No excuse for X-marks, top cop told

Police get more flak over “cattle branding” incident.

GEORGE TOWN: Police have come under more fire for ill treating suspected prostitutes last Thursday in what the public is now calling the “cattle branding” incident.

The Penang-based Women’s Centre for Change (WCC) today blasted state police chief Ayub Yaakob for making excuses for anti vice officers who chained up the suspects and mutilated their foreheads with an “x” in marker ink.

Ayub has been quoted as saying that it was to differentiate the suspects from other members of the public.

WCC executive director Loh Cheng Kooi said she could not comprehend the reasoning. “Police conduct such raids regularly,” she said. “Surely they would be able to differentiate between suspects and customers.”

She described the behaviour of the raiding officers as “unprofessional” and urged the police to apply a standard set of procedures consistently in such raids.

She said suspects should not be treated like cattle, whether they were Malaysians or foreigners.

Thirty suspects were rounded up in Thursday’s raid. Police said 29 of them were Chinese nationals and the other one was Vietnamese.

Several civic groups, mostly women’s organisations, have decried the treatment of the suspects. DAP publicity chief Teresa Kok was the first to use the term “cattle branding”.

Ayub said yesterday that Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar had ordered an investigation into the vice officers’ actions.

Loh said she hoped police would not make the investigation appear too complicated because the incident was well documented.