Crime fighting

At about 10am today (15th September 2008), just about less than an hour ago a snatch-and-run occurred from the bank in town center. The 2 snatch thieves ran off on bike, but crashed into a (or possibly several) cars, before fleeing on foot.

One was caught, the other ran away with the money. At this moment, the other one is still on the loose, and is said to be wearing an orange shirt. The stolen cash is said to be RM10K.

This pic was taken just right after the robber was caught.

Please note: most of what was written above were from hearsay from members of the public and some of what I saw myself. This information may not be entirely accurate.

MIRI: More than 400 personnel from the police and other enforcement agencies carried out a massive offensive in northern Sarawak against criminals and illegal immigrants.

The operation headed by the police also involved immigration officials, the army and general operations force personnel.

Miri police chief Asst Comm Jamaluddin Ibrahim said that police stepped up anti-crime operations after Miri registered a sharp jump in the crime index lately.

“We carried out house-to-house searches and found it effective in flushing out crooks.

“We carried out raids in places where we identified our targets.

“Police personnel on foot patrols were deployed in the city to beef up our presence,” he said.

ACP JAmaluddin said that highway patrol units, tourist police and traffic police were used in areas short of staff.

“We searched 625 vehicles, 783 homes and dozens of entertainment outlets and made more than 200 arrests.

“The suspects are believed to be involved in various crimes in and around Miri,” he said after a recent briefing for Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mohmad Salleh here.

ACP Jamaluddin said the police wanted to reduce the crime index of 15% to 5% by the end of the year.

He considered the 15% rate as high, noting that it had increased because of difficult economic times faced by certain people, which prompted them to resort to crime.

[ Source ]

My take:

Please keep it that way, not only just because crime skyrocketed. Thank you, Mr. Police.

MIRI: An unprecedented number of Sarawakians have come forward to lodge reports and to give information to the State Anti-Corruption Agency concerning corrupt practices and irregularities in government departments and private companies here.

More than 800 cases of official reports and tip-offs had already been received throughout Sarawak so far this year, double the number for the whole of last year

Source

Doubled of last year? Assuming for every case that was reported - another 5 were not, that's probably a really high number of cases of corruption going on.

MIRI: A father and his two sons have been detained for manufacturing firearms near the Sarawak-Brunei border.

Police raided their kampung house, located across the Baram River some 35km north of the city, on Tuesday and found an “assembly plant” making shotguns and bullets.

Police seized three shotguns and at least six cartridges and components to make the weapons from the house,

Miri police chief Asst Comm Jamaluddin Ibrahim confirmed the arrests of the father, in his 60s, and the sons, one who is in his 20s and the other in his 30s.

“We want to find out what they were doing with the weapons. We have classified the case as possession of firearms,” he said.

Asked if the family was making shotguns and bullets for sale or for their own use, he said police were investigating all possibilities.

The weapons have been sent for tests.

That's got to be eyebrow-raising.

Well, I'm not sure what the papers are saying (if they are saying anything worth mentioning at all) but just this morning my parent's friend's office was broken in and his safe and valuables stolen.

They are the exact same friends who accompanied my parents to the police station when my parents' car were stolen. Now they find themselves making the police report themselves with my parents accompanying them to the police station.

What are the chances of two sets of people who know each other having become victims of theft within the span of just a week or so?

Is that coincidental?

I'm putting my finger on rampant crime activity instead.

This is from a Mirians' perspective. Yes, crime activities in Miri are very high. I already see several cars hatchback have their back windscreen broken, probably as a result of a break-in, cars stolen - including that of my parents' - and heard countless tales of other crime incidents not even published in the papers because the newspapers companies are gutless sissies.

With the increases in fuel prices - with Sarawak being affected the worst - crime might worsen.

I don't care what the authorities say, I don't care what the papers are saying, and I don't care what the leaders are saying. We are living in a crime infested city and the people with the powers to do something about it is keeping completely quiet.

MIRI, Sarawak, Malaysia, June 17, 2008 (ENS) - A month-long blockade of logging roads by indigenous people in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia set to protest illegal logging on their communal lands is about to be broken up by police.

More than 100 indigenous Kenyah people gathered at the blockade site on the upper Moh River on the island of Borneo claim that the blockade is their only way of calling on representatives of a certain Company and government authorities to have a consultation and meet with them to listen to their problems and demands.

Otherwise, they say, the timber Company will continue to ignore their demands and plights.

Kenyahs blockade a logging road on the Upper Moh River. The banner says, "Do not rob the wealth from the poor people's land and give it to the rich in the city."

According to the Borneo Resources Institute in Miri, which issued a statement today on behalf of the Kenyah peoples, ever since the logging company started its logging operations in the upper Baram area, the indigenous communities have suffered the environmental impacts of logging.

They say the company simply encroached into their communal land and forest areas to carry out logging activities, without any consultation and consideration for their source of livelihood.

The Kenyahs have forwarded some "reasonable demands for social benefits and development of the community as they are the rights stakeholders that should be fairly benefit from forest resources in their area," the Borneo Resources Institute says.

The Kenyah say they resorted to the blockade action after the company and the state forest agency ignored their demands and their rights of access and claims to the benefits of their natural forest resources.

Since the blockade was erected, the company's logging activities have ceased. Hundreds of timber logs that had been felled are stacked up along the sides of the logging road because the Kenyahs have stopped all the logging trucks and other logging machines from entering the area and transporting timber from the area.

The Kenyahs have written a letter to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, a state government agency, requesting that the agency carry out an urgent physical inspection of all logs that have been illegally felled by the company in the area.

They also called upon the Sarawak Forestry Corporation to stop them from carrying out its operation until all inspection of timber logs has been completed.

Their request has been ignored.

Believing that they have no other alternative and being compelled to bring attention to their plight, the indigenous Kenyahs of Kedaya Telang Usan area in Baram Region have resorted to staging this protest, which is still continuing.

On May 29, upon receiving complaints from the timber company, a group of personnel from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, went to the blockade site to remove the wooden barricades, but they were restrained from dismantling the blockade.

As a result, the Sarawak Forestry Corporation filed a court action requesting a Warrant of Arrest, which has been granted by the Magistrate Court in Miri.

Police personnel from the Marudi Police Station were ordered to the blockade site to enforce the Warrant of Arrest on June 14. So far, no arrests have taken place.

[ Source ]

About 6-8 cars were reported missing last night alone (10th June 2008). Not sure of the exact figures but it was around that.

My parents' car was also stolen.

In fact, we had sort of expected this to occur - this says a lot about the crime problems in Miri. It's not that we think it 'only happens to someone else' but we expected it to occur. Th problem is just 'when'?

Few days back, a friend's friend's Perdana was also stolen, but he was lucky as the police managed to spot it and get it back. It's interesting to know how they stole the cars - they simply drilled through the key hole, open the door and - if the car had a gear shift lock - using a hammer or heavy object, hit it hard enough so the lock mechanism breaks, but makes it drivable.

Steering locks are a deterrent but if they really wanted the car they'd be able to get past it anyhow (looking at the above example, a gearshift lock didn't work).

CRIMINOLOGIST: Miri can become 'ghost town' if crime not checked

Miri can become a “ghost city” if crime cases are not checked effectively, world renowned forensic scientist and criminologist Dr Henry Lee said today.
Lee said that in his almost 50 years experience in law enforcement and solving crime cases, he had seen cities and even countries collapsing over the failure of the authorities to combat crime.

Stressing that every crime case must be nipped in the bud, he said the authorities must be pro-active in dealing with the situation, no matter how trivial the crime could be.

To be pro-active, the police and local authorities must be able to study crime patterns and trends to guide them to draw effective strategies to curb recurrence of similar crimes, he said when delivering a talk on “Crime and Vandalism” jointly organised by the Miri City Council, Rotary Club of Miri and Miri Anti-Vandalism Committee.

Lee said: “Crime, economy and society are inter-twined. With one billion crimes committed around the world every year, it had caused loss of income, loss of economy and loss of human life. This is a great tragedy.”
On vandalism, Lee said despite being categorised as petty crime, the effect to a city could cause depreciation in property values, higher insurance rates, losses in business confidence and eventually leading to even worse crimes.

Lauding the organisers’ efforts in highlighting vandalism as one of the crimes to be tackled in this city, he also cautioned on the emergence of computer vandalism that had caused great concern in the United States.

Born in China and grew up in Taiwan, Lee first worked for the Taipei Police Department, attaining the rank of Captain.

With his wife, Margaret, who is a Mirian, they moved to the United States in 1965, and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Forensic Science from John Jay College in 1972.

He furthered his studies in biochemistry at the New York University and received his Masters degree in 1974 and a PhD a year later. He also underwent special training at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and at several other law enforcement organisations in the United States.

In 1975, Lee joined University of New Haven where he set up the School of Forensic Sciences that had now become the world’s leading training centre that provides training for law enforcers from throughout the world.

[ Source ]

My take:

Finally, someone who could give some straight answers about the seriousness of the importance of seriously combating crime in Miri instead of sugarcoating it with making public announcements of false sense of security or proclaiming crime reduction 'successes' that don't last long.

Robberies are recurring in and around Miri. If the media wouldn't go about gloating about how police "kept Miri Peaceful" a few weeks just before these incidents happen the whole thing wouldn't make the police look so incompetent and silly. But they just had to make press announcements like that.

Of course, just after that announcement, robberies started occurring at an alarming rate. Rampant, even. Almost at a rate of one per day. This is exactly what happened several months back, when the newspapers report crime rates decreasing while the front page reports yet another.... robbery.

Sort of jinxed it, don't you think?

See also And news today.. Robbery crime rates decrease! Not.

What qualifies as a 'decrease' in crime? One less house robbed? One less car stolen? Or muggings & snatchings or petty theft going unreported? Did they know exactly how many cases go unreported because the people no longer trust the police and feel that it is just a big waste of time? Did they know how awful the response times are that from the police - if they even pick up the distress call?

In Miri, when valuables - or even unvaluables - get stolen, it is as good as lost. Period. You will never see it again. Great if it's insured, not great if it's not.

I've been doing some spring cleaning lately and come across a 1984 issue of National Geographic Magazine reporting on Japan. In it, it says Tokyo - with millions and millions of people living in it at the time, has crime so low and police so efficient (at that time) that when something as simple as a bicycle was stolen, its serial number taken down and was eventually recovered 5 years later. While not exactly fast, but at least they still remembered it after 5 years! In Miri with a population of only 300,000 or so, could not even match this kind of commitment, let alone get anywhere close to it. A bike stolen here is gone for good, unless you yourself do something about it and track it down on your own.

Most people wouldn't bother.

See also Surging Crime Rates in Miri

With MayFest celebrations coming around the corner, the police better live up to their promise in security, especially among the housing estates.

So here's how situations are in Miri currently, from a citizen's perspective (read: non-media and unlike some people, not living in denial lala-land ):

People are building taller fences or walls around their house
Remember the good old days when fences were only about 3 feet high and built for the purpose of preventing rodents or other animals from coming in to steal vegetables? Of course not! We're so busy building taller walls and installing alarm systems and rearing guard dogs - who's got the time to reminiscent about the good old days? Those days are long gone, even the poor farmers in the rural areas get robbed frequently and are busy building taller fences.

Every single time they go into the house, people double check their surroundings before coming out of the car or opening the gates.
Just recently a guy did exactly this, and he still got robbed. The robbers beat him up and drove his car away. The only consolation is that he was alert enough to realize that robbers were hidden outside his house and he managed to throw his house keys away before they got them.

Most doors and gates are kept shut 100% of the time
No more open gates and unlocked doors. Doors and gates are kept shut and locked up. Ever seen housing estates lately? Everyone's shut themselves in so tight and not going out unless necessary, the whole place is like a ghost town. Even children are not playing outside.

Double and triple checking the surroundings of the house before heading to bed
Checking and rechecking the surroundings of the house, dark spots, etc. and paying attention to noises and making sure everything is alright and all before going to sleep. I've been doing this every night for almost a year now. It's not about being paranoid; it's simply a matter of precautions and I'm sure there are many others who're doing the same things. Because the possibilities are very real.

Blogging about crime rate increases and venting frustrations on the police
Yeah. You're reading one right now.