There are stories about yet another Malaysian who died under police custody. One report claimed that he was beaten to death by by-standers while another report claimed that he randomly died of a heart-attack, with the police innocent of any battery.
Both accounts agree that the police gave chase to the amok man, subdued him and cuffed him. They also agreed that he died. Where the accounts differed was what happened to him after he was in cuffs. Both of these stories cannot be true.
However, the quote from the Kajang OCPD ACP gives the lie away: “But upon return, the Indian man was unconscious.”
The OCPD would have us believe that, after his police officers had the guy cuffed, they left him alone to go get the Land Rover and upon return, he was magically unconscious. Needless to say, I do not believe the story that all the police officers left the cuffed guy, who had run amok, alone on the street. I’m pretty sure that only one officer went to get the vehicle while the others stayed with the amok man.
But even if the police told the truth and that all the police officers had left the cuffed man alone to go fetch the vehicle and returned to find him already unconscious, the man still died under police custody and they are at least guilty of negligence. While I’m not a cop, I’m sure that it’s not SOP to leave a cuffed and dangerous man on his own.
Therefore, I wonder at the reasons why the OCPD ACP would give such a wonderful account of what happened. The only one that I can think of is that he realises how bad this thing looks. Whether the officers beat him up or left him on his own, the officers are guilty of something. So, the only thing he can claim is ignorance.
Now, if the angry crowd had beaten up the man who damaged their property, the fault is also on the officers who were there. They should have whisked the amok man away from the crowd immediately, or failing which, they should have taken control of the crowd and not let them turn into a mob.
I’m sick and tired of this ‘blameless’ culture that our men in blue have. They are to blame regardless of how he died as the amok man was already cuffed and under police custody. The cops have to learn to do their jobs responsibly. Otherwise, they must be made to pay a price.
PDRM has got a lot to answer for.
Sybreon Ones Nought 