Polis DiRaja Malaysia: To Protect & Serve... who?

It never ceases to amaze me how the police are so much more effective, willing to apply large numbers of personnel and much more uncompromising in discharging their duties - when dealing with peaceful protests against the govt/politicians -versus- dealing with violent criminals like robbers and rapists.

Yesterday,... about 200 other Johoreans [gathered] in front of the menteri besar’s residence in Saujana, along Jalan Rahman Andak, to voice [their] anger and frustration.

Police had set up roadblocks in Jalan Rahman Andak, but those who came for the gathering were undeterred. They parked their vehicles at a school some 500m away and walked to the MB’s residence.

At first, the rally was strangely bereft of placards, banners or rabble rousers, with the crowd standing around quietly as a group of 100 policemen and Federal Reserve Unit members stood watch over them. (nst.com.my)

The police assigned 100 policemen and FRU to control only 200 peaceful protestors! That's 1 policeman for every 2 protestors.

Just to put the significance of the number 100 into perspective:

- there are 2,000 investigating officers (I.O) in the whole country (100 is 5%)
- the entire Johor police force numbers 3,000 (100 is 3.3%)
- it only took 300 Spartans to hold off 1,000,000 Persian soldiers.

And all to protect the MB's house from angry stares, placards and sandwich wrappers.

If you factor in how many of Johor's 3,000 policemen spend their working day sitting behind a desk or pursuing their LLB (Look Like Busy), the magnitude of this 100 officer field deployment becomes clear.

How many Johoreans were 'under'-protected by the police that day, so that the MB's house could be 'over'-protected?

Have you seen 100 cops chase after a rapist or robber before? I haven't. But then again, I haven't seen the MB being gang-raped nor his house being robbed before either.

Makes you think about where the police force's priorities and loyalties lie, doesn't it? Maybe it's because the VVIPs are not affected by the crime wave. Or maybe the force's political priorities outweigh their security priorities. That might explain why they put more resources into protecting politicians from right-minded citizens, instead of protecting citizens from criminals.

Here are links to other instances of superb performance by the police against defenceless citizens (as opposed to real criminals):

search?q=police+protestors

Other related posts:

Johor gang rape victims were all Chinese?
2 legs for RM2,400, 2 gang rapes and a 2-timing IGP