M'sians in UK: 'Our cops better in handling riots'
Last updated on 11 August 2011 - 07:55am
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/108258
PETALING JAYA (Aug 10, 2011): A few Malaysians in London believe that the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) are more experienced in handling riots compared to the British police as traditionally, the Bobbies does not have a history of militarisation of the police force.
Fithrah Shaiera Aziz, 26, an auditor in a media company based in London told theSun in a phone interview, from her perspective the British police force in London were being "bullied" by the rioters plaguing the British capital for the past four days.
"In London, we're not used to riots and the police didn't seem to know what to do at first actually. The first two nights they looked like they were being bullied. The closer the rioters move towards them, the more they backed away.
"In terms of handling riots, the Malaysian police have more experience. I believe the RMP might have used rubber bullets, water cannons or tear gas. Which can be a good thing because it would have prevent things from getting worse," said Fithrah.
However, game developer Ainurazmi Ainuddin, 31, who has lived there for 16-years believed that if the police would take drastic, military-style action it would "open a whole new can of worms" which might have irreversible consequences.
"I've lived here more than I've lived in Malaysia and traditionally we have a less forceful police force even compared to other European countries where water cannons are used during riots. In Britain the police force don't really use water cannons.
"I think there are people here who feel that cops should be more forceful using water cannons but there are also people here who say it's a slippery slope. And once you open up that can of worms it might be hard to change back.
"We also don't want to give them too much power. It's kind of mix feelings, you can't really generalise things like that because over here, we don't really have a history of militirisation of the police force," Ainurazmi told theSun.
Auditor Mahendran Segran, 36, said the looters tend to focus on town centres and areas with large departmental stores or other high-end goods and has not gravitated to residential districts.
Over an online Facebook chat with theSun, Mahendran said: "I live in Hampstead which is a pretty good area with police presence but the past two days were harrowing.
"We were sent home early from work yesterday as there were reports of looters kicking off on Oxford Street/Holborn. But in the end i think the 16,000 cops they put out there helped but outside London its been quite bad.
"But people here are very angry at both the looters and the government. If anything this is damning example of Britain's nanny state come home to roost."
Heriot Watt University student, Vishu Joshi, 24, on the other hand, gave an eyewitness account of the rioters looting shops near Camden over Facebook chat as well.
"I was scared and I was shocked. The police were there but not many at the time of the looting because they were called to other targetted shops. They broke into some shops, whacked some people and ran when the police arrived.
"When the cops left, they came back and wiped it clean. And they were young, somewhere around 12-year-old to 20 and above. When I asked them why they were doing this, some of them said they're doing this out of boredom, others for tax return, for some strange reason but the bottom line was money," said Vishu who is in London for vacation.
The riots, which first started out as peaceful protest rally over the shooting a youth a week prior began on Saturday and is expected to cost insurers "tens of millions of pounds." It has been on going for four nights and hundreds of youths have been arrested.
2 comments:
dr. maza kata tunjuk perasaan AMAN DI ENGLAND & polis britain PANDAI BERTOLAK ANSUR!! YA KA DR. MAZA?
Dr MAZA dah banyak merapu dari ckp perkara yg benar skrg ni
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