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| NEWS > 05 July 2007 |
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Defense begins today in case o
The defense will begin presenting its case today in the official misconduct trial of Wildwood police Sgt. David Romeo.
Romeo, 39, is charged with kicking two handcuffed suspects without provocation while the men were on the ground in a North Wildwood parking lot July 24, 2007.
The two men, Gilbert Haege and Louis McCullough, testified for the prosecution that they were kicked that day. Both men, suspects at the time in a string of car burglaries, said they were not resisting police when they were kicked.
Three of Romeo’s fellow police officers, Edward Ramsey, Walter ... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Bangkok Post - Thailand
05 July 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Tough reforming police
Past governments have all failed at it. Will the Surayud government succeed? Judging from the outcry from senior police officers, the government's police reform plan won't be a bed of roses. Scrambling through the thorny bushes may even cause some blood to spill. This caution is not an exaggeration. Other governments refused to clean up the police not only because politicians at all levels worked hand in glove with corrupt policemen, but also because such an attempt could cause a fatal political hiccup. Individuals attempts to expose police abuses have also proved highly dangerous. Remember what happened to a group of economists led by Pasuk Phongpaichit when they disclosed how a gigantic web of illegal businesses such as drugs, gambling, human trafficking and contraband arms are closely protected by police corruption ?
They were hounded, harassed and slapped with libel lawsuits. When some puyai intervened, the harassment stopped, but no one was punished for breaking the law.
Remember human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit's attempt to disclose police torture of some Muslim southerners? Three years after his disappearance, justice has not been done. Adding insult to injury, the officers believed to be involved in the kidnapping have all been reinstated.
It is an open secret that forced disappearances, torture and extortion have become the main tools used by the police to extract confessions and distort justice in favour of those who pay.
Few dare speak up out of fear for their lives.
Since underground businesses reportedly account for nearly 20% of the country's GNP, the huge amount of tea money ends up oiling the cogs of the poorly-funded machinery that is our police force. How, then, can we expect the police to fight dirty money when their wealth and power depend on it?
While police chiefs are up in arms against efforts to decentralise power and make them accountable to the Justice Ministry, opinions on the ground from many low-ranking police officers show the government is on the right track.
Their biggest problem, they say, is indebtedness and the unfair rewards system nurtured by nepotism and corruption.
Despite their very low salaries, they have to buy their own uniforms, guns, handcuffs, mobile phones, motorcycles, computers and what-not. Without any support, many of them accept tea money, resort to extortion and work for gangsters to support their families, buy police accessories and enjoy life's luxuries.
It is, as we Thais call it, a system that lets loose the tigers to hunt on their own.
Many who have challenged this system, however, have learned the hard way to remain silent and go with the flow.
That is why when they say they do not mind which agency they are reporting to as long as they have better welfare, a decent payment to help them work with integrity, and a more transparent, accountable system that is based on merit, they do it in whispers, fearing a backlash from their bosses.
When the big guns claim that it is illegitimate for a military-installed government to rush through police reform, however, don't belittle them as crybabies. Professional rivalry between the military and the militarised police force has been widely known for a long time. So is their competition in the business of protection money.
Thaksin Shinawatra, a former policeman, heightened this organisational animosity further by upping police powers, leading to increased police abuse and complaints against a police state. After the coup, police reform was one of the first promises from the junta-installed administration.
While the police will fiercely fight to protect their turf, we should not pin all our hopes on the rule of law in this bid for police reform. For as much as we need a clean and professional police force, can it do much in a military state, given the government's push for a national security bill that will give a blank cheque to the military to violate our rights?
Do we want a police or a military state? Our country is in position of utter hopelessness because we don't have a choice.
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