Police Shooting and Double Standards

15-year-old Aminulrasyid Amzah was fatally shot early yesterday for allegedly trying to knock into policemen

Aminulrasyid was alleged to have been hit by shots fired by patrol policemen after he was believed to be reversing the car he was driving into the policemen to escape a roadblock. According to police, a machete was found in the car.

Noh who is the cabinet minister for Agriculture said he would raise the issue of the teenager’s death in the shooting at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow to ask for police to investigate the case in a fair manner.

He said Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar himself had given an assurance that there would be a thorough investigation into the case and those responsible would not be protected.

Noh, who is also Selangor Umno liaison deputy chairman, said the state Umno was prepared to assist the teenager’s family, including providing legal service if required.

Meanwhile, Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim urged that the investigation into the shooting incident be conducted with honesty and transparency to know what actually happened. He gave assurances that State Chief of Police would be called to discuss on how to combat crime without endangering lives.

On the family’s welfare, Khalid said state Welfare, Women’s Affairs, Science, Technology and Innovation Committee chairman Rodziah Ismail would be looking at the situation before taking any action.

The concern shown by the cabinet minister and the state Menteri Besar is both exemplary and must be appreciated.

However, my concern is would the same attention and sympathy would be offered if its a Indian youth who was shot death?. The newspaper reports spoke nothing on the police attempts to apprehend a friend of Amir who fled the scene to determine what really happened.

I stand to be corrected, but if memory and records serves right both governments never shown any interest to uphold justice in the cases of police shooting of Indian youths. Let alone the welfare of the families involved.