[h=2]Little India Riot: Questions for the Police[/h]
December 9th, 2013 |
Author: Contributions
Foreign workers hurling projectiles during the riot at Little India
Singapore witnessed its 1st major street riot this century, not seen on the streets since perhaps the late 1960s, with close to 400 foreign workers running rampage in Little India:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/fire–rioting-taking-place-in-little-india–reports-152651999.html
The riots were sparked by a fatal accident involving a private bus and a foreign worker believed to be a Bangladeshi. As emergency rescue personnel from the SCDF and Police attended the scene and tried to extricate the deceased, a large crowd turned their anger from the driver to these officers.
Projectiles were hurled at the ambulance staff and the traffic police officers, while the bus was smashed. Reinforcements were summoned but they too became the targets. In a stunning scene not witnessed by Singaporeans since the 1960s, 5 police cars were damaged, 2 were torched including the ambulance. 18 emergency personnel including 10 policemen and 4 SCDF personnel had to be conveyed to hospital after sustaining injuries from the fracas.
The Gurkha Contigent and the Special Operations Command riot control staff had to be activated and they finally restored control around 90 minutes after the incident first started. 27 arrests were made, but not before several private cars were damaged and probably private property too. Race Course Road, where the accident and riot occurred, resembled a street in downtown Bangkok (with the on-going anti-Govt protests) or Cairo during the overthrow of Presidents Mubarak and Mursi, rather than a street in hitherto peaceful Singapore.
The Minister responsible for the Police – DPM Teo Chee Hean had a press conference shortly thereafter together with his No 2, S Iswaran, Police Commissioner (CP) Ng Joo Hee and his deputy, Rajakumar. He remarked that it was a serious incident with damage to property and injuries and as expected, promised that the police would spare no effort to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
I find no reason to disagree or doubt him in regards to this matter. This was an appalling act. Even if it was a fatal accident, we cannot allow a ‘lynch mob’ to exact ‘street justice’. There is a specific law and adequate resources by the State to handle these kind of cases. The attacks especially on SCDF staff simply trying to do their job, which is firstly to try and rescue the victim, failing which (owing to his passing) to try and extricate his pinned body, is abhorrent, uncalled for and unjustified. Neither can the attacks on the Police officers who were simply trying to do their job in a fair manner be condoned. The destruction of 5 patrol cars (2 beyond hope of repair) and the ambulance is downright disturbing, depriving citizens the use of these emergency vehicles. The needless destruction of the private cars and property, which had no connection to the accident, the police or the SCDF was a wanton act. The bottom-line has to be a condemnation of these destructive acts and an outpouring of sympathy for the innocent victims of this crime, the emergency personnel who were simply trying to do their job.
However as with any major incident, hard questions must be asked to ensure that a repeat either does not occur, or at the very least, the possibility of it reoccurring is kept to the absolute minimum. As this is a ‘law and order issue’ inevitably the questions must be at the door of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and its chief, the Commissioner. Even so before we express our outrage and anger at the rioters and question the police, we should also not over dramatise the situation, to regard every foreign worker that goes to Little India as a dangerous criminal or treat them with contempt. 400 rioters may seem a large figure but compared to the thousands that work here and visit Little India on their Sunday off-day, it’s a just a tiny fraction. Most of them are odd job labourers with little education, who work long hours for little pay. We should not begrudge them their right to congregate as they have done years on end without incident. Let not the actions of a tiny few tarnish the general good behaviour and observance of our laws by the overwhelming majority.
And so the question must then go to the Police. We should not fault the first responders, who were simply doing their job as they would in any accident scene, not their reinforcements who responded to their colleagues urgent calls as the situation went south rapidly. In fact we can also praise these officers, for demonstrating a high level of calm and not making the situation worse by responding with a brutal show of force. No shots were fired, even though police officers were injured. No rioters were brutally beaten or killed. The responding officers deserve praise for a high level of tolerance at the expense of their own safety and well-being. We should also not fault the Police for declaring that they will pour resources into identifying and prosecuting those that took part in the riot. Let their investigations continue unimpeded.
However I do also believe a separate inquiry must be initiated by either the Ministry or the Commissioner as to why the situation deteriorated so rapidly, why it was allowed to fester and what can be done in future to ensure a swifter response with lesser causalities. Foreign workers gathering in Little India on Sundays and public holidays are a common sight, the question to be asked is how well prepared were the police in handling and monitoring these crowds? I remember in the past a mini-command post was erected to monitor the situation, is it still being maintained? There were a lot of patrols done by both uniformed and civilian officers, are they still being done, and if so, by how many men?
I believe the Police management have taken their ‘eye of the ball’ on this issue. Instead of many uniformed police officers, instead now I see ‘Security personnel’ who are obviously not police officers making the rounds accompanied by Cisco officers. They seem content to ignore the crowds and instead seem focussed on ‘summoning vehicles parked illegally’. The accident took place at Hampshire Road X Race Course Road, barely a kilometre away from Tanglin Police Station on Kg Java Road. Yet every Sunday, scores of private buses are allowed to parked along Hampshire Road effectively blocking the road and making it impassable to all other traffic. Being a narrow road with buses, some park abreast of each other, manoeuvrings these big vehicles becomes a hazardous exercise especially when you add the mix of hundreds maybe thousands of workers crossing the very same roads. In fact you can conclude in some ways, it was a miracle that no fatal accident occurred in the past given how narrow Hampshire and Race Course Roads are. This was an accident waiting to happen. Where is the Traffic Police (TP) in regards to this issue? TP has used the excuse that it has to give the illegal parking enforcement to the LTA, in order to free up their officers for more urgent tasks. Why were they not deployed to direct and control traffic? They tend to outsource this to Cisco now, but how well trained are these Cisco officers, and what level of supervision does TP maintain in regards to them? Are TP actually aware of the situation on the ground at Little India?
I doubt so, last night I was actually driving in Little India at around 8pm or so. Serangoon Road, a 4 lane road was reduced to 2 , sometimes just 1 and a half-lane of passable traffic. Crowds were spilling on the left and right most lanes. Furthermore it was raining all day and night, and scores of people simply crossed the road at all points even with moving traffic. It was accident waiting to happen and it did. It’s not the first time, that it has rained on a Sunday like this, furthermore it’s common behaviour by pedestrians to be more interested in avoiding getting wet and dashing across roads rather than considering the safety aspect. Surely TP isn’t blind to this? Why didn’t they direct extra resources to monitor the road safety aspect in Little India on a day like this? Where is the supervision and direction by the TP Commander and his head, the CP?
Next we have to look at the Tanglin Commander, whose station was within walking distance of the incident. How well versed is he on the situation on the ground? What is the senior management doing? Do they actually bother to walk the ground and access the situation and give direction to the junior officers on the beat? Does the Commander know how bad the situation is on rainy Sundays in Little India? With their usual ‘picnic’ spots on the fields surrounding Farrer Park becoming unavailable because of the rain, obviously the crowds would spill into the sidewalks and the shophouses, flats and streets. Does he or his senior management have any plan to deal with them? Judging from today’s incident, I think the answer is obvious.
Next we must look at the SOC who are the primary anti-riot arm of the SPF. Why aren’t the SOC regularly deployed during events where a large crowd gathers? Instead you find them patrolling the streets on ‘less busy weekdays’. Spotting their ubiquitous ‘red buses’ parked along Orchard Boulevard, South Beach Road, Clarke Quay, even Little India, and their men walking the streets with guns totting, is a common sight.
Unfortunately it appears they only do so on weekdays. On weekend nights after midnight when the crowds spill out on their way home, especially Fridays and Saturdays, you do not see them. Neither do you see them in Little India on rainy Sundays, or normal Sundays for that matter. Are we employing ‘fair-weather’ riot policemen? What is the point of deploying them on weekdays when you do not use them when their presence can be the best deterrent to violence? Had they been deployed in and around Little India, the riot could have been put down far quicker than it took, with staff injured and widespread damage to property. Maybe if they were thereabouts, the full riot might never have gotten off the ground. This represents a failure of planning by the Commander and his management team.
Finally the question must also be asked of the CP. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Ng Joo Hee is too junior to be Commissioner. He is an accident waiting to happen. Today he again ‘got out of jail’, because his boss the Minister answered for him. But clearly he lacks the vision and foresight to lead his team of senior officers. Instead of being a proactive force, that assesses and finds solutions to problems before they might occur, the SPF is now a ‘reactionary force’ that only pledges to do things after something has gone wrong.
Senior Officers are far too junior in age or experience to be given important positions like Commanding Officers. In a desperate attempt to promote graduates and scholars in key positions in the hope of retaining their loyalty and service, CP Ng has failed to ensure that they have a keen understanding of the positions they hold and to have adequate levels of supervision in key areas. Instead there seems to be a policy of relying heavily on technology and pushing mundane tasks to non-active or fully equipped organisations like Cisco or LTA. What CP Ng has failed to realise that ‘boots on the ground’ and understanding of how ground officers perform their tasks and identify potential situations, is just as, if not more important. What’s the use of technology, if it cannot help prevent crime and only serve as an investigative tool?
And his Commanders seem more keen to trump up their so called ‘achievements’ and he more keen to impress his Ministerial bosses, than actually doing their primary duty of supervising their men and understanding what’s happening on the ground. Take the November 5th ‘supposed Guy Fawkes protest’. Well Commander Tanglin did a superb job didn’t he, with the arrests of 3 persons in Orchard Road wearing masks? Not to mention the deployment of extensive police personnel in Orchard Road, and Shenton Way, in preparation for any demonstration! For all these, CP Ng and his Commanders can seem to plan in advance and take every step to prevent things getting out of hand. But for an on-going mass gathering in Little India, with almost 5-10 times more the possible crowd that Hong Lim can accommodate, especially when it rains, this seems to slip his mind!
In closing, the officers on the ground today, the junior officers and the SCDF staff responded remarkably and are worthy of praise. The calm shown and refusal to use lethal or brutal force, is a testament to their level headedness. However as usual, their superiors in the commanding positions and their chief, CP Ng once again, showed themselves incapable of understanding, supervising and to provide the planning required to assist them in their daily duties. As I said with the Kovan murder case, CP Ng should do the honourable thing and resign. How many more missteps and failures of management must Singaporeans undergo while he come to grips with the responsibilities of his office?
Sir Nelspruit
* Author blogs at http://anyhowhantam.blogspot.sg
Singapore witnessed its 1st major street riot this century, not seen on the streets since perhaps the late 1960s, with close to 400 foreign workers running rampage in Little India:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/fire–rioting-taking-place-in-little-india–reports-152651999.html
The riots were sparked by a fatal accident involving a private bus and a foreign worker believed to be a Bangladeshi. As emergency rescue personnel from the SCDF and Police attended the scene and tried to extricate the deceased, a large crowd turned their anger from the driver to these officers.
Projectiles were hurled at the ambulance staff and the traffic police officers, while the bus was smashed. Reinforcements were summoned but they too became the targets. In a stunning scene not witnessed by Singaporeans since the 1960s, 5 police cars were damaged, 2 were torched including the ambulance. 18 emergency personnel including 10 policemen and 4 SCDF personnel had to be conveyed to hospital after sustaining injuries from the fracas.
The Gurkha Contigent and the Special Operations Command riot control staff had to be activated and they finally restored control around 90 minutes after the incident first started. 27 arrests were made, but not before several private cars were damaged and probably private property too. Race Course Road, where the accident and riot occurred, resembled a street in downtown Bangkok (with the on-going anti-Govt protests) or Cairo during the overthrow of Presidents Mubarak and Mursi, rather than a street in hitherto peaceful Singapore.
The Minister responsible for the Police – DPM Teo Chee Hean had a press conference shortly thereafter together with his No 2, S Iswaran, Police Commissioner (CP) Ng Joo Hee and his deputy, Rajakumar. He remarked that it was a serious incident with damage to property and injuries and as expected, promised that the police would spare no effort to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
I find no reason to disagree or doubt him in regards to this matter. This was an appalling act. Even if it was a fatal accident, we cannot allow a ‘lynch mob’ to exact ‘street justice’. There is a specific law and adequate resources by the State to handle these kind of cases. The attacks especially on SCDF staff simply trying to do their job, which is firstly to try and rescue the victim, failing which (owing to his passing) to try and extricate his pinned body, is abhorrent, uncalled for and unjustified. Neither can the attacks on the Police officers who were simply trying to do their job in a fair manner be condoned. The destruction of 5 patrol cars (2 beyond hope of repair) and the ambulance is downright disturbing, depriving citizens the use of these emergency vehicles. The needless destruction of the private cars and property, which had no connection to the accident, the police or the SCDF was a wanton act. The bottom-line has to be a condemnation of these destructive acts and an outpouring of sympathy for the innocent victims of this crime, the emergency personnel who were simply trying to do their job.
However as with any major incident, hard questions must be asked to ensure that a repeat either does not occur, or at the very least, the possibility of it reoccurring is kept to the absolute minimum. As this is a ‘law and order issue’ inevitably the questions must be at the door of the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and its chief, the Commissioner. Even so before we express our outrage and anger at the rioters and question the police, we should also not over dramatise the situation, to regard every foreign worker that goes to Little India as a dangerous criminal or treat them with contempt. 400 rioters may seem a large figure but compared to the thousands that work here and visit Little India on their Sunday off-day, it’s a just a tiny fraction. Most of them are odd job labourers with little education, who work long hours for little pay. We should not begrudge them their right to congregate as they have done years on end without incident. Let not the actions of a tiny few tarnish the general good behaviour and observance of our laws by the overwhelming majority.
And so the question must then go to the Police. We should not fault the first responders, who were simply doing their job as they would in any accident scene, not their reinforcements who responded to their colleagues urgent calls as the situation went south rapidly. In fact we can also praise these officers, for demonstrating a high level of calm and not making the situation worse by responding with a brutal show of force. No shots were fired, even though police officers were injured. No rioters were brutally beaten or killed. The responding officers deserve praise for a high level of tolerance at the expense of their own safety and well-being. We should also not fault the Police for declaring that they will pour resources into identifying and prosecuting those that took part in the riot. Let their investigations continue unimpeded.
However I do also believe a separate inquiry must be initiated by either the Ministry or the Commissioner as to why the situation deteriorated so rapidly, why it was allowed to fester and what can be done in future to ensure a swifter response with lesser causalities. Foreign workers gathering in Little India on Sundays and public holidays are a common sight, the question to be asked is how well prepared were the police in handling and monitoring these crowds? I remember in the past a mini-command post was erected to monitor the situation, is it still being maintained? There were a lot of patrols done by both uniformed and civilian officers, are they still being done, and if so, by how many men?
I believe the Police management have taken their ‘eye of the ball’ on this issue. Instead of many uniformed police officers, instead now I see ‘Security personnel’ who are obviously not police officers making the rounds accompanied by Cisco officers. They seem content to ignore the crowds and instead seem focussed on ‘summoning vehicles parked illegally’. The accident took place at Hampshire Road X Race Course Road, barely a kilometre away from Tanglin Police Station on Kg Java Road. Yet every Sunday, scores of private buses are allowed to parked along Hampshire Road effectively blocking the road and making it impassable to all other traffic. Being a narrow road with buses, some park abreast of each other, manoeuvrings these big vehicles becomes a hazardous exercise especially when you add the mix of hundreds maybe thousands of workers crossing the very same roads. In fact you can conclude in some ways, it was a miracle that no fatal accident occurred in the past given how narrow Hampshire and Race Course Roads are. This was an accident waiting to happen. Where is the Traffic Police (TP) in regards to this issue? TP has used the excuse that it has to give the illegal parking enforcement to the LTA, in order to free up their officers for more urgent tasks. Why were they not deployed to direct and control traffic? They tend to outsource this to Cisco now, but how well trained are these Cisco officers, and what level of supervision does TP maintain in regards to them? Are TP actually aware of the situation on the ground at Little India?
I doubt so, last night I was actually driving in Little India at around 8pm or so. Serangoon Road, a 4 lane road was reduced to 2 , sometimes just 1 and a half-lane of passable traffic. Crowds were spilling on the left and right most lanes. Furthermore it was raining all day and night, and scores of people simply crossed the road at all points even with moving traffic. It was accident waiting to happen and it did. It’s not the first time, that it has rained on a Sunday like this, furthermore it’s common behaviour by pedestrians to be more interested in avoiding getting wet and dashing across roads rather than considering the safety aspect. Surely TP isn’t blind to this? Why didn’t they direct extra resources to monitor the road safety aspect in Little India on a day like this? Where is the supervision and direction by the TP Commander and his head, the CP?
Next we have to look at the Tanglin Commander, whose station was within walking distance of the incident. How well versed is he on the situation on the ground? What is the senior management doing? Do they actually bother to walk the ground and access the situation and give direction to the junior officers on the beat? Does the Commander know how bad the situation is on rainy Sundays in Little India? With their usual ‘picnic’ spots on the fields surrounding Farrer Park becoming unavailable because of the rain, obviously the crowds would spill into the sidewalks and the shophouses, flats and streets. Does he or his senior management have any plan to deal with them? Judging from today’s incident, I think the answer is obvious.
Next we must look at the SOC who are the primary anti-riot arm of the SPF. Why aren’t the SOC regularly deployed during events where a large crowd gathers? Instead you find them patrolling the streets on ‘less busy weekdays’. Spotting their ubiquitous ‘red buses’ parked along Orchard Boulevard, South Beach Road, Clarke Quay, even Little India, and their men walking the streets with guns totting, is a common sight.
Unfortunately it appears they only do so on weekdays. On weekend nights after midnight when the crowds spill out on their way home, especially Fridays and Saturdays, you do not see them. Neither do you see them in Little India on rainy Sundays, or normal Sundays for that matter. Are we employing ‘fair-weather’ riot policemen? What is the point of deploying them on weekdays when you do not use them when their presence can be the best deterrent to violence? Had they been deployed in and around Little India, the riot could have been put down far quicker than it took, with staff injured and widespread damage to property. Maybe if they were thereabouts, the full riot might never have gotten off the ground. This represents a failure of planning by the Commander and his management team.
Finally the question must also be asked of the CP. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Ng Joo Hee is too junior to be Commissioner. He is an accident waiting to happen. Today he again ‘got out of jail’, because his boss the Minister answered for him. But clearly he lacks the vision and foresight to lead his team of senior officers. Instead of being a proactive force, that assesses and finds solutions to problems before they might occur, the SPF is now a ‘reactionary force’ that only pledges to do things after something has gone wrong.
Senior Officers are far too junior in age or experience to be given important positions like Commanding Officers. In a desperate attempt to promote graduates and scholars in key positions in the hope of retaining their loyalty and service, CP Ng has failed to ensure that they have a keen understanding of the positions they hold and to have adequate levels of supervision in key areas. Instead there seems to be a policy of relying heavily on technology and pushing mundane tasks to non-active or fully equipped organisations like Cisco or LTA. What CP Ng has failed to realise that ‘boots on the ground’ and understanding of how ground officers perform their tasks and identify potential situations, is just as, if not more important. What’s the use of technology, if it cannot help prevent crime and only serve as an investigative tool?
And his Commanders seem more keen to trump up their so called ‘achievements’ and he more keen to impress his Ministerial bosses, than actually doing their primary duty of supervising their men and understanding what’s happening on the ground. Take the November 5th ‘supposed Guy Fawkes protest’. Well Commander Tanglin did a superb job didn’t he, with the arrests of 3 persons in Orchard Road wearing masks? Not to mention the deployment of extensive police personnel in Orchard Road, and Shenton Way, in preparation for any demonstration! For all these, CP Ng and his Commanders can seem to plan in advance and take every step to prevent things getting out of hand. But for an on-going mass gathering in Little India, with almost 5-10 times more the possible crowd that Hong Lim can accommodate, especially when it rains, this seems to slip his mind!
In closing, the officers on the ground today, the junior officers and the SCDF staff responded remarkably and are worthy of praise. The calm shown and refusal to use lethal or brutal force, is a testament to their level headedness. However as usual, their superiors in the commanding positions and their chief, CP Ng once again, showed themselves incapable of understanding, supervising and to provide the planning required to assist them in their daily duties. As I said with the Kovan murder case, CP Ng should do the honourable thing and resign. How many more missteps and failures of management must Singaporeans undergo while he come to grips with the responsibilities of his office?
Sir Nelspruit
* Author blogs at http://anyhowhantam.blogspot.sg
. You just compare the headlines on Yahoo Singapore and you can see they do not water down their reporting. I guess this makes the regime very uncomfortable, hence the newly imposed licensing laws.
