Police Brutality

POLICE BRUTALITY
Learning Outcome
Analyze and discuss the major issues facing law
enforcement and efforts to address issues in law
enforcement.
WHAT IS POLICE BRUTALITY?
Police brutality is the use of excessive and or

unnecessary force by police when dealing with
civilians
HOW YOU COULD HELP FIGHT
AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY
• There are 5 things you could do to help
1. Protest
2. Record the police
3. Vote
4. Engage in dialogue with the police
5. Take legal action against police
Chandran Muniandy beaten and cause severe injury by police
Name Age Date Circumstance of

death
Chandran 42 8th Feb 2017 Was warded
Muniandy critical condition.
Beaten, toe nails
where pulled out
and
unconciousness.
On torture and ill-treatment by police:
“One policeman took a pipe hose and beat under my feet
many times until I could not bear the pain. . . . He said I am
drug user and said dirty words to me in Malay. After that
they let me be for over an hour. Then an Indian constable
Ragu without uniform came, and I asked him “Why am I
being beaten? I need to send my kids to school this
morning.”…. He kicked my face. Another constable stepped
on both legs and Ragu took the hose pipe and beat my leg …
then took a gun and put it to my head and ordered me to
confess that I am drug addict and stole a lorry.”
—Mogan Subramanian, tortured by police in Taman
Jaya, Selangor
On excessive use of force during peaceful rallies:
“It was 7 p.m. … I was near Masjid Jamek LRT [Light Rail
Transit] on Jalan Tun Perak. I saw the police running after
protesters. Their eyes were red. I was standing with a friend
when two policemen in blue uniform shouted at me. I said, ‘Apa’
(what?). They charged at me and looked like they were going to
attack me. They punched me with their bare fist on my face near
my eye. … I was badly injured, blood on my face. . . . As I passed
by a group of police officers they took turns to beat me. One
[officer] beat me with a baton on back. Even in presence of high-
ranking officers I was beaten. They have been given license to
beat us.”
—Haijan Omar, lawyer beaten during Bersih 3.0 rally,
April 2012
On deaths in custody:
“My husband didn’t deserve this, and we don’t want this to
happen to others like it has happened to us … We will fight to the
end to make sure that this kind of torture doesn’t happen again …
We don’t have anyone else now, he was the only breadwinner in
our family – there is no one to take care of us, what can I do
without my husband? I really believed that my husband would
come back, because the investigating officer said to me not to
worry because my husband didn’t do anything wrong and they
were just borrowing my husband to make a statement. I am
going to fight for him all the way.”
—Marry Mariasusay, wife of Dhamendran
Narayanasamy, speaking at Kuala Lumpur Hospital
morgue
Excessive use of firearms.
On shooting of suspects:
“We didn’t know that he was a police officer as the car
was not marked ‘police’ and he was not in uniform.
Dinesh got out of his car and headed towards the police.
When the police started shooting he ran back to his car.
He [the man in civilian dress] then started shooting at
our car. My friend Moses and I heard about 10 to 15 shots
fired during the incident. At all times, Dinesh didn’t hold
any weapons.”
—Nelawarasan Yoakanathan, witness to shooting
of Dinesh Darmasena in Ampang
“I was adjusting my seatbelt and looking down when
my friend told me that two men were approaching the
car and had sticks in their hands. When I saw the men
with sticks – they did not have any uniform on – I
thought they were robbers so I began reversing. I
panicked. Suddenly, there were bullet sounds. We bent
down. The car was shot at least two to three times. I
felt numb and could not feel anything and my friend
told me that I had been shot. When I looked down… I
saw blood.”
—Shahril Azlan, truck driver shot by police in Selangor
Policemen can fire their guns under a whole bunch of scenarios
First things first, police are empowered to carry guns by virtue of section 85
of the Police Act 1967 which simply states that:
“A police officer may in the performance of his duties carry arms.”

However, you before you go on an angry rant about the ineptitude of Malaysian
laws, section 85 is not the only section to look at. Section 97 of the same Act tells
us that the Inspector General of Police (“IGP”) may issue
administrative orders which are called “Standing Orders” for the
general control, direction and information of the police force. It is
this section that gave gave birth to what is known as the “Inspector General
Standing Order (“IGSO”).
IGSO D222 is the part that speaks about when police officers are allowed to
discharge their weapons and why. The different scenarios will be dealt with in
turn below.
Use of guns during an illegal gathering/riot
D222 allow police officers to discharge their guns
when they are attempting to disperse an illegal
gathering or riot but this must be done in line
with the rules in the Public Order book.
Image of Malaysian Riot Police during one of the
Bersih gatherings.
Use of guns when there are no alternatives
There are several scenarios that allow for the use of guns in
extreme scenarios. They are:
A sentry protecting his area from attacks that may harm himself
or the people/property he is protecting
An attack on a police station/police post where weapons might be
seized/prisoners released
A dangerous attack that may cause death/serious injury
To save a woman from a rape attack
To save someone from a sodomy attack
To save someone from a kidnapping
Where someone has been attacked and wrongfully detained
Fear of death/serious injury
The police are allowed to discharge their weapons when there
is risk of death or serious injury but the use of guns is only
for preventive purposes and is not meant to cause more harm
than what is necessary (this is an issue for the courts to decide). In
addition to this proviso, guns are only allowed when there is fear of
death/serious injury in the following situations:
Robbery
Breaking and entering a residence
A fire-related incident with any kind of building (doesn’t matter if it
is a residential or commercial building)
Theft/home invasion that is capable of causing death/serious injury
Preventing a prisoner’s escape
A policeman is allowed to use his gun if he is trying to
arrest or prevent a suspect from running away. There
are two points to note in this subsection:
Whether or not the individual is a “suspect” may depend on
whether the policeman believes that the he committed the
crime. This means that the “suspect” does not have to be
formally charged with anything. It could be a man who
was acting suspiciously at a roadblock and who
attempts to flee when the police requested for him to stop.
A warning has to be issued by the policeman before he fires
his gun
Aside from the different scenarios provided above,
there are also extra rules that are found in D222 for
when officers open fire. The first rule is that
policeman are not allowed to fire “warning
shots”. You know how in the movies, the heroic cop
fires his weapon in the air and then the bad guys just
end up a blubbering mess, crying for their mothers?
Yeah, that is not allowed in Malaysia.
Beyond that, the police are allowed to fire their
weapons if you fail to stop and raise your
hands after they have told you to do so.
However, if they do choose to fire their guns, it must
be because there was no other way for them to
protect themselves or it was meant to control the
situation. If the police choose to shoot at a car,
they must be mindful of the general public and only
aim at the tyres of the car.
Above all else, the action of the policeman
discharging his weapon must be reasonable. It
cannot be by accident or for frivolous reasons. While
policeman have the right to defend themselves, it is
not a valid excuse to kill a “suspect” because the
policeman was injured in the line of duty.
Essentially, “shoot-to-kill” situations only exist
in the rarest of situations. However, if a
policeman does discharge his weapon and it doesn’t
seem to be in compliance with the rules in D222,
there is another law that the courts can look at.
There are scenarios where killing someone is
unavoidable
These defences are actually not limited to police
officers as unlike the rules in the D222,
these defences are found in section 100 and section
103 of our Penal Code.
According to our Home Minister, the police officers
are allowed to rely on these sections when there is
a situation involving a gunfight or an attack
from criminals.
In essence, sections 100 and 103 mirror the rules in
D222. Section 100 provides for when a policeman
(or you) is allowed to defend himself to the
extent of causing death to another person. Like
the rules in D222, it involves scenarios such as
preventing an assault with the intention of
committing rape or kidnapping.
Section 100 (in part) Penal Code:
“The right of private defence of the body extends...to
the voluntary causing of death or of any other harm
to the assailant, if the offence which occasions the
exercise of the right is of any of the following
descriptions...”
Section 103, on the other hand, comes into play
when a policeman (or you) is defending private
property and it results in a death. The
situations involve robberies, housebreakings and
trespass resulting in death/serious injury.
Section 103 (in part) Penal Code:
“The right of private defence of property extends...to
the voluntary causing of death or of any other harm
to the wrongdoer, if the offence, the committing of
which, or the attempting to commit which,
occasions the exercise of the right, is an offence of
any of the following descriptions...”

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POLICE BRUTALITY

Police brutality is the use of excessive and or

Name Age Date Circumstance of

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