Another attack at Downtown East one month after Shanmugam proclaimed that ‘crime rate

[Watchman]

Another attack at Downtown East one month after Shanmugam
proclaimed that ‘crime rates have fallen’

December 31st, 2010 | Author: Editorial


Barely a month after newly-minted Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam
has boasted publicly that Singapore’s ‘crime rates have fallen’, another
spate of violent attacks took place across the island, with one of them
occuring at Downtown East, where a 17 year old boy was brutally
murdered in November this year.

18 year old Toh Yao Kwong was celebrating Christmas last Thursday
at Downtown East where he was assaulted by two men at 4am in
the morning, and ended up having 20 stitches to his right eye.

In the aftermath of numerous street fights in Downtown East,
Bukit Panjang and other areas which shook public confidence in
the police, Mr Shanmugam ‘robustly’ defended the police and
warned against “drawing conclusions from the Downtown East
and Bukit Panjang attacks that Singapore’s crime situation
was “worsening” or that policing efforts were “not adequate”".

[Source: TODAY, 24 Nov 2010]

He proclaimed that crime rates have ‘fallen’ in the last five years,
especially rates for crimes against persons and violent property crimes.

“Bearing in mind the population is shrinking, the police force
is having a challenge in getting our share of talent in.
And only certain kind of officers can make it to the police force.
Taking all that into account, we have to be realistic of what the
resources available are … In fact, the best use of those resources
is borne out of the crime statistics and that’s the ultimate answer,” he added.

Mr Shanmugam reassured Singaporeans that the government has
concluded somehow that the best course of action is to have
‘better intelligence’ of the ground situation and to be able to react quickly to it.

Obviously the police ‘intelligence’ (or whatever is left of it) had been
found wanting again on Christma’s eve, but Singaporeans should not
be too concerned as Mr Shanmugam and his team will ‘learn from
this and be wiser and smarter’, to paraphrase the
Government Parliamentary Committee Chairman for Law
and Home Affairs Alvin Yeo.

.

Jay