24 November 2010
Summary:
With more teenagers causing trouble nowadays and claiming that that they are from gangs, it is no wonder that the police are placing more emphasis on security for Singaporeans and to capture young people suspected of being in a gang, for instance, by issuing directive to suspected youths to make sure they don’t stay outside longer than the curfew hours, or providing them with intervention programmes. Minister for Law and Home Affairs K. Shanmugam, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), said that a study is still being conducted to determine whether more police are required to control this situation.
Since the end of last month, police has arrested 93 people who are suspected of being in gangs and about 200 suspects who are thought to be related to secret societies are in detention.
Mr Shanmugam stated that the crime rates are actually declining over the past 5 years and rioting, which can be roughly used as a proxy indicator of gang violence, has reduced to 283 cases last year from 489 cases in 2005 and that 45% of the riots included young people.
He also indicated that these young people from gangs today have usually dropped out from school, not skilled, loosely organised and used the names of old secret societies for recognition and credibility and they do not have any aim when rioting as they fight over little matters such as body contact and staring incidents.
When the MPs asked whether MHA would consider keeping Neighbourhood Police Posts operating for 24 hours a day, Mr Shanmugam said that studies have shown that putting police officers in patrol cars was a preferred option as it is a more optimal use of resources.
My opinions:
Personally I think that the security of Singaporeans is very important now as young people who claimed that they are from gangs are now using violence even in the broad daylight, in a country like Singapore, who is proud of being a safe country for people to work and live and a place which is ideal for business entrepreneurs to start their business.
I am sure that the people who are living in the neighbourhood of Bukit Panjang are extremely worried about their safety and also lesser people would want to travel to Downtown east, just in case they meet any of this young people who are insecure about themselves and needed to conduct nonsensical violence in order to gain attention.
These young people are self-centered. In order to get the attention they want and retaliate to other people in their own violent ways, they do not about the consequences of their actions like causing hurt to the victims loved-ones. I think that the police force should do whatever they can to protect the people living in Singapore, whether it’s patrolling cars at night or open police centres for 24 hours a day, in order to control the situation.
Actually, parents also played a part in this. Parents in Singapore are working as long as before. If they could just spend more time with their children, give them more care and attention, and impart good values and principles to them, maybe these young people would not be so insecure about themselves and there would be less innocent victims.
From this article:
From this article:
| MHA to study more police powers to curb youth gangs | ||||||||||||||||
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THE Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will study whether more police powers are needed to disrupt the formation of loose gangs among young people, Minister for Law and Home Affairs K. Shanmugam said yesterday. Since the end of last month, police have arrested 93 suspected gang members, said Mr Shanmugam. Currently, just under 200 suspects with links to secret societies have been placed under detention. But he stressed that the two recent cases of gang violence do not indicate an increase in gang activity. He said: "When we assess the current situation, we need to assess with the right perspective and on the basis of all the facts.
Mr Shanmugam also cited declining crime rates over the past five years. Rioting, which can be broadly used as a proxy indicator of gang violence, has fallen to 283 cases last year from 489 cases in 2005, he said. For the first nine months of this year, there were 214 rioting cases, of which 69 have links to secret societies. Young people were involved in 45 per cent of the riots. Mr Shanmugam pointed out that traditional secret societies have been effectively suppressed by police-enforcement efforts, and added that gangs today are "loosely organised street gangs with fluid membership". He listed the characteristics of such gangs: They are not linked to traditional secret societies, but adopt their names for recognition and credibility; they operate with no specific aims and fight over trivial matters such as staring incidents. Young people who join such gangs are usually unskilled, school dropouts, or students who are not academically inclined. Among such youth, the number of those with secret society links has decreased to 80 last year, from 138 in 2005. Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Sylvia Lim asked if the merging of the Secret Societies Branch with a larger department two years ago affected the police's focus on the gang issue. Mr Shanmugam replied that there is "no loss of focus on this issue" and on "crime as a whole", as well as on how youth gangs and gangs that do not comprise young people are dealt with. Preventive and rehabilitative measures are already in place to tackle youth delinquency, he said. There have been encouraging results, with less than 10 per cent of the participants in the Streetwise Programme re-offending within a year. In response to questions from MPs regarding whether MHA would consider keeping Neighbourhood Police Posts open for 24 hours a day, Mr Shanmugam said studies have shown that putting police officers in fast patrol cars was a better option as it is a more optimal use of resources. | ||||||||||||||||
Done by: Lee Si Yun
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