Sunday, September 28, 2014

Who Do You Trust?

This video is a fascinating documentation of how our vaunted Home Team members earn their pay. Firstly, they seem to like to go about their task incognito. They are obviously not proud of their smart tailored uniforms - recall the officer at Little India who was dressed down for showing up on duty without proper police attire. More revealing, their "warrant card" is just a mugshot, with no embossed name or identification number. Yang Yin will have a field day posing as a bogus officer. Even his name card provides more details, director of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (fake), graduate of University of Financial and Trade Beijing China (fake), director of Young Music & Dance Studio Pte Ltd (2 employee company?), etc.

And then there's this ominous drone of a threat by NParks director Chia Seng Jiang to "take down your particulars", repeated ad finitum in the close encounter with the boys in mufti. Obedient Singaporeans usually produce their NRIC or driver's licence upon polite request; not some cheap printed name card like the one flashed by Yang Yin.

The article in TIME magazine ("Who Do You Trust", 6 Oct 2014) says police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, now wear a body camera after the unfortunate shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. The intention was to increase transparency of encounters with the public, and with it, earn trust in the police reaction. A study in the Los Angeles suburb of Rialto found that the camera significantly reduced  the incidence of  police  violence and the number of brutality complaints. Singapore Police Commissioner Ng Joo Hee also asked for body cameras in the wake of the Little India riot, but whether he shares the same aim of transparency is hard to fathom.

Interestingly, police are not the only ones suitably geared. Some Ferguson residents are now wearing a camera provided by We Copwatch, a group that raised US$6,000 on the Internet to provide them with cameras of their own. "If Ferguson police are going to video tape us, we're going to video tape them right back," said citizen Whitt, who posted his first contribution to YouTube.

Your smartphone has a built-in digital camera. Don't leave home without it, when you set out for a nice stroll in Hong Lim Park. Or any street in Singapore for that matter.

11 comments:

  1. Is a charity event, attended by no less a person than a Minister of State, a protest that has to be organised at HLP? Why do it at the same time and venue as a protest rally, knowing full well that it will be a noisy affair? Was it intended to provoke an "incident", with state resources mobilised on cue to intervene with threats and harrassment? What do you think?

    It is a well known ruse to stage incidents to provide a raison d'etre, to attack or discredit the opponent. In 1937 the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident" gave the Japanese the excuse to mount a full scale invasion of China. On 31st August 1939, the Germans staged the "Gleiwitz Incident" to provide the pretext for invading Poland. There are countless other examples.

    The Hong Lim Park incident is of course small fry in comparison, but it generated a hue and cry from MPs and state owned media, eliciting righteous indignation like these comments about "heckling" of special needs children: "Vile. Total and absolute disgrace." OMG, special needs children at a protest rally?

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    1. It is a charity event.
      And YMCA could have held the charity event anywhere in Singapore.
      So why choose Hong Lim Park?
      Knowing full well that Roy & HHH will be there every month?

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    2. What is the Minister of State Teo Ser Luck protesting about? That his salary is not enough? And why drag the special needs children into the fray as pawns?
      One message is clear: the YMCA has been infiltrated/recruited as partisan players.

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    3. All NGOs are infiltrated.

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  2. When special needs children are used as political pawns, there can be only one reaction - utter disgust at those who sink so low. Guess we'll see babies held up as shields if an enemy attacks with guns.

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    1. Yes, utter disgust ! But you know what is so Good about this staged two Approvals conspiracy ? Suddenly, attendence at the monthly CPF protest shot up ! Now, with that Protest March done, the PM can no longer claimed that no one protested outside Parliament ! It backfired as far as I am concerned on those smart Alecks .

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    2. The PAP dogs are no better than the ISIS jihadists, hiding behind women and children. Teo Ser Luck's shield of choice? Special needs children.

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  3. Roy & HH fell right into a trap set up by the miw and now, its MPs, minions, sycophants of all shades and colour, the msm, has gone to town decrying and deploring how despicable and inhumane these two are and by association of convenience, the entire Opposition. Hey, where were these loud-mouths in the on-going yang yin affair?

    Never mind that Roy & HH did not heckle the kids, never mind that teo ser *uck wasn't harassed, never mind why the YMCA event has to be held at HLP at the same time as the protest when there are dozens of other suitable locations. Nah, it's all about staining and smearing whoever the miws deem annoying and irritating, if they can't use the internal security act on you. Afterall, it was Roy's article which ultimately made the miws modify parts of the CPF; surely this is an affront to the party, wherein, supposedly, the brightest minds lay.

    Take this as a lesson learnt, that the miws will stop at nothing to further their oppressive agenda.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Study history.
      Study Chee Soon Juan in his early years.
      Study how his hunger strike was reported by the Straits Times.

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    2. It is the age of the internet now. Upload the incident and everyone can be the judge. No need to read the shitty times lah.

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  4. Since the gahmen likes Hong Lim Park so much, they can hold next year National Day there hoh?

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