Fight for justice goes online
Over a thousand join the Justice for Cipriano group on Facebook
Kurt Bento
PANJIM, JAN 29
If you are a regular Facebook user then simply search for ‘Justice for Cypriano’ and you fill find over a thousand Goans online who have signed up for a cause, a movement started by Kenneth Silveira and Grenville Dias. Tired of hearing about police brutality and the constant talk of how crime in Goa is scaling new heights, the two friends decided to support the movement by giving it an online entity.
So why are they doing this? Check Kenneth’s post
“I dont even know Cipriano, so why am I doing this? To make this a better place to live.”
—Kenneth Silveira
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But their story doesn’t start there.
The two friends were dragged into the whole mess that has been on since the first week of January when they happened to be summoned to the Panjim police station on an unrelated case. It was there that they saw the seemingly lifeless body of Cipriano lying in a corner. Interviews with the media and a press conference followed and it was then that the idea of taking this protest forward began to germinate.
Grenville Dias, who was actually just accompanying Kenneth to the police station had this to say, “It was a twist of fate I guess. Would we have been this involved if we weren’t there when he was left there on the floor? Perhaps not. But, I’m happy that we were, because it gave us the momentum to start a movement for a better Goa.”
Kenneth and Grenville created the Facebook group exactly a week ago and by the end of the first day there were already a few hundred members signing on to the Justice For Cipriano group.
A custodial death means an enquiry should follow and the guilty should be punished. Each time something like this happens they go free and a new monster emerges…
-Martha Rebello
Messages and posts, offering support and a few with opinions and frustrated rants, at the justice system in Goa, were quick to follow. Now, with over 100 members signed on for the fight for justice, for Cipriano first and then to others who need help, the movement is on for a better tomorrow. And Grenville seems positive that something will come of it. “I think its time for us to stand up and tell these law-breakers that we will have none of it. The Goan government should stand up and take notice of this. We vote them into office and now we want them to see that we the people are taken care of. This madness has to stop,” he says.
It’s such a sad state of affairs. I thought incidents happened in other parts of India and would never reach Goa. I remember of Goa being the safest place in India I could live in and want to live in. Not anymore!
—Sunita Mascarenhas
The fight for justice has begun. Today 1000, tomorrow who knows. What we do know, is that the people have spoken – the first word of protest has been spoken. What happens next, is up to you…
