Police mentality

We have seen cases of police brutality caught on video, especially those in US. I used to wonder why people behave differently when they have the power over others. But to look at the lighter side, first Raja Petra's pre-emption of your thoughts:

"Oh, no! Not another ‘stupid’ article from RPK. Sheesh…….it’s getting to be very boring. If it’s not about Altantuya, it’s about stupid this or stupid that. Yes, I pre-empted what you are going to say and said it first. So there!" Then, this example:

Saskatchewan Cops
Two men were driving through Saskatchewan when they got pulled over by an RCMP officer. The cop walked up and tapped on the window with his night-stick. The driver rolled down the window, and WHACK, the cop smacked him in the head with his night-stick.

“What the hell was that for?” the driver asked.

“You’re in Saskatchewan son,” the cop answered. “When we pull you over in Saskatchewan, you better have your license ready by the time we get to your car.”

“I’m sorry officer,” the driver said, “I’m not from around here.”

The cop runs a check on the guy’s license–he’s clean, and gives the guy his license back. The cop then walks around to the passenger side and taps on the window. The passenger rolls down the window, and WHACK, the cop smacks him on the head with the night-stick.

“What’d you do that for?” the passenger demands.

“Just making your wish come true,” replied the cop.

“Making WHAT wish come true?” the passenger asked.

“Because I know your type,” the cop says, “two miles down the road, you’re gonna turn to your buddy and say, ‘I wish that asshole would’ve tried that shit with me!’”

Local examples of police high-handedness from Nathaniel Tan's blog,
jelas.info9/05/09/ Black Thursday: Being terrorised by mad dogs all day :

I know how Chin Huat must have felt, when almost ten policemen descended on one him on Tuesday, starting this whole mess.
That night, those same policemen who once held me rudely denied even the President of the Bar Council from something as simple as allowing him access to see a detainee.

The next day, a group of young men trying to commemorate the birthday of the slain Altantuya, in parallel with her father’s wishes that Najib not let this incident merely fade away.

They and the cake they were carrying were deemed threats to national security and hauled away by the Putrajaya police.
This of course was followed by another violent police arrest - Mat Sabu in a scuffle outside a restaurant.

Then that night, the police took in 14 people at Brickfields, who had gathered in solidarity with Chin Huat.
We were allowed the tiniest bit of leeway for a little while, before the police decided to show ’strength’ and come down hard on us.

This was the first of many times that single Thursday I felt as if I was being set upon by mad dogs.
Every time the paranoid and idiotic guy in charge ordered an advance on us peaceful, defenceless citizens, a few of these guys would get this glint in their eyes.

These cops looked to me…. well, eager to beat the shit out of us.

In Perak, instead of regular FRU, they had a large contingent of the police Field Force. If I recall, these guys were established to fight the communists in the jungle, machine guns and all.

I think my first full on experience of this was at Hindraf. I’ll never forget the feelings I had, being bullied by rabid cops over the course of a whole morning.

It was the same bloodthirstiness I felt directed at me on Thursday.

As if facing that was not enough in the morning, we had to see it again that very night at Brickfields (for a more detailed accounting of the evening, see Hafiz).

In Brickfields, had they released Chin Huat as they should have after his statement was taken, there would have been no vigil. If they had let the simple low key vigil continue, there would have been no fracas. Instead, the cops at every stage escalated the conflict, step after step, until 20 were arrested, and 200 lawyers protested this morning in Jalan Duta.

Ego crazy, paranoid, cari pasal, are the only words that come to mind.

The way the cops in charge barked at us both in the morning and at the night, you felt as if they had encountered not peace-loving citizens, but the most scariest alien species imaginable (perhaps to them they are one and the same), and failing to understand them, fell in fear to the last resort of inferior intellect: brute force.

From Malaysiakini's Your Say:
Shriram Venugopal:
It was reported that the police went on an arresting rampage to the extent of even carting off people who were having their breakfast at restaraunts.

I bet this was unintended pun:
Perak Citizen:
I respect and wish to congratulate the Perak state speaker Sivakumar. He had sacrificed for the nation and especially for the Perak ‘rakyat' by sitting in his chair for almost six hours without food and easing himself.

All motions passed by Barisan Nasional (BN) were illegal as the speaker Sivakumar had to pass the motion first.