Stubborn teens land policeman in trouble

A policeman has landed in hot soup after a video of him beating five teenagers who were caught breaking the Movement Control Order (MCO) started making the rounds in social media. - Pic from screengrab

By Olivia Miwil - April 3, 2020 @ 3:58pm

KOTA KINABALU: A policeman has landed in hot soup after a video of him beating five teenagers who were caught breaking the Movement Control Order (MCO) started making the rounds in social media.

Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Zaini Jass said such action would not be condoned even though the policeman had just hit the teenagers lightly with a small tree branch to teach them a lesson for defying the MCO.

“We know that he did not mean to harm the teenagers.

“However, from the perspective of the force, his action does not reflect positively on us. Therefore, he has been referred for internal action over the incident,” he said.

He said this when asked to comment on a 27-second video clip, which has been shared widely on social media, where a policeman can be seen beating five teenagers seated in front of a mosque at a village in Kunak.

Elaborating on the incident, Zaini said several policemen had gone there to send assistanc to villagers when they stumbled on the teenagers and asked them to disperse.

“However, after returning from delivering aid to the villagers, the teenagers were still around and continued to laugh and smoke when they were advised to go home for the second time,” he said.

Zaini said one of the policeman then took a tree branch which was lying nearby and hit them lightly as a warning for them not to take police instructions lightly.

“The policeman had no bad intention. They just wanted the teenagers to be safe.

“Otherwise, his colleagues would not have shot and uploaded the video...it was just meant to serve as a reminder to other teenagers not to defy police instructions.”

Zaini said no one had lodged a report so far.

In a related development, Zaini said Sabah and Labuan had achieved more than 96 per cent compliance of the MCO.

Up to yesterday, 135 people have been arrested for flouting the order. Of the total, 50 have been charged and sentenced, 50 are being remanded, seven bailed out while 28 released without conditions.