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Good Crimes
 Crimes are always bad, bad for
the victims and the entire society. While the
law enforcing agencies all over the world try hard to contain as well as eradicate crimes,
some crimes are not 'bad'
and, sometimes, there are also very a few crimes which are beneficial to
society. This article brings to focus such 'good crimes'.
A few days ago, on the
outskirts of Chennai, there was a burglary at the residence of an employee working in a
private firm. The employee has a peculiar hobby of collecting coins in the
denomination of Rs 2.
Since he has been collecting
for the past several years, he has about 10,000 coins stored in a sack at home
all these years.
There is another resident on the
outskirts of Chennai, who has collected 5,000, Rs 5 coins at home for several years.
Accidentally, criminals entered these two houses to commit burglary. While
stealing the jewels, they
happened to see these coins and swung the sacks on their shoulders and walked out.
Rupees and coins are printed by
the government for the sake of circulation among the public to facilitate exchange
value. For the same reason, the Income-Tax Department raids the houses of the rich to bring out the black money (we should rather call it 'block money',
meaning money that has been blocked from circulation) and bring it back to be circulated among the people.
In the two cases in the
suburbs, the criminals, unknowingly had performed a useful role by taking out all those
accumulated 'black coins' and by spending it, they have facilitated fair
circulation among the citizens. Even though the act of the criminals constitute a
crime, since its consequence was good, can't we call it a 'good crime'?
Similarly, there are several brothel houses
running successfully in Chennai in spite of frequent raids by
policemen. When neighbours who find such brothels a nuisance complain to the police authorities,
policemen carry out raids on such houses. But what they do is collect
mamools, book cases by
arresting a few sex workers and then allowing the brothel houses to continue to
run as usual.
Every police station receives regular mamools from such brothel houses for not taking any stringent
action, but whenever they receive complaints, just to satisfy the higher-ups, they make one or two arrests every month and give
an indirect signal to
such brothel houses to carry on their business.
But the criminals succeed where
policemen have failed. In several cases, criminals target the brothel houses
for committing robberies.
At Thiruvotriyur, near Chennai,
a brothel house had been running successfully and complaints from the public
to the local police had gone in vain. On a particular day, some criminals entered
the brothel with a knife and looted thousands of the 'collection amount'. What a
surprise! The brothel, which had been functioning in the area for several years,
disappeared the very next day!
On the outskirts of Chennai,
several brothel houses were targeted by criminals and immediately after the
robbery attempt, all these brothel houses disappeared from
the area.
Prostitution,
as a crime, has been viewed seriously for the main reason that if the trade
flourishes, it would lead to kidnapping of minor girls to involve them in the
profession. Moreover, if prostitution is allowed to continue without any check, it may
lead to the spread of AIDS.
So, for creating a harmonious society, it is the
bounden duty of the law enforcing agencies to contain crime. But, in reality, the
flesh trade flourishes due to the inaction on the part of the police who are
'compensated' for looking the other way.
But where the police fail, the
criminals succeed: A robbery in a brothel house
automatically leads to its closure. Even though they do
not know the consequences of their act, the criminal's act becomes a
useful tool to contain
another crime.
In the social perspective, we
may call this also a 'good crime' as it leads to social harmony.
Harvey
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