KUCHING, Aug 27: Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing has urged the public to look at the case of a cop kicking a man off his motorcycle as he attempted to escape a police roadblock, from a neutral and rational standpoint.
Emphasising that he was not defending the actions of either the police or the errant motorcyclist, Tiong observed that the original intention of the traffic police was to maintain order and security while the motorcyclist must have been guilty of something to make a sudden u-turn to avoid the roadblock.
“Those who attempted to flee when approaching a roadblock are already violating the law, or they could be guilty of a crime or an offence and instinctively want to escape arrest.
“If the traffic police did not immediately react, the person would have escaped from being stopped for a check. The person could have been a suspect, a criminal or possessed dangerous weapon or have committed offences,” he opined in a statement today.
He was responding to the case of a traffic police officer from Sibu station who was captured on video kicking a man off his motorcycle as he attempted to escape from a roadblock and causing him to crash at Jalan Temple on Aug 25.
The video recorded by a bystander immediately went viral and resulted in an investigation being launched into the traffic personnel for negligence in carrying out his duties in which Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Abdul Jamid pledged to lead.
Tiong noted that the motorcyclist in the video was reported to have violated at least five traffic regulations, including expired driving license and insurance, overdue road tax, making illegal turns, and modifying vehicles beyond permitted scopes.
“Even though not a major crime, the act of escaping already demonstrated having no respect for the law,” he added.
Tiong, who is also the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to People’s Republic of China, also observed that the public were often too quick to judge and their bias opinions especially condemning the actions of the police officer will hit the morale of the law enforcement who were merely carrying out their duty to maintain public security.
“If this happens in certain countries, the law enforcement methods used by police there will be more brutal or intense.
“In the heat of the incident, we often forget to appreciate the bravery and courage of our officers in instantly and promptly responding to a situation,” he said.
Tiong hopes that the internal police investigations in the matter will be fair to the traffic police officer involved.—DayakDaily
