold him to be a hero. But that doesn't mean that what he started doesn't have its consequences now, in different times. He wouldn't have seen it then, nor wanted it to continue indefinitely. But times and people change and Bombay certainly has. What was condoned then is no longer now and the consequences are unravelling. Coming to why it was JR and not some other CP who started this, all I can say is that more than one senior inspector who received medals from the great man himself remember that investiture fondly and mentioned in hushed tones and in passing that it was he who cleaned up Bombay. This could be hearsay and misinterpretation and yours could be the correct view but at least I got to say my piece. Roland. Toronto. On 2013-10-09 12:27 PM, "Marshall Mendonza" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Roland Francis: > Reputed to be the original brainchild of ex Police Commissioner Julius Ribeiro as a means to decimate Bombay's once powerful organized criminal gangs, it proved so effective that not only helped to set Ribeiro for national fame, but was seen as such a useful tool that all successive Bombay CPs carried on with it. > > Response: > Roland is quite mistaken and far of the mark. I know Mr Ribeiro personally and have interacted with him on a number of occasions. Perhaps unknown to you, he is a very gentle, humane and sensitive person. He has very strong ethics, principles and values and would never ever engage in extra-judicial killings, let alone unlawful activities.
