The Online Citizen's video on allegations of police bullying elderly woman is 'despicable': Shanmugam

SINGAPORE: A video by socio-political web site The On-line Citizen's (TOC) alleging inaccuracies in a police assertion addressing claims of police bullying is "despicable", mentioned Legislation and Dwelling Affairs Minister Okay Shanmugam on Tuesday (Might 25).

Mr Shanmugam's feedback got here because the police took the weird step of releasing body-worn digital camera footage of the incident to confirm their account of alleged bullying of an aged lady who was not carrying a masks.

"So TOC, you go and interview her, this old lady, try and get her to say things," Mr Shanmugam mentioned.

"I would say this is despicable, and how low people will stoop. Unethical, cynical. This whole exercise by TOC is quite malicious to attack the police."

The minister mentioned authorities have been nonetheless contemplating if motion can be taken towards TOC.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0ctvdTVi4c[/embed]

READ: On-line social media posts alleging cops bullied aged lady will not be true: SPF

Social media posts have alleged that 4 cops had "clustered an elderly auntie that took off her mask because she was feeling breathless" and had continued to "tell her off" though the aged lady had put her masks on.

The police clarified final Wednesday that these allegations have been unfaithful, including that officers responded to an incident on Might 17 involving an 85-year-old lady who seemed to be misplaced. 

The officers helped the lady, who didn't have a masks on, to search out her approach house, mentioned the police.

"As the incident took place during dinner time, our officers were concerned that the elderly woman might be hungry and bought food for her as well," the police mentioned then.

The Ministry of Dwelling Affairs mentioned final Friday that the Safety from On-line Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) Workplace had been instructed to concern correction instructions to a number of events, together with an Instagram consumer, Singapore Uncensored and The On-line Citizen Asia over falsehoods alleging police bullying within the incident.

READ: POFMA Workplace instructed to concern correction instructions to a number of events over posts alleging police bullying

On Tuesday, TOC printed a YouTube video that includes an interview with the aged lady, who claimed the police didn't purchase her meals and that the police had "chased me back".

The TOC video, which contained snippets of the unique incident, additionally urged the police to launch body-worn digital camera footage of the incident.

"I've asked police to release the clips from their body-worn camera, and you can see it, it's clear. And once you see it, there can be no argument," Mr Shanmugam mentioned.

"The body-worn camera shows that the police officer was helping the lady. He bought food for the lady, passed it on to her, and the clip also shows exactly what was said by the police officer."

The police mentioned in a press release on Tuesday that it's not frequent apply for body-worn digital camera footage to be launched as the data is confidential, nevertheless it determined to launch snippets of it after discussions with a member of the family.

The footage "clearly" reveals that the officer was advising the aged lady's home helper to remind her to placed on a masks, police mentioned, and that the officer was not "taunting or reprimanding" the aged lady.

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Mr Shanmugam mentioned that the aged lady's daughter has confirmed that her mom has dementia.

"(The elderly woman's daughter) told the police she's upset that the old lady has been taken advantage of by TOC to spin a story, because TOC had put a video of the lady saying, various things," Mr Shanmugam continued.

"People who have dealt with people who have dementia will know that you can sometimes get them to say many things they will not remember what they had half an hour earlier."

Mr Shanmugam mentioned TOC's actions have been "quite malicious to attack the police".

"TOC has done this to try and cast doubt on the police, to damage the trust that people have in the police, and is really a disservice to the thousands of police officers who have been fighting in the frontlines," he mentioned.

The minister mentioned it's a "regular" incidence that TOC assaults the Authorities with its "team of Malaysian writers".

"But I would say, keep your malice and venom to politics. They can deal with it. Don't bring that toxicity to attack police officers, spare them. They are just doing their job," he added.

"As to whether any further action is to be taken, that's a matter to be considered. It's premature for me to comment."

The police mentioned its sources might be higher used to struggle crime and assist the general public relatively than deal with "malicious and baseless" allegations.

"In fact, just this morning, police officers responded to another call about the elderly woman and rendered assistance to her again," police added.

Responding to a request by CNA for remark, TOC editor Terry Xu mentioned he took concern with how the Ministry of Dwelling Affairs interpreted the unique Instagram story as said within the POFMA order.

In accordance with the POFMA order, the premise on which the topic assertion within the video is decided to be false is: “The police did not reprimand or taunt the elderly woman, shown in the Instagram story by Instagram user @nichology on 18 May 2021, for not wearing a mask.”

"The other things that the police are taking issue with has nothing to do with the POFMA correction direction," he added.