Abhishek Keerthi

Recently in South India, Tamil Nadu, a mobile shopkeeper and his son names Jayaraj and Bennicks have been brutally raped and murdered for keeping their shop open for a few minutes more after the curfew had begun due to the lock-down. From their knees being shattered by the police assault to using their sticks to anally penetrate the poor souls, this act of violence is gruesome and simply inhumane which spanned over two days which eventually led to the demise of the victims. The Stanford prison experiment can help us understand as to why such a cruel incident took place. This experiment shows that authority can lead people, good or bad to land far beyond our imaginations. To a land devoid of compassion and kindness. To a land of hell. Under the influence of authority, the experiment has shown that a person placed in authority can lose their identity and responsibility and ultimately themselves as a result of this, which is what exactly happened during the experiment. Physically abusing them was the norm. So was doing menial tasks such as cleaning the toilet with their bare hands and stripping themselves naked to devalue them. It got to a point where the prisoners had serious psychological implications which scarred them for life after the incident. Similarly the police officers in this case had been a victim to the concept of de-individuation, which may explain the unexplained and horrific behaviour. A mere act of wearing a uniform along with a position of authority can make a person lose their sense of reality, succumbing to their uncontrolled behaviour. More importantly, what can be done to prevent such a issue from ever happening again? Here's a fact: The police officers who might not seem like the victim here are the true victims. A victim to such despair, which drove them to insanity. This does not mean that they do not need to be punished, but this tells us something. We cannot ever trace-back the events which led to such a personality, but we can guess as to why this happened. No one is ever born a perpetrator. Identifying any psychological issues at a early stage can help a person get the resources and the support systems that they need. As they say, prevention is better than cure and this incident is exemplary proof of that statement.