We Are Afraid When We Take Part In Protests

Tehniat Zakir S.
3 min readSep 17, 2024

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‘criminals are made as heroes while victims are forgotten, their families given blood money.

Image downloaded from Google

Masked face, hand tied, in the protection of policemen, walked through the crowd and towards the police car. It is often horrifying, creepy and chilling when we see criminals like this.

I see reporters trying to capture the image of people surrounding them. I see cameras flashing on their faces, which might have make them feel a little bit more important. I switch on the tv and see people taking interviews of the victim's family. All of this is happening yet none is happening at the same time. It is as if there is a buzz, an air that is too messy to look anywhere.

Perhaps it is the tears of the people that makes me emotional. Or perhaps it was the CCTV photo of the victim last seen that makes my heart clench it self, suppress itself and bleed. Perhaps it is the protest that is futile but takes place with the banner of “we need justice”. or perhaps it is the woes of the parents who have lost their daughter when she was on duty.

Too many people are held accountable. So many people are arrested. Testimony are taken and statements are recorded. The crime scene is hidden or is flashed in news with dried patches of blood.

Then there are some fanatics that seek to find amazing answers for the crime. Some blames the time frame, some blames the clothes, some blames the daughters profession and some blames the age. They were innocent people that were last seen in their homes with their family, or that were held captives by someone they loved, or the were working to meet their ends meet or they were eating ice-cream while their neighbor took them and killed.

It always happens. the blame game. It always moves around it needles and pinpoint a single fault when no crime has ever been because of one thing. It is the lust, the sense of self justice, the deviance, the rule breaks, those who are neglected, looked down on, ostracized. But these stories then make some sympathetic to the crime doers. Then quotes like “villain are not born but made” and Instagram post of humanity is lost is shown.

These posts always have million of likes, comments, shares yet they are still little efforts. then the days of hopelessness comes where we question this world, where we talk abut humans in third person while we are also one. We exclude ourselves and talk about humans as if it can makes us feel more conscious, aware of the possibility a human being can become evil.

Then last stages comes when we are left with nothing but to cherish and yearn the happy moments. Where we want to selflessly undo everything that happened, where the grief is a bitter memory while time is money. Where now it is seen as a time waste when earlier it was sense of duty. It is this moment then we move on. We hope on to other activities. we laugh, we cry, we eat, we drink. We are humans. We have to. This is what we say to console ourselves.

This is until there is another outcry. Another breaking news comes in, another headline is there. another CCTV last seen, another victim families crying. Another protests happening and another sense of justice re- awakening.

We are afraid. yes we are. we are afraid beings. Afraid that it might happen to us. Afraid that we will be left cold blooded. Afraid that it will be we on the breaking news next.

Yes we are afraid.

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Tehniat Zakir S.

Tehniat is a writer who wants to be limitless, writes about everything that she likes and has joined medium to share her insights with other.