There is something to be said about the lack of preparedness of our police personnel if they come away beaten black and blue by a bunch of African drug peddlers. A report in this paper stated that a posse of 60 Railway Protection Force and Mumbai Police personnel — 20 officers and 40 constables — went after seven or eight drug peddlers along the railway tracks at Sandhurst Road on Wednesday night. But, what should have been a shoo-in, turned out to be something out of a very bad Kollywood film.

The obviously better equipped peddlers started pelting the police personnel with stones forcing them into hiding. As if that was not bad enough, when one of the braver cops managed to get his hands on one of the hoodlums, he got bashed on the head with a bamboo stick. Clearly indicating that the police teams blundered in without knowing what to expect. Our policemen should have anticipated the peddlers' every move before the raid, considering this was not the first time they took a royal pasting at the hands of the criminals.