'Maybe he likes you': Actor decries police 'apathy' over stalking episode

 

An actor has claimed police apathy when she lodged a report about an alleged stalking experience.

Alvy Joanna said she was stalked by a man when shopping for clothes for Chinese New Year, at a mall in Mont Kiara, on Jan 15.

She told Malaysiakini that she went to the Mont Kiara police station later the same night to lodge a report on the incident.

Alvy (above) said her complaint was attended to by three police officers, all of whom were men.

One of them purportedly remarked “maybe he likes you” when she wrote down her complaint.

Alvy said she was slighted by the remark, which she felt was victim-blaming.

She stated that she reprimanded the said personnel over the remark, but the other two police officers did not provide any feedback on the incident.

“I was so angry. I said, ‘Yes, but it’s not safe’,” she said of her response to the comment.

“They (the other police officers) just moved on with the police report. The one who was joking, he was just there,” she added.

Gratitude for police presence

However, despite the two officers not reprimanding the one who passed the comment, Alvy said she was thankful for their presence and for taking her complaint seriously.

They had given her their phone numbers so that she could call them if the stalking encounter happened again, she said.

Alvy later posted about the police officer’s comment on X.

After her post went viral, she received a call from someone introducing herself as a senior police officer from the Brickfields district police headquarters.

Alvy said she would be going to the station later today to get her statement recorded.

Malaysiakini has contacted the police for comment.

Sense of safety ‘shattered’

Alvy shared that another woman had reached out to her after her post, alleging that she had encountered similar behaviour in the Mont Kiara area from the same man.

The stalking incident had shattered her sense of safety in Mont Kiara, which she thought was a safe place, she said.

The alleged stalker appeared to be a man in his late 30s to early 40s, who spoke fluent English when she attempted to confront him.

He had followed her around, from shop to shop, and she said she finally escaped him when she fled into a coffee shop and sought help from employees there.

“I came in (to the police station) scared because they’re all men (in there) and I got harassed by a man.

“So they shouldn’t even say ‘maybe he likes you’, ‘maybe you’re too pretty’ or anything like that because there are a lot of women who went through this and had the same response.

“They shouldn’t make any sort of comment and just get on with the report,” she said.

The issue extended to other Malaysians as well, Alvy said, as she experienced victim-blaming online after posting about the episode.

Later, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh took to X and said that she would speak to the district police chief and Mont Kiara station chief to give the personnel there gender sensitivity training.

"These remarks/mindset will deter investigation and actions from being taken,” said the Segambut MP.

Malaysia has a new anti-stalking law that came into effect in May last year after it was gazetted in October 2022.

Yesterday, a man was found criminally not liable due to insanity, in a high-profile stalking case involving a photographer which caught national attention as he was the first to be charged under the new law.

Section 507A of the Penal Code criminalises online and physical stalking and carries the punishment of a maximum of three years in jail, a fine, or both. - Mkini