I refer to the Malaysiakini report Syed Hamid: Don't see criminals as heroes, cops as demons .

Once again, our honourable Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar has completely lost the plot. His latest statement, ‘Don’t portray a crime suspect as a hero and those enforcing the law as demons’ is shockingly similar to when he said that ‘Teresa Kok and the Sin Chew Daily journalist were arrested for their own safety as there were threats made against them’.

The rakyat are shocked over the death of A Kugan while in police detention not because of his ethnic origin or that of the police personnel.

The rakyat are also not hailing Kugan as a hero or calling him the entire police force ‘demons’. The rakyat are shocked because certain personnel of the government agency entrusted to uphold and enforce law and order in Malaysia can take the law into their own hands and be immune from the law.

The rakyat acknowledges that the majority of those in the police force are also law-abiding and the task of making the rakyat feel safe is an enormous task. The rewards are low but the risks are very high and many nameless police personnel have been injured and killed in action.

However, regardless of the guilt of people like Kugan who have been arrested for suspicion of being involved in crimes, especially violent crimes, the police cannot take the law into their own hands.

Just like when good-hearted citizens cooperate and manage to nab snatch thieves or other criminals, the temptation to take the law into one’s own hands is high. Very often, snatch thieves are beaten into a bloody pulp by angry mobs.

But as trained professionals, policemen must not get emotional and maintain their integrity at all times.

The police force must have standard protocols to extract the cooperation of suspects without resorting to violence. Time is often very crucial and more often than not, suspects will use delaying tactics so that their comrades can dispose of the evidence.

When faced with such pressures, the inexperienced police personnel will often resort physical violence to get suspects to cooperate. Hence, only senior officers should take part in the interrogation of suspects and urge suspects to cooperate.

Kugan might have been directly involved in the theft of luxury cars or he might just have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Just like in the case of a former MB’s son who was kidnapped and the police stormed the house of the suspects and killed everyone, including a pregnant woman.

I believe it was later discovered that a number of those killed (including the pregnant woman) were not involved in the kidnapping but were merely fellow tenants in the same house where the real kidnappers stayed.

The police must not be overzealous in their effort to fight crime but must thoroughly investigate first. Even crime suspects deserve the protection of the law.

The Royal Malaysian Police Force must uphold the law at all times and the presumption that ‘innocent until proven guilty in court of law’ must prevail at all times.