Monday, May 11, 2015

Flavours Of Justice In Singapore

The 49-year-old slapper who was finally charged in court after 2 whole weeks - the equivalent of light years in internet time - said he “wanted the assault to be publicised so that the world at large would know." He should have learnt from his young victim that a less painful way to achieve instant fame is to post a YouTube video.

Whatever his motivations, the man pleaded to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt by forcefully slapping the left side of the teenager’s face, causing him to suffer pain. The arresting authorities must have assumed physical pain, evidenced by the red swelling obvious in the widely circulated photo images. Psychological trauma, due to being shackled in cuffs and chains, matter not to these sadistic types. The legal issue worthy of note here is that voluntarily causing hurt is a non-arrestable offence in Singapore.

Upon arrival at the scene, the police is supposed to assess the situation and determine whether the fracas involving a crime is categorised as an arrestable offence under the First Schedule of the Criminal Procedure Code. Which explains why many taxi drivers at the receiving end of a drunken passenger's fist often wonder if being a punching bag is written into their job description.

The following are some examples of arrestable offences:
  1. Unlawful assemblies or rioting
  2. Impersonation of a public servant
  3. Obstructing a public servant in his duties, or threatening a public servant
  4. Affray (Fighting in public places)
  5. Fouling the water of a public spring or reservoir
  6. Driving rashly or negligently
  7. Obscene acts in public
  8. Rape
  9. Theft and robbery
  10. Criminal trespass
  11. Assault or use of criminal force to a person with intent to outrage modesty (molest)
  12. Acts or attempts that cause or can cause death, including suicide, murder, or other rash acts
  13. Voluntarily causing grievous hurt
  14. Voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon
Maybe it was grievous hurt (item 13) that prompted the police to take action. More likely it has to be the potential political fallout following should the assailant be let off easy. But that would make it hard to explain why a decorated grassroots leader is permitted to make well publicised threats of physical violence without losing sleep. Almost as hard as explaining why Yaacob Ibrahim is saying the evidence for shutting down a website is in hand when the court case has yet to be convened.

11 comments:

  1. No amount of damage control from the state or media is ever going to mask the simple undeniable fact that an violent assailant was able to escape scot-free right in the face of law enforcement, especially when said victim was already known to be under physical threats made by individuals online.

    How incredibly ironic that what our self-righteous government did to a teen blogger has ended revealing our true systemic injustice for everyone to see, here and abroad.

    I am so DEEPLY ashamed of being a Singaporean, if this is the kind of lynchmob society we are striving to be I want no part in it.

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  2. More CSI needed5/11/2015 2:32 PM

    Why take them 2 weeks to charge him?
    So that he has enough time to remove all his grassroots association or clean up his facebook account to erase all trace is it?
    Bedok area seems to have a lot of patriot isn't it?
    Did he have 8 matas who handcuff and shackle him too?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Why take them 2 weeks to charge him?"

      My conjecture? Given the risk averse nature of our public sector to protect their iron rice bowls, it becomes obvious nobody at the SPF wanted to handle this hot potato.

      Delete
    2. What is his real occupation by the way? A friend told me that he did not think that the assailant looked like a 49-year old but looked more like another kid. LOL......

      Cookie Tan is still at large, and nothing has been done against him. So does it mean that it is now alright to threaten to castrate or dismember someone?

      Delete
    3. Why two weeks? My opinion is that they actually wanted to shoved it under the carpet but with too many asking difficult questions everyday, somebody blinked.
      I at least must thank the Judge for upping the sentence asked by our DPP. Of course, it could well be wayang but it does show how "Good " our AGC had been.

      Delete
  3. Jason Tan the crookie monster..as we know, few have filed reports too. How come he is not being charged and scrutinized for his 'intent to cause grievous hurt' to Amos boy?

    These guys are still free to roam around, while Amos remained in remand as his heart broken mother has to spend mother's day without his only son?


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  4. The Public Prosecutor asked for 2 weeks jail for the slapper, but the Judge gave him 3 weeks. Why did the PP go easy on this guy? Wouldn't surprise me if they throw the book at Amos. Justice has different flavours, or as they say, what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander.

    They should update the Criminal Procedure Code to include this as an arrestable offence: Insulting LKY

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So let me get this straight.
      You physically hurt somebody (you are adult @ 49 years old) and you get 3 weeks jail.
      You don't physically hurt anyone (you are a kid @ 16 years) and you can get jailed for more than 3 weeks?

      Delete
    2. Someone said we are in yewtopia. I am more inclined to think we are in Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

      Delete
    3. Anon @ 12/2015 8:31 AM
      You've got a good point there. Amos Yee has been in remand since 17 April, and today is 12 May.

      Delete
  5. Some animals get rabid enough...believe will get some tiny more bits of the food dropped from the table for them by the other uppity higher animals for their show of rabid blind and self serving loyalty....to subscribe any real humanity is a waste of time....no wonder the human race will be extinct within 100 years...and we have idiots worrying about this year and next year how much more i can get...nuts.

    ReplyDelete