Four police officers arrested for allegedly extorting the ICPC Chairman at an illegal checkpoint. Using a POS machine. For cash.
Let that sink in.
If they can do this to the man whose job is to fight corruption, what do they do to the trader, the student, the driver who has no title or siren?
This is no longer “stop and search.” This is stop, search, swipe. An illegal checkpoint turned into a mobile ATM. The badge became a card reader. The uniform became a billing unit.
The irony is macabre. The ICPC exists to prosecute exactly this: abuse of office for financial gain. Yet even the Chairman was not spared. That tells you two things. One: impunity is now routine. Two: corruption has gone digital.
Arresting four officers is good. But it is not reform. We have seen arrests before. What we rarely see is prosecution, dismissal, and restitution.
An illegal checkpoint is already a crime. Adding POS extortion is innovation in criminality.
Until checkpoints are lawful, numbered, and monitored, and until every officer knows a swipe will cost his job, we are just arresting symptoms while the disease mans the road.
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bcradle@ymail.com
