Netizens are angry and have “attacked” the Singapore Police Force for not arresting the man who kicked and slapped a 5-year-old boy at a mini-mart.
If you have read the boy’s mother’s account of this incident and saw the CCTV footage showing the stranger assaulting the boy, you would also feel angry for the boy and demand for justice to be served.
The boy’s mother has a right to be protective of her son and to expect the police to do something about the attacker.
But she went as far as calling the police “useless”, “lame” and “unreliable”. She also revealed the investigation officer’s name.
The internet doesn’t blame her and is clearly on her side for this issue.
In the latest police statement, it was noted that “this case was classified as”Voluntarily Causing Hurt under section 323 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224, which is a non-arrestable offence.”
Reading this makes people angry and it’s perfectly understandable.
According to the law, people who are found guilty of voluntarily causing hurt, they can be jailed for up to 2 years and/or be fined up to S$5,000.
The penalty gets more severe with voluntarily causing grievous hurt and voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means.
So in this case, the 5-yr-old boy was hurt but he was not grievously hurt – you can see the slap mark on his face.
In the eyes of the law, there is a distinction between voluntarily causing hurt and voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon.
The former is a non-arrestable offence while the latter is arrestable.
However, do note that “non-arrestable offence” means that the police cannot arrest the alleged offender on spot BUT once a police report is made and a warrant is issued by the Magistrate, the police can still arrest the offender.
Basically, “non-arrestable offence” doesn’t mean the police cannot arrest. It just means they cannot arrest without a warrant.
So they need to go back to the police station and get paperwork done first before arresting the offender.
You may ask what will happen if the alleged offender flees from Singapore – the minute he returns to Singapore, he’ll be arrested on sight for a more serious offence.
Perhaps the Government should relook and amend the law to protect the vulnerable people in Singapore.
Should there be exceptions to the law, for example, allowing the police to arrest alleged offenders on spot if they took it out on a small kid?
At the end of the day, the law needs to be fair. There should still be a differentiation between serious and non-serious offences.
The Singapore police cannot act outside of the law and so if there’s a party to “blame” for this case, it should be the law.
Here’s the original post by the boy’s mother:
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