Shooting truth? - Truth shot?

This was what malaysiakini reported the police claiming of the Pantai Batu Buruk shooting incident in Kuala Terengganu.

FRU officer Azmi Hussein was set upon by a group of 20 men near the Permai Inn car park in the vicinity of the ceramah.

After being pushed to the ground and attacked by the crowd, Azmi drew his weapon and fired his weapon defend himself, following which the crowd dispersed and allowing the FRU personnel to escape.

As a result of that, however, two men from the group were hurt - one in his shoulder and another in his neck. They are currently undergoing treatment at the Kuala Terengganu Hospital.

According to Ayub, four police personnel were also injured after being attacked by the crowd.

Meanwhile PKR’s vice-youth chief Fariz Musa accused the police of violence. He even suggested that the police action were directed by certain leaders in UMNO Terengganu.

malaysiakini reported him saying: “Instead, chaos will occur every time the police intervenes, proving that it is the police who commit acts of provocation in order to sully the image of (PKR) and other opposition parties.”

Opposition Grand Olde Man Lim KS rubbed it in, stating: "The [budget] feel good factor was crashed within 24 hours by the police who shot live bullets at a crowd assembled for a ceramah given by (election watchdog) Bersih."

But BN MPs condemned Lim for defending the wrongdoers when the riot (was there one?) would not have happened if the organisers had followed the rules set by the authorities.

Was Lim exploiting the issue? Were the BN MPs in blind defensive mode?

Who attacked or defended blindly, along ideological lines?

I thus turned to Elizabeth Wong’s posting for more clues. Elizabeth commented on the Bernama report that: “At about 11.45pm last night, the officer Azmi Hussein, 29, was doing his duty near the Permai Inn car park when he was surrounded by 20 men who proceeded to threaten and assault him” by saying:

“Er. He’s FRU. But he was in plain clothes trying to infiltrate into the crowd. So he got found out. Whipped out his pistol.”

Now, you know kaytee – many times much to my buddies’ annoyance, I am always going off in a different direction to them ;-) so I want to analyze a bit more on Elizabeth’s comment on “… So he was found out. Whipped out his pistol.”

What happened when he was ‘found out’?
What made him ‘whipped out his pistol’?

Mind you, I am not condoning a police officer shooting at members of the public ..... unless of course he was forced to defend himself.

Was forced to defend himself?
Was he over reacting to some verbal abuses by some members of the crowd?

Elizabeth also commented on some video footages taken at the scene ‘evaporating’ mysteriously, stating:

“Where’s the footage, guys?”
“Police confiscated the tapes… but we collected some amateur videos from bystanders.”
Police scared like shit lar, otherwise why would they grab film footage?

On those limited information, I would conclude that yes, there was a crowd surrounding and menacing the police officer, but he had overreacted or was too trigger happy.

My reasoning is that if he was then in immediate danger, the tapes would have been made available. However, that is not to say he wasn’t in (eventual) danger – I know something about kampongs mob mentality, especially more so under a politically antagonistic situation.

But a police officer is trained to make that sort of judgment, as to whether he was in imminent danger or he could still manage that, by say, firing a warning shot harmlessly in the air.

Obviously this bloke was too gungho, too trigger-happy or too under-trained, too scared or too everything stated.

Or, maybe he did fire a warning shot in the air, or atempted to do so, but was such a lousy shot - not surprising when the professional competence of the police nowadays is considered dodgy.

But on the other hand, should we defend such mob mentality, where a police officer in mufti was threatened?

Just as I don't condone police officer shooting away as if they were terrified GIs in downtown Baghdad, I equally don't condone any members of the public threatening a police officer, regardless whether he was in plainclothes or uniform.