Escobar meme: Cops concede a goal

KOLKATA: Not all memes hit the right chord and

Kolkata Police

has learnt it the hard way. While the Messi

meme

— in which the cops juxtaposed a sergeant collecting traffic penalty with a photograph of Messi missing his penalty kick against Iceland — went viral, the latest one — posted on Monday, featuring slain Columbian footballer Andres Escobar — has not found many takers. In fact, many felt the meme was “not in the spirit of the game”.


However, a large section of netizens – especially those who commented on the Kolkata Police Facebook page – defended it saying the message in this case had to be strong as it is targeted at those who are involved in habitual substance abuse.

The new meme – that focuses on drug abuse — shows the image of Escobar unwittingly scoring an own goal in the 1994 World Cup juxtaposed with a photograph of a person injecting drugs. The caption reads: Same-side goals bhuleo na (No more sameside goals, even mistakenly). Most did not miss the veiled reference — Escobar was shot dead when he returned home. The reference also has a connection with another Escobar — Pablo, the drug mafia whom the US called a narco-terrorist.

What has added to the controversy is the fact that yet another Columbian footballer is under threat this year. In a chilling reminder of the killing of Escobar,

midfielder

Carlos Sanchez has received threats after being showed a red card in the third minute during his country’s 2-1loss against Japan.

Anirban Dutta, a football enthusiast, asked whether a mistake on the field was comparable to drug-related offences, a consciously committed crime. “This is not good for football,” he wrote. Somnath Bhattacharjee, a regular KP Facebook page user, said: “Tafat ta hochhe Escobar porinoti na jenei bhool kore felechilo..era bhool ta jene sunei kore..(There is a difference… Escobar committed the mistake without knowing the outcome…the drug addict commits mistakes fully aware of its consequences).”

Others like Bidyut Dutta have hailed the post. “It is meant for people who understands only strong messages. It is an important post,” he wrote. Aniruddha Ghosh felt was a timely and important post.

With hundreds of likes and love messages, Lalbazar officers felt most youngsters have connected with the meme. “The nature of the Messi meme is inherently different from the Escobar. We wanted to show that drugs can claim lives,” said a police source.