By Tho Xin Yi, The Star.
SRI Petaling residents are worried about the crime rate that is increasing in their neighbourhood.
A group of them got together recently to recount the terrifying incidents that had happened to them and hope that something would be done to restore peace.
Kindergarten teacher Liew Ee Choo had a knife pointed at her neck while she was getting into her car at Taman Sri Petaling during lunch hour.
“The man ordered me to give him my handbag and threatened to scratch my face with the knife,” the 41-year-old said.
Marketing officer Au Li Ching, 24, was a victim of snatch theft after work.
Coming together: Kok (right) discussing the issue with residents.
“I was walking towards the bus station and a man on a motorcycle snatched my bag. He didn’t succeed but I fell and hit my head.
“When he turned back for a second attempt, I shouted at him and he went away,” said the 24-year-old, who received a stitch on her scalp.
Sherene Law, an administrative clerk, was also there to share her sister’s encounter.
“My sister reached her house in Jalan Radin 1 one night and a man broke her car’s front passenger window and tried to take her handbag.
“She was managed to grab her handbag and the man then tried to break the driver’s seat window instead.
“She honked to attract attention and the man fled on his partner’s motorcycle,” she said.
Taman Sri Endah resident Tan Nyuk Boey also suffered losses when thieves broke into her flat in February.
“I came home one afternoon and found that the front door had been forced opened.
“The thieves damaged the grille and took away Singapore dollars, a tin of coins and my husband’s and daughter’s passports,” the 58-year-old said.
Luisa Lau, 40, said burglars had attempted to break into her dance studio in Jalan Radin Anum, Taman Sri Petaling, thrice since last year.
“I have taken preventive measures and they did not succeed. But many of my neighbours had experienced the same thing and suffered great losses,” she said.
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok said she would call for a meeting with the Brickfields OCPD and the residents.
“I received calls from residents in this area frequently, informing me about the robberies and break-ins. I am as helpless as them,” she said.
She proposed that the residents chip in and employ security guards, adding that the presence of security guards might be useful in fending off robbers and burglars.
“Those whose houses have been broken into or have been robbed must make police reports,” she said.
These kind of criminals are getting bolder becos they know the POLICE will do NOTHING. They are too bz trying to survive on their rm1000 per month, which nowadays wont last you a week in KL.
So they go only for the easy work, like arresting people romancing in the park, cars with faulty lights, taking reports at the police station and filing them for their bosses to read… etc.
So I suggest to all the victims… Use statistics, thats the only persuasive tool.
Call all the victims together, document their experiences briefly but with dates, times, place and nature of crime.. put together in a booklet and petition them to all the MPs BN and oppostitions…
One copy to the chief of Police, then have another anticrime rally. If police dont give permit for rally then perhaps give this issue wide publicity.
How about a banner that says…
“Snatch Thieves Can Kill, No arrest
A Kiss in the Park, Plenty of Arrest”
Second choice, all the victims should pool their resources and GET A GOOD LAWYER TO SERVE A CLASS ACTION SUIT against the police and BN government and claim for compensations for injury and losses.
If nobody start this action, then forever the problem will remain.
If the above fails, then it is time for the citizen to consider citizen Justice.
Ladies, always go out in big company, bring along a pepper spray and carry some light weapons such as an innocent looking chain. One in a group will do.
When walking, never make the mistake of dreaming as if the world around you dont exist. Instead always be alert of what is going on around U. Always be ready to use whatever little weapon you have at the slghtest opportunity and without hesitation.
I read a middle age but quite a large lady who beat a foreigner trying to grab her handbag until the bugger plead for mercy. When the other pedestrians come to help, only did she stop and handed the guy to the cops.
Also remember, U dont have to kill the guy, that would be a crime. After beating them, just hand them then to the cops to clean the mess. That they are good at. Easy job. The hard part already done for them.
Just in case readers here dont know, recently a couple of drug induced sex crazy guys tried to kidnap a UMS student from Sarawak near their residence at Kingfisher Park KK. The criminals chose the girl who is the weakest, straggling behind a group of students. The very behaviour of animals going after the prey that is weakest. They probably thought they have free sex with the young women but unfortunately, citizen action managed to ID the kancil they use to kidnap the girl and police manage to locate the car still carrying the girl after 4 hours of hell ride. The first one was caught after being beaten by the nearby villagers, the other one was ID’d by a minibus driver who recognised him from a front page report, and handed him to police at a police chekpoint, when this stupid guy boarded his minivan while trying to run away.
Now such actions by the members of public were highly commendable, but to date.. the polce have not given them appreciation letters..
So much for the police force….
This may sound a bit troublesome but when you are in the crime prone areas it is always good to be safe than sorry.
I think it is good for ladies to carry an umbrella apart from the pepper spray. At least when the thief sees the long umbrella he has to think twice of his bad intention.
After all we can never tell the weather nowadays whether it is going to rain or not.
So ladies prepare your umbrella as a mean to protect yourself and to prepare for unpredictable weather.
and if my two suggestions above still fail, then the ultimate citizen action will automatically follow..
SET UP A CITIZEN VIGILANTE GROUP..
I know this would be condemned move but if you dont want this thing to happen, then the government and the police must improve the citizen safety or ELSE.
Until today the kidnappers and murderer of two little girls are yet to be apprehended.
We all live in fear with rising costs of food and crime and lack of opportunities to do business or jobs.
We all complain there are insufficient police patrols but ironically the police are busier setting up roadblocks testing for drunk drivers than patrolling the streets in the wee hours of the morning and hiding behind traffic lights trying to catch traffic offenders.
I dont know if the police force is doing the rightful jobs or not but seems like catching drunk drivers and traffic offenders are safer than catching burglars and probably more lucrative in times of rising costs of living.
Please advise the police to be more focus in crime prevention and reprioritise to maximise the use of scarce human resources. Why should we taxpayers be burdened and pay for security personel to patrol our streets? Police complain of insufficient patrol cars but the cars are parked by the roadside for some side income.
Please raise this in Parliament to our blind Home Minister. Thank you.
those %$#@ing cowards. those %$#@ing cowards. those %$#@ing cowards.
seriously, if the country’s economiy is doing well, everyone would have a good life style and less incline to turn to crime.
the police and imigration needs to do their part.
CAn’t see this ycle to go away. Sabahfan is voicing out the fristration of all, particularly those who has been victimised before. Time for the people to hit back. Be prepared to repell boarders but I am not advocating aggresive anarchy.
take care ladies. men look after’em
Back in the 19th century, the US Marines were called into stopping proson riots, labour unrest and train robberies. The mere presence of armed, disciplined and well trained troops enforced peace and security.
YAB Najib has poured in a lot of money for the army. Perhaps we Malaysians should see some return in getting some soldiers to patrol crime infested areas to assist the police. Otherwise, what are they doing in their barracks? Malaysian soldiers should protect us from enemy from outside and within Malaysia.
Guys, what say you? People from JB agree to have army biys marching along the street and taking down criminals?
AGREED.. Mr Lee,
Make the army contribute something in return for our taxes.
Instead of spending so much money sending some to guard the Queen in England or other nonsence. Maybe send oversea for peacekeeping or putting down anarchy as in Timor timor is OK. Only thing is we hope these countries that we helped will one day return the favour.
Another thing Mr lee, about protecting our womenfolks, YES agree too, if we have the chance.
I did once, wanna hear?
In KK we have lots of Pilipines illegals still roaming the streets, some have obtained blue IC by cheating or fraudalent means.
Well one day, i pass a young chinese girl, quite small, and almost a bikini looking skirt so bz on her handphone. Well, I pass her becos I always walk fast. After only a few seconds after passing her, i heard a woman saying “eeeh eeeeh aaaayy” or something, I look around and saw a skinny man seeming to hug her, Initially i thought romancing lagi, but next thing when the girl fell near some flower bed, i realized the skinny polipin was trying to grab her handphone.
My reflex action without thinking was to YELL at the top of my voice “HooooII” then rush to the them with my heavy handbag. If he had a knife, i may have been hurt due to my action without thinking. But luckily the skinny polipin who seems to have not eaten for a week, panicked too, and run across the street, narrowly being knocked down by a car.
Until today, after my adrenalin has subsided, I keep saying, if the guy has been knocked dead by the car, there wont be any tears from me. really have no sympathy for those who only try to survive by robbing others.
Lucky for me and for the girl, both of us were not hurt, but I also did reprimand the girl for not screaming out loud, instead of a wimpy…”eee eee eee”
becos for 3 seconds i could not decide whether she needed help or was kissing the man.
I hope this story can help the ladies think too, because this story is REAL. I did not make it up. I am a very poor fiction writer.
This type of “crime” are now rampant even in S’wak which is a rather isolated state will limited population & access from outside the state not to mentioned in such densely populated places yours.
These occasional thieves (snatching/robbing/house breaking/vehicle breaking/theft) aren’t they not majority originates from unemployed youth who look for easy money probably for drugs/phone reload/liquor/night clubbing. I do believe they are not from well organised criminal gang but if we do not put a stop then one day they will evolve to be one (streets gang in America).
Sincerely, we should not put the entire blame on the police force if this criminals are not organised or well structured and merely pulling it off from time to time. How in the world can you identified them? What can we do to stop them? Street Justice like in Vietnam (those in the crowd would beat up the motorcycle thief to death on the spot).
As society progress and grew even more complicated and enforcement of law & order fail to catch up, this is the end result where situation went out of control. Like always we start pointing fingers!.
I suppose this the end results of poor governance, lack of foresight and continuous failure to address such social problem by the ruling authority.
Maybe, for a start it would be good if the community representative starts some simple educational program on crime prevention, just for example:
1. Encourage storage of all jewelry & important documents in bank safe deposit boxes
2. Instead of withdrawing large amount of cash from bank get a cashier order instead.
3. Recommend installation of CCTV surveillance system by authorities at strategic location (like those in London).
Anyway, what is our current malaysian government doing in arming our police force with proper information technology (training, hardware/software). if not, when? (Linking up our JPJ ,police ,immigration, local council information system). Just watch ‘wildest police video’ on t.v. and take note how well the police patrol car are being equipped. Come on, its not muscle power all the time.
Meantime, get smart & stay alert.
clap clap clap granpa. It was a nice thing to do.
Did she give you a kiss?
Haaa ha ha ha, Mr lee the comedient…
With my scolding while she was still trembling from the incident, she nearly gave me a slap. Come to think of it, in my anger at the polipin, I was not considerate to her either… Well, thats what happen when a nasty incident occurs, even the brain fails in reasoning sometimes. Or perhaps I was angry at myself for not being able to catch the polipin.
don’t worry, plenty more of’em still around.
carry a big stick, walk around and you’ll get lucky.
happy hunting. going back to the cavemen era.
Dear YB Teresa Kok,
_____________________________________________________
I am voicing out Happy Garden’s concern for the same as in Sri Petaling. Similar incidents in Happy Garden, need no further introduction.
We need a sort of “neigbourhood watch” or the “Rukun-Tetangga” similar kind of voluntary system in place. I am sure it would turn out to be a fine idea if enough attention or publicity is given. Well, at least we can really have a good night sleep at night. ( I am not implying the police are not efficient or etc, as the old chinese saying “If a water source is too far, is very difficult to put off a fire near us”)
Beside fostering security awareness, it would also cultivates relationship between residents especially into matters concerning our residential area. In long run it will be a self maintaining residents association that could work hand-in-hand with the Seputeh DAP.
It has worked many years ago in Happy Garden, It is still working well in certain places and even in many countries, It will definitely work in Happy Garden. And I have to say that DAP Seputeh would be the main driving force for this thrust.
________________________________________________________
Regards,
A Concerned Resident