Frightening, funny and depressing - all at the same time - Martyn See

This footage comes from Youtube user wisb07, who apparently captured the entire thing live on his cell phone.

Part 1

Part 2

It’s hard to watch: the civility is fraught with tension, with sporadic breakouts into heated arguments and continues into physical force and the sudden forcible movement of the two protagonists (including the cameraman) into an unmarked police vehicle.

Seriously, WTF. The police just keep advising the duo to cease and desist, while other pedestrians happily walk around the whole fracas unmolested, while repeated calls challenging their authority to do so go acknowledged but unanswered. Personally I found the bit asking the policemen and policewomen if they could remember why they joined the police force to be a little bit crossing the line into ad hominem attacks, but overall it still doesn’t look good on the police.

Tragic as the MDA rap is, it just doesn’t have the raw human element captured from this unpolished, amateur video.

Molly Meek has also republished a letter to the Straits Times forum, presumably contemporaneously:

No threat to security but cops threatened to ‘remove’ duo

ON MONDAY afternoon, my friend and I were walking along Orchard Road when we were stopped by a few policemen just after Orchard Towers who enquired as to our destination. We were just strolling along and complied readily when they asked for our particulars. They explained that the area was a ‘protected area’ due to the Asean Summit taking place at the Shangri-La Hotel and that they had a duty to check everyone in the area.

I thought it was odd that there were many people along that stretch of road but we were the only ones stopped, so I asked for the reason. Officer Alvin Lee explained that the rest would be stopped farther down as there were ‘many checkpoints’.

We continued on our way and were stopped again about 30m further down by another group of policemen who insisted that we turn back. When I asked why we were being singled out for special attention, my query was met with ‘This is a protected area’ and ‘This is your last warning, leave now or we will remove you’ from someone who refused to identity himself beyond saying he was ‘Patrick Lim from the police’. All the while, another policeman was videotaping me and yet another was scribbling something furiously.

Surely, I had a right to know why my freedom of movement was being proscribed. It is alarming that all I got in response were subtle threats and pure assertions of authority, without proper explanation. What is even more disconcerting is that other people along that stretch of road were not being stopped at all, despite what Assistant Superintendent Lee said.

My friend and I were in no way ‘compromising security’. The policemen were doing their job but what are the guidelines to their exercise of authority? Can they simply ‘remove’ anybody they please?

Leow Zi Xiang

Alarming, indeed.

Tomorrow the nation celebrates Thanksgiving. I am simply glad not to be in Singapore right now.