A video gone viral on the internet showing a Lahore police official unzipping his pants and ‘flashing’ a woman in custody, while she was in the back of a police van along wither other men and women, in broad daylight, is about the foulest example of the supposed upholders of the law blatantly and unashamedly violating its sanctity. Whoever posted the video online muted it to save the public from the vile profanity being uttered while all this was done, so it’s not just what the policeman did but also what he said while doing it that was beyond just objectionable and practically cries out for relevant authorities to take notice. It’s often said, with good reason, that the police considers itself beyond reproach especially when it comes to cases of sexual harassment and violence against women. That makes this as good a case as any to put the police system itself to the test. Surely the news of what this officer did would have reached whoever he reports to by now, and it’s not as if the police high command would have had to run from pillar to post to figure out just which laws their subordinate broke while conducting state business in their name. That is why, at least in this particular case, it’s not just what they do now that matters but also how swiftly they do it; because when all the proof you need is easily available online, and has been seen by the whole country if not the whole world, then the longest any investigation should take is the time needed to hear the said officer’s side of the story. Hopefully the police high command will not try to ignore this or, worse, brush it under the carpet. Because if they try to deflect attention away from themselves by employing such tactics they will only make the situation worse. In recent times the whole country has been appalled by growing incidents of crimes against women, all the way from workplace harassment to rape to gang rape to plain, cold-blooded murder. And it is the job of the police, at the end of the day, to make sure that everybody is protected and feels protected. And that, needless to say, just cannot happen if its own representatives unzip their trousers and bare themselves publicly just to intimidate women, regardless of the charges against them. *