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Believe it or not: No police name-tags
Published:  Aug 14, 2012 9:58 AM
Updated: 7:04 AM

YOURSAY ' If one is lost, it's an accident. If two, it's a coincidence. If three, it's a trend. If it's four or more, it has to be due to a directive.'

Officer doesn't know how cops' name-tags came off

your say AB Sulaiman: Here's my 10 sen's worth of comment on the police name tag loss.

If one is lost, it's an accident. If two, it's a coincidence. If three, it's a trend. If it's four or more, then it has to be due to a directive or order from a higher and superior authority - or a God-sent miracle.

Ferdtan: ASP Ahmad Jais, do you know why the officers' name tags came off? It was obviously taken off before doing something illegal for which they were afraid of being identified.

Since many of them had taken off their name tags, it must have been done through an instruction from a superior.

Suhakam panel chief Khaw Lake Tee pointed out that even for those who had their name tags on during the Bersih 3.0 protest, it was still difficult to identify the police officers. This was an uncalled-for and wrong observation that lessens the gravity of police officers not wearing their name tags.

Yes, it may be true that it would be difficult to identify the officers but that is besides the point. The point is that without the name tags on, the officers had no fear of been caught red-handed doing what they were not supposed to do - breaking the law with impunity by running riot with their acts of violence.

These senior officers only testified what their fellow officers should have done, but not what they actually did. We need some tough questioning here.

Hang Babeuf: In reputable police forces worldwide, the removal of an identification tag amounts to official misconduct which can and should be handled by a Police Integrity Commission or the like.

If a police officer removes his identification tag on the order of a superior officer, that officer faces serious misconduct charges. If the officer orders the removal of identification tags at the direction of a politician (even a minister), that person has committed a crime.

Onyourtoes: When police officer Ahmad Jais told Suhakam commissioners he did not know why the names of police personnel on the uniform came off, it is an obvious lie.

I think the commissioners are nincompoops for not pursuing this and questioning him further. Is it a SOP (standard operating procedure) for the police to routinely take off their name tags whenever they feel like it?

Telestai!: ASP Ahmad Jais should be renamed as Comical Ahmad, an officer in charge (OIC) who doesn't know his men took off their name tags during an operation and wasn't even interested to find out why.

He is either dumb or incompetent. Either way he deserves the sack.

Ourvotesdecide!: The fact that the name tags of the police officers disappeared at the same time during the arrest of the Bersih participants is very suspicious. It indicates a motive or intention to do something and to evade accountability by hiding their identity of the officers involved.

The inquiry should probe and dig deeper into this. Call all the police officers involved to testify and be grilled.

Ask Ahmad for the names of the police under his command on that day and then subpoena them. There must be an order given by someone to the police to do what they did.

Unspin: Some of the uniforms worn by the young police ‘thugs' on that day looked like they were freshly unwrapped from plastic wrappers, i.e. they looked brand new.

As such, one can conclude that the police riot was planned subject to a "trigger",which was the breaching of the barricade, which by itself could also have been premeditated.

Anonymous_4196: The officers has no control over the people under their charge. This is not a professional and disciplined bunch. The rogue police officers must be punished. Don't let them dilute the integrity of the royal police force.

By the way, just out curiosity, didn't the commanding officers notice that their people had removed their name tags and were beating up people for more than four hours of operation since 3pm on that fateful day?

I can only conclude that they knowingly ignored it or they were sleeping on their job.

Survivor: There are two reasons why there were no name tags. The cops were either too busy whacking the people that they did not realise that all their tags had fallen off; or they were told not to wear their name tag.

To the public, the latter is the most likely situation. That draws the conclusion that they were prepared for a showdown with the Bersih participants.

2LAN: Where in the world can you find such brave police officers who attacked their own citizens like we have seen on video so many times and yet they cannot recognise anyone even without their name tags? Please pay better salaries and get some real honest police.

ONG: Suhakam panel chief Khaw Lake Tee's claim that names like 'Ong' and 'Koh' are common is incorrect in the context of our police force personnel.

I bet the number of police officers with the names 'Ong' and 'Koh' are very few, if not rare and I won't be surprised if there was only one police officer with the 'Koh' name on duty during the Bersih rally.

2ctsworth: So the police personnel were appointed based on a single surname? Botak Chin could have been mistakenly appointed by his name Chin and nobody would know he was ‘Botak'?

Is there no registration or official form to be filled in where security is paramount in this case? Please go get tuition on how to lie.

Be-End: What is the difference between rioter and demonstrator? Ahmad Jais said both are the same. We need to send him back to school.

Disgusted: Demonstration is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as to march through the streets with a large group of people in order to publicly protest about something. Rioting is defined as a large group of people behaving in a violent and uncontrolled way.

In this case, the Bersih people were demonstrating and police were rioting. So Ahmad Jais go back to school and pass your English.

Baiyuensheng: This is the spread of Dr Mahathir Mohamad's "I can't remember" syndrome. Sooner or later, it will permeate every institution in the country. Our students would also answer with this famous line while taking their exams.

Hmmmmmmmm: The name tags came off and conveniently fell into their pockets. Otherwise, one would have noticed lots of name tags on the streets.


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