NST Leader: Why are road bullies being let off easy?
A July 17 incident in Klang shows why. A video of the incident shows a Toyota Hilux driver getting out of his vehicle, kicking and punching the window of a Perdua Myvi after failing to open the car's door.
What irked people was what followed moments later. A policeman tried to stop him, but struggled, especially when the road bully's friend joined in and threw punches at the policeman.
Another law broken by two men gone berserk: stopping a police officer from discharging his duty.
Yet no attempt was made by the policeman to record the registration number of the Hilux as it sped away.
The response by other road users was pathetic, to say the least. They chose to watch the policeman struggle to stop the Hilux occupants instead of going to the law enforcer's help. We shouldn't be surprised. Apathy is a known Malaysian malady.
To people who have seen the video, the conclusion was inevitable. The aggressors were handled with kid gloves when an all-point bulletin should have been sent out to arrest them for at least any one of the multiple offences committed.
Yes, the policeman was overpowered. Other motorists were of no help. Now the bullies are roaming free, only to interpret their freedom as a licence to roam the nation's roads to display their rage as they please.
More dangerously, the kid-glove treatment is also a signal to other road bullies that they, too, would be similarly treated.
Such people who so easily go berserk behind the wheel are a danger to other road users.
Those with long recall will remember a road rage incident that caused death on the North-South Expressway in 2019.
he driver was sentenced to 16 years in jail. While road users are comforted that they will be spared the rage of the berserk driver for that many years, there are others out there with uncontrolled rage, as the July 17 incident shows.
The police only know this too well, and they must act accordingly.
The public-police relationship is one of mutual dependence, best expressed by the police's motto: the police and the community are inseparable.
The public looks to the police to deliver certain standards of service, and the police in turn rely on public trust and support. But public trust and support have to be earned.
Actions and behaviour of the police are the "earners", so to speak. The top management of the police has repeatedly made this clear to the police force.
Incidents such as the kid-glove treatment of the Hilux duo by the police would certainly erode them, if social media comments are anything to go by.
We must certainly applaud the policeman for stopping the aggressive driver and his accomplice. If not for his intervention, the incident could have turned nastier for the Myvi driver.
But that is where our applause stops. The police must throw the statute book at the Hilux duo and others out there for the applause to return.
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