39 mangsa ditembak polis di Malaysia tapi di England hanya 5 setahun ... hahaha hebat polis kita

A closer look at police shootings

By Zurairi AR

Aminulrsyid’s mother, Norsiah, holds a picture of him during a press conference. — file pic
KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 — Deaths by police shooting in Malaysia are, unfortunately, not uncommon.

At least 39 people were fatally shot by police in 2009, according to Klang MP Charles Santiago.

The year before that, human rights watchdog Suaram reported, there were 44 deaths by police shootings.

Putting this into perspective are England and Wales, where there were only five deaths by police shootings per year, on average, in the last decade. There were also only single deaths in 1994 and 2006, and none at all in 1997.

It is telling that their police force can do a better job at keeping suspected criminals alive, despite having more than double of our population. So, why are our numbers so much higher?

Self defence against “armed suspects”

In almost all cases, the Malaysian police force claimed that they only shot in self-defence, and that the perpetrators had attacked first.

In Perlis, November last year, Mohamad Taufik Norizan, 21, was shot dead after he ran amok and charged at a police constable with a dagger.

The week before that, five Indian gang members suspected of robbery were gunned down in Klang after a high-speed car chase. A semi-automatic Remington .45 pistol, five swords and a machete were found in the boot of their car.

A few months before that, in August, two Indonesian men were shot dead after a confrontation between their gang and the police in Kota Kemuning. They were reportedly armed with machetes.

Earlier this year in February, single mother Norizan Salleh, 29, was shot five times after a car chase in Kuala Lumpur. She survived the near-fatal shots, but claimed to have been kicked and stepped on by policemen while crawling out of the car, bleeding profusely. Axes, a machete and knives were found in the boot of the car.

But what about the teenager Aminulrasyid Amzah, who was shot dead earlier this week? Aminulrasyid was born Aug 15, 1995, and was a student of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seksyen 9 Shah Alam.

In the words of DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, the only offences the deceased had committed were that of under-aged driving and driving without a license, but the “crime” hardly necessitated a shooting.

The legality of shooting down a suspect

For this, a look at international laws that govern the use of firearms in law enforcement is needed.

The United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials states that, “law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty”.

Article 9 of the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials says, “In any event, intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life…” while in Article 10, “…law enforcement officials shall identify themselves as such and give a clear warning of their intent to use firearms, with sufficient time for the warning to be observed, unless to do so would unduly place the law enforcement officials at risk or would create a risk of death or serious harm to other persons, or would be clearly inappropriate or pointless in the circumstances of the incident.”

Furthermore, Section 15(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code (Act 593) states that in an arrest, it is against the law for police officers to cause the death of someone in an arrest before they have been accused of an offence severe enough to be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.

Future of our law enforcement

So, what is one to do if their family member is shot and killed by police officers? For now, not much except hope investigations will be conducted thoroughly.

Suaram has lobbied for more accountability in the police force by holding inquests by the Royal Commission on Police within a month of a death. Immediately upon death, the Magistrates and government medical officers must be informed and they should inspect the body on site.

Civil society should also push for better firearms-handling methods by policemen, and equipping them with non-lethal alternatives such as stun guns and rubber bullets.

The public is much better informed now and, through the exposure to law enforcement methods elsewhere in the world, know that it is very much possible for the police force to control crime and apprehend criminals without the need to discharge their firearms.

For Norsiah Mohamad, 61, the mother of the deceased 14-year-old, words of comfort are too late.

All she knows is that her son was not a criminal and that he is dead - TMI