Bukit Aman: 71pct of gang members are Indians
Director of criminal investigations (CID) Bukit Aman Hadi Ho Abdullah said the police records of known gang members revealed that 71 percent were Indians.
Today at the Crime Prevention Forum, Hadi said that of those on the police list of recognised gang members as of July 30, 71 percent were Indians, 23 percent were Chinese and that just under five percent were Malays.
He said that the statistics were of the over 40,000 suspected gang members tracked by police, based on several years of built-up of intelligence.
During his presentation, he noted that Indian gangs have been using southern Thailand as a safe haven.
"We have detected recently, certain gangs, especially Indian gangs, have established safe havens in the south of Thailand. Our concern is that now they are networking and that it is another area for them to expand," Hadi said.
"Since the removal of preventative detention laws, we see a new trend by gangs revealing their existence without fear."
He added that gangs there were now using online media to promote themselves, openly recruiting new members and also being involved in non-government organisations.
Hadi showed two graphic videos to the audience, one on a group of distraught Indian men after their 'gang leader' had his hand chopped off, while another is a CCTV footage depicting an Indian gang attacking rival gang members with machetes.
After showing the two videos, Hadi said, "These are the kind of people we are dealing with, we need strong laws. PDRM's stand is that we need preventative detention."
Hadi also went on to counter critics who claimed that the police were trigger-happy.
"We did a statistical study of our procedures, 99 percent (of suspected criminals) were arrested and only one percent we shot them.
"If we were trigger-happy, it would have been 99 percent we shot them and only arrested one percent," he added.
AG disagrees with police on EO
Meanwhile, attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail reiterated his stand that preventive laws are unnecessary and argued that existing laws should be sufficient in combatting crime.
"As far as I'm concerned, the police and enforcement agencies have been doing a wonderful job, especially in the past one week…
"For this reason alone, I find it very difficult to rationalise why I should reintroduce the EO (Emergency Ordinance) or similar laws when the police has shown themselves to be absolutely effective," he added.
He pointed out that the EO was enacted by order of the Agong without passage through parliament in the wake of the May 13, 1969 riots.
At the time, he said, there were so few police officers to maintain order that even the police's marching bands were brought in to assist. At the same time, there were not enough investigating officers and public prosecutors to deal with those who were arrested.
"I
magine the number of police and the number of investigators in 1969. That is why we needed this (EO). My question is therefore: Do we have this situation at this time? We don't," he said.
Abdul Gani (right) added that in the past, violent crimes – even those by notorious gangsters such as 'Botak Chin' – were successfully dealt with ordinary laws.
"People are being prosecuted in ordinary courts of law every day.
"If law enforcement's investigations were able to get evidence in those cases, it seems unbelievable that similar evidence could not be gathered on these offences against the detained persons in order for them to be prosecuted through diligent and dedicated criminal investigations with all the tools that technology and expertise at their disposal at this time.
"Today we are so much more advanced than what we were when I started work in 1980," he said.
No evidence
Abdul Gani also said that thus far, he has yet to receive evidence linking EO's repeal to a surge in crime, pointing out that only 263 former detainees have committed crime since then, according to police's statistics.
The figure includes former detainees who were released prior to EO's repeal. These are mainly for crimes such as drug offences, murder, gang robbery, motor-vehicle theft and weapon possession.
"The reported number of (EO detainees returning to crime) are nowhere near the number of 1,567 that was released upon the lapse of the ordinance…
"The Attorney-General's Chambers has not received any evidence or any investigation papers from law enforcement agencies that substantiate the alleged rate of resyndication among released detainees.
"Nor has there been any evidence to show any link between the release of these detainees and the increase in the use of violence in commissioning of crimes like theft and robbery," he said.
He also stressed that he was talking about 'legal evidence' and 'hard facts', rather than intelligence reports.
Bar Council Human Rights Committee co-chairperson Andrew Khoo, another speaker at the forum, pointed out that a more holistic approach is needed to prevent crime.
"A lot of crime may be economic driven, so (solving the problem) is about not just looking at laws, not just police, but also the economic factors," he said.
Additional reporting by Koh Jun Lin.
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