When the police turns vigilante against you and your family, you know that the justice system in the country has completely failed.
And that’s exactly what happened over the weekend in Klang when four police officers unleashed unrestrained violence against two 14-year old students.
The police personnel, including a woman officer, punched and slapped them on the face, hit them with a rubber hose, stomped on them, pulled their hair and caught them by their necks before slamming them against the wall and sofa.
The woman officer threw her shoes at one of the boys and slapped him.
And all this happened after the police failed to get a remand extension for the kids who were arrested following a gang fight outside their school. They were instead ordered to be released.
The police however insisted on taking statements from the boys prior to their release and used that opportunity to exert excessive force to physically abuse and inflict bodily harm on the two school-going kids.
Both of them are currently receiving medical treatment at Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah after sustaining multiple bruises and scars on their bodies.
A conversation with the two boys and their parents revealed that they were at a vicinity where a gang fight between other school kids were happening, having gone out to buy drinks, when they were nabbed.
Their parents found out about the abuse suffered by their children when they were eventually released.
Such abuse of power by the police is totally unacceptable and I demand that the IGP, Khalid Abu Bakar, immediately suspends the four police personnel.
However, suspending errant police officers is not going to stop the escalating cases of police brutality in the country.
But ironically, I cannot also demand for an inquiry into this matter as there is not even one credible external body that can investigate the police impartially and get their recommendations implemented.
Malaysia’s police are not accountable to anyone and always end up investigating themselves. This clearly lacks transparency and officers implicated in abuses are almost never prosecuted.
Therefore, there needs to be an independent external oversight of the police force such as the proposed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to investigate police high-handedness and use of brute force.
The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC), set-up following strong opposition to the IPCMC, lacks the power needed to make police officers face the law.
It’s crippled by severe weaknesses in that, while the EAIC can investigate complaints, the police can ignore whatever recommendation made by the commission and instead launch its own internal probe on any complaint against the force.
Deaths in police custody, trigger happy by the police, unlawful arrests, excessive use of force are some of the cases of abuse of power by the police.
This blatant disregard for law by the police must stop. The Malaysian government must bring about reforms, such as establishing an oversight body, to curb unjustified use of force and abuse of power by the police.
This is the only way to ensure that victims of police abuse, including the two school students and their families, get some form of justice.