Police corruption

[Bhakti Vikasa Swami]

Madhudvisa: Nine out of every ten crimes never gets solved in America.
Prabhupada: No, it cannot be solved.
Pancadravida: It's more than that, probably.
Madhudvisa: So the criminal is very much encouraged, because he has only one
chance in ten of getting caught whether he robs a bank or steals or rapes or
something like that.
Prabhupada: But for this purpose they are maintaining huge police force, and
you are earning money and tax, that's all.
Ramesvara: The police all accept bribes. They all accept bribes, or they do
some illegal business themselves with the criminals they capture.
Prabhupada: Yes, regular... Every criminal has got organization to bribe the
police. And the police does not take directly, and some in-between man, agent,
he collects from the criminal and gives to the police. In India this is going
on. I know that. A via-media man, he makes fortune. Yes. Whatever is collected,
ten percent he takes, and balance is given to the police. There is a
confectioner in Delhi. He is selling jalebi. You know jalebi?
Devotees: Yes.
Prabhupada: He has got ten lakhs of rupees because he collects the bribe from
others and pay to the police. Everyone knows. There was one Mullik, now, on
that Mahatma Gandhi Road. His business was that. He was collecting.
Bhagavata: In New York, one policeman admitted that when the police would
capture the thieves with the stolen goods, then they would confiscate the goods
and keep it privately in their homes and sell the stolen goods and get the
money for themselves. They would not return it to the owner, but they would
utilize it for making money. So they are also thieves.
Prabhupada: So if this is the practice in a country which is so opulent, just
imagine what is there in India.
Pancadravida: I had experience, because when I was younger I was stealing, and
I was taking to the hock shop one typewriter, and while I was taking to the
hock shop this typewriter, the police came and showed me his badge and took
this typewriter and one French horn from... He took the money, and he said, "I
am going to check to see if this is stolen." So one week later I was worried. I
called him. I said, "What is happening?" He said, "That typewriter was reported
one year ago stolen from the school." But he said, "Because I think you're a
good boy, I'm not going to arrest you, because I don't think you did it. If I
thought for a moment that you did it, I would immediately come and take you."
So I said, "That's all right. What about the French horn? When can I have my
money back?" He said, "You just forget about this. You leave it to me." He
says, er...
Prabhupada: To keep you honest. [laughter] To keep you honest, you just don't
hope your money.
Gurukrpa: Their practice is that they watch our sankirtana devotees collect all
day, and they know when he has good pocketful of money. Then they arrest him...
Prabhupada: In Germany they have done this.
Gurukrpa: ...take to jail, and then they say... Actually the boy collected two
hundred dollars. They say, "Oh, he only collected thirty dollars," and then the
others, they split.
Prabhupada: Where it is done?
Gurukrpa: This happened in Chicago to us.
Prabhupada: Then? What action is taken?
Gurukrpa: Nothing we can do.
Pancadravida: That is their business. They take from the thieves because they
are the biggest thieves, and then they split. This is regular practice.
Gurukrpa: We had... There's one devotee who was in the Detroit temple who used
to be on the police force, and he told us everything about how they are all
cheaters.
Mahendra: In America also sometimes they'll arrest someone who is selling
illegal drugs. Then they'll arrest him, then they'll seize the drugs, then
they'll take the drugs home and they'll sell them to make money.
Yasodanandana: Sometimes they'll use it themselves.
Mahendra: Sometimes they use it, right.
Madhudvisa: In New York there was a big scandal. There was ten millions
dollars' worth of drugs confiscated from a boat, and they put it in the police
lockup, and then it was gone.
Prabhupada: In Navadvipa... You have heard the name of Vamsidasa Babaji. So
sometimes, when his things were stolen, the disciples will cry that "It is
stolen." So he said, "Why you are bothering? One thief gives; another thief
takes. That's all. Who gave the money, he is also thief; and who has taken
away, he is also thief. So why you are bothering?" One thief gives; another
thief takes.
Bhagavata: He learned that the policeman was selling the stolen goods because
one morning in New York they passed by the temple, and they said, "We have many
cartons of paper towel. You want to buy?"
Prabhupada: Hmm?
Bhagavata: They came by our temple. They said, "We have many cartons of paper
towel."
Prabhupada: Paper towel?
Bhagavata: Paper towels, yes. And they asked if we wanted to buy. "Very cheap,"
they said, "cheaper than in the supermarket." So then we could understand where
they had gotten... [break]

(Morning Walk – March 13, 1976, Mayapur)