YOURSAY 'This is the first time we are hearing of not giving warning shots if the suspects are armed. And Zahid claims it's not part of the SOP.'

Zahid's latest bullet: Warning shots not part of police SOP

your say, Yoursay Quigonbond: I hope Home Minister Zahid Hamidi gets thrashed at the Umno polls this Saturday. As if it's not bad enough that there's too much air between his ears, he is also belligerent.

Is he telling Malaysians that the police are so stupid that (1) they don't take cover and (2) they don't surround the building before they call out to the suspected criminals to surrender?

If the police are under cover and have surrounded the building, using a loud hailer first and even firing the first warning shot are not going to let the gangsters escape or kill the police.

If the police are indeed killed, the criminal may as well be special forces. Either way, shooting first won't help the police one bit.

Hytan: It is noted from Wikipedia on "police use of firearms in the United Kingdom" that UK law allows the use of "reasonable force" in order to to make an arrest or prevent a crime or to defend oneself.

However if the force used is fatal, then the European Convention of Human Rights only allows "the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary". Police officers may therefore only discharge their weapons "to stop an imminent threat to life".

Malaysia police SOP (standard operation procedure) on discharge of firearms cannot be any much different. Why no warning shot when the suspect is unarmed?

Ferdtan: Zahid is nit-picking the scenario when he said that if the police fired warning shots, the gangsters will run away; adding that the warning shots are not part of the police SOP.

Sadly, is this the best our ministers can come up with to explain and defend their actions? When you get into an argument with another and if he were to come up with such an unreasonable statement like that, there is no need to debate further.

Normally we just let the person be - there is no cure for hard-headed folly.

Tholu: "You must be a professional journalist and not become a street journalist where you find some material and spin."

Well said Zahid, and we know that you are directing that statement to Utusan Malaysia and the other mainstream media, including the electronic media.

But Zahid, the sad thing is - they are not going to give a damn to your advice and will continue spreading lies, spin stories and carry on misleading the public.

And by the way Zahid, you have got the concept of 'warning shots' wrong. You see, warning shots are fired to indicate to unarmed or to lesser armed suspected criminals to stop fleeing and to surrender to the police before they (the police) resort to the actual shooting of the criminals to secure their arrests.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim was absolutely correct when he urged you to go for some law lessons. But please don't go to police chief Khalid Abu Bakar because he has very little knowledge on what law is all about and himself needs lessons on it.

Davidfsc: Zahid's comments are getting dumb and dumber by the day in his desperate attempt for damage control.

He has now trained his guns on the alternative media for spinning his speech in typical ala Umno denial syndrome cum diversion tactics.

I absolutely agree with you Zahid, that gangsters should be eliminated and we should start by removing you first.

JustaMalaysian: Zahid, please grow up. I do not know how many extra votes you will get from the Umno delegates as a result of these stupid statements you are making.

But what I know is that our beloved country becomes the victim of all these. The more you talk, the more you make yourself look stupid in the eyes of the public.

Not Confused: Zahid still ignores the fact that the entire meeting in Malacca where he uttered the ‘shoot first' remarks was recorded and has been published in full in both written transcript and audio forms. What else does he want?

He cannot keep wriggling out of what he said - he must learn that as a senior government minister, what he says, his views and attitude are all open to public scrutiny.

Bumiasli: Oh, for God's sake, can we have some law-abiding minister for post of home minister?

This is the first time we are hearing of not giving warning shots if they are armed. And he claims it's not part of the SOP. In that case, amend the SOP just like you amend all other laws.

Just remember that the law should not be misused by anyone. The way you put things, cops can just shoot down anyone who think is a danger to them.

Cala: It is interesting to learn that Zahid has a doctorate in human communication studies. Can he upload the abstract of the thesis, or better still, upload the entire thesis on the Internet? What are his research questions and what are his original findings?

Unspin: After watching the video for about three minutes, I got a headache due to the clash of colours of Zahid's shirt, the chair that he sat on and the backdrop.

The weird colours aptly describe the Umno spin machine - comical, fuzzy, loud and confusing.

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