'Once upon a time, the public would not have believed the pregnant store-owner. That was then, now it is a different story.'

Five cops in slap-and-rob case identified

Mirror Thyself: In the early 70s, the police force was much respected. Personally, I had the opportunity to befriend some police officers who were simply gems of friendship despite being from different ethnic groupings.

Now after 30 years, it still brings nostalgic feelings of my police friends of yesteryears. Though all of them had retired and some may had returned to the Creator, I am still proud of them as my sincere friends.

Police of today are nothing compared to those days. Today, it is how much one needs to grease their palms to 'buy' friendship. The saying, 'Orang atasan telah makan isi. Kulit and tulang ditinggal kapada polis kebawahan' is apt for police force of today.

Geronimo: "Petaling Jaya police have denied that officers took RM20,000 and other items as claimed by Chow, claiming that only RM15, 900 was seized for investigations into possible ill-gotten gains."

Wow, how noble. Why don't the police do the same thing to Najib Razak, Rosmah Mansor and many of the Umno leaders, seizing all their properties for they too would like to "investigate into possible ill-gotten gains".

Ksn: The whole country knows that all our institutions have been destroyed and are corrupt but it is hard to believe that the very force which is duty bound to protect the people and enforce the law has degenerated into robbers and gangsters themselves.

What do the people do now? Run for their lives when they see the police, but where to? PM, home minister, the IGP and the cabinet, where are you taking the country to? I was under the impression that no further damage can be done to the country beyond want TDM (Mahathir Mohamad) inflicted on us, but this is shocking.

Patriot: We salute Chow Soo Meng for her bravery to stand up to a corrupt institution. The whole government system is rotten to the core as the "end justifies the means". There are so many cases of abuse of power by the police and they seem impotent to act.

They can be super efficient when the BN lodges a report against a Pakatan Rakyat MP or Adun. If you don't call this selective persecution, then my grandma is a virgin.

Sleekk: Once upon a time, the public would not have believed the pregnant store-owner. That was when the police could be trusted and were carrying out their duties properly. That was then, sadly now it is a different story.

The reputation of the police is in tatters but the police leadership is still in denial of the situation. Instead of going after criminals, many of the police officers are criminals themselves, carrying out intimidation and extortion by planting false ‘evidence' to solicit bribes, and trafficking as well as taking prohibited drugs, etc.

The police even protect the very criminals that they are supposed to get rid of. It is not just the regular police but also the auxiliary police. There is a need to overhaul the entire police force before they can regain the trust of the people.

Damn_It: Before, whenever I see a police officer, I used to whisper to my kids "police, police". They would ask in fear, "where, where?". Now, I would keep quiet, but in my heart I would call them names that I cannot share with anyone here.

I do not want my kids to be fearful of the police anymore. Instead, they have to learn how to defend themselves because who knows when they will be the next victim of the police force. I believe that even the police officers themselves have to teach their kids on the possible danger when encountering the police.

Look at Azamuddin Omar, the son of a police officer, who was almost killed. Unfortunately, his friend, Aminulrasyid Amzah, was not as lucky to escape death in the hands of the police.

Retnam: Only robbers cut open the grill door to enter a premises. Police need to obtain a warrant and officially open the grill door in the presence of witnesses. So it is clear that these police are robbers.

Md Imraz Muhammed Ikhbal: I am intrigued by the police's line of logic and semantics in differentiating between ‘stealing' and ‘seizing'.

Embracing that line of argument, if RM15,900 was seized for evidence when RM20,000 was reported stolen, then I would agree with the police that RM20,000 was in fact ‘not stolen'. Only (RM20,000 - RM15,900) = RM4,100 was.

I guess that should make the police only one fifth of the criminals they are made out to be.

Wira: Shouldn't there be a procedure where the police must account for and issue a receipt for goods and money impounded (for their own protection) in front of a person authorised by the suspect? Otherwise it is easy for others to assume that the police just pocket the goods and money.

Dood: Tsk, tsk, tsk... did she not pay the mandatory protection money?

Hopeful123: Why are the authorities always in the denial syndrome. The moment there is a complaint against them, the first thing that comes from their mouth is: "No, our officers did not do that."

Even before investigating the complaint, they just jump to the defence of the officers. This kind of defensiveness must go. Investigate when a report is made. There is no need for the superiors to defend their officers if nothing wrong is done by the officers. Why the haste in defending them?

Onyourtoes: This is really getting out of hand. If this case is true, we demand the resignation of Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and the IGP (Ismail Omar). Their service are no longer tenable.

Docs: Now that the cops have been identified by Chow Soo Meng, I assume that the next course of action will be to transfer of the cops to some police district in some ‘kampung' to let things cool off. This will be followed character assassination of Chow by the BN-controlled media for which some hair-brained story will be concocted.

Then the court case will be postponed for the longest time till the public heat of this case dies down. Finally, the cops will be freed after the BN-controlled courts find that the cops acted within their job scope and no wrong on their part is found.

If the court case manages to ignite public reaction, then cops will be give a slap of the wrist punishment like being suspended. Hmmm, I think I can be a good fortune teller in Malaysia.

Zz2XX: News of police abuse of power in Bolehland has been highlighted so frequently. If it was in a civilised country, the police chief would have been sacked. With so many cases of police abuse, nothing has been done.

And if it was not for the Internet online news portals, this case would not have been known.

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