3 Police Cases - a comparative study

The police in San Francisco are in deep shit because of a video which shows some of them parodying gays, homeless blacks and others. The city’s mayor said that their clowning have been offensive, sexist, homophobic and racist. The officers have been suspended.

Same thing happened in Australia in 1992. Paul Keating, then Prime Minister,
condemned a racist act on video, where two blackened police officers were shown with nooses round their necks, parodying aborigines who committed suicide in police cells. The officers were immediately put on restricted duties until the investigation into the sordid matter was determined.

Recently in Malaysia, in a police station cell, a policewoman was video-ed abusing a detainee, making her perform ear squats in the nude. A deputy minister for the police and the police deputy Inspector General claimed that ear squats were standard police procedures and the policewoman had acted within the rules. This was after the deputy Prime Minister had condemned the act and averred that there was no such police procedure.

The fact that the deputy minister subsequently retracted his remarks due to international pressure (via the Prime Minister) is irrelevant and does not mitigate the prevailing attitude of the police authorities, unrepentant in their abuses of the public.

Nothing has happened yet regarding this case of what appears to be blatant police abuse. Why make the naked woman hold her ears? Regardless of the ongoing inquiry, the policewoman seen in the video clip conducting the ear squat has not even been stood aside until the investigation is completed. This is standard procedure, not the abuse.

And as for the deputy IGP who as a public servant had defiantly contradicted the Prime Minister and deputy Prime Minister publicly, he's still the deputy IGP, and with a bit more time as well as the fact that the IGP has been conspicuous by his deafening silence, may yet be promoted to IGP. The police seems to be on top of their political masters.

Compare (or contrast) the cases and see which country has failed to govern by human rights values and good public governance of a democratic nation, where public servants are servants of the public, to be stood aside, reprimanded, or even given the sack when their actions bring disrepute to the law organisation they represent, or they demonstrate the unacceptable act of defiance against the publicly-elected leaders of the country.