Law enforcement nightmare at Geylang

March 8, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Current Affairs 

Written by Ng E-Jay
08 March 2010

Is Singapore’s red-light district turning into a law enforcement nightmare for the authorities?

It was reported in one of the Chinese papers that in June 2007, a group of 200 gangsters harassed and assaulted four policemen during a late night raid on an illegal gambling den near Geylang Lorong 14 and 16.

Although the authorities have been actively clearing up scenes of illegal prostitution in Singapore’s famous red-light district, they have never been successful in disrupting the operations of illegal gambling syndicates which continue to flourish despite constant raids.

According to the article posted on transitioning.org (Gilbert Goh’s website), the group of 200 gangsters surrounded the policemen, threw bottles and stones at them, and taunted them saying, “Do not be afraid of the police!”

Someone was also alleged to have shouted, “The police only have 4 people, we have so many people, do not be afraid!”

A police detective was forced to draw his pistol and fire a warning shot. A few men were later arrested at the scene. The standoff lasted for 15 minutes.

One of the rioters was sentenced to 17 months imprisonment for the charges of rioting (section 147 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224) and of threatening a public servant (section 13D(1)(a) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Chapter 184) by District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim in January 2010. He is currently on bail pending appeal. At least one other rioter has also been charged and convicted of the same offences.

Although this rioting incident took place some time back, it is indicative of the growing pressure on law enforcement authorities by gangster elements who are showing greater and greater disrespect for the law.

In the early days when Singapore became a British colony, migrant Chinese organized themselves into secret societies and triads which persisted well past world war 2. It was only many years after Singapore gained self-rule that the problem was finally contained, though never totally eradicated.

Now it seems the same problem is re-surfacing, compounded by the huge influx of foreign nationals in recent years.

I call upon the government to take sweeping, decisive action to stamp out this growing menace and to drastically overhaul its liberal immigration policies which are testing our social fabric to the limit. This will be on your conscience, PAP.

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Comments

3 Comments on Law enforcement nightmare at Geylang

  1. Gilbert Goh on Mon, 8th Mar 2010 9:11 am

    2. Ya my fear too as we import too many foreigners without c hecking their certs and background properly.

    It will be tough to deport them once they have sank roots into our country.

    I also heard that many of the Chinese migrants are big players of black money – syndicates that are given lots of illegal bribery money to use and spend. Many of course use them to buy property and sell it transforming the black money into legal white ones…

    Australia has a big headache with such syndicates and now they have a law to allow them to search and check suspicious characters with tons of money to spend. They can now be deported without a trial if such money is found to be suspiciously attained without proper records of taxes paid.

  2. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 8 Mar 2010 on Mon, 8th Mar 2010 11:40 am

    3. [...] Daily Discourse – Blowin’ In The Wind: Singaporeans richer than Americans? – TOC: The language divide – Sgpolitics.net: Law enforcement nightmare at Geylang [...]

  3. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 11 on Sat, 13th Mar 2010 10:26 am

    4. [...] In The Wind: Singaporeans richer than Americans? – TOC: The language divide – Sgpolitics.net: Law enforcement nightmare at Geylang – Rachel Zeng: Singaporean women are useless because they are less ‘obedient’? – Seelan [...]

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