Singapore Police, SCDF draw praise for handling of Little India riot
Scenes of rioting in Singapore’s Little India district on Sunday evening may have raised fears about safety and social harmony in the city-state, but police and civil defence authorities have also won praise from the public for the handling of the rare incident.
The first riot in Singapore in more than 40 years left 18 people, including Singapore Police Force officers and Singapore Civil Defence Force personnel, injured and police vehicles burnt. The incident is widely believed to have been sparked by a fatal traffic accident at the junction of Race Course Road and Hampshire Road.
Commissioner of Police Ng Joo Hee said during a press conference in the wee hours of Monday morning that the riot broke out after police received a call about the accident at 9:23pm.
Ng added that the 300 police officers deployed “displayed maximum restraint” and “did not fire any weapon, lethal or non-lethal, throughout the incident”.
By 1am Monday, the police had issued a statement that the riot was under control.
In a Facebook post, Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin quoted netizen Kuik Shiao-yin saying, "Thank you Bertha Henson. I am very proud too of Singapore's police that a 400 man riot could be suppressed in an hour upon arrival - without shots being fired. NO SHOTS. What restraint! In some countries, a mob burning police cars might have triggered equally emotional reaction of police violence that would have escalated the riot further.
I am proud too of our SCDF team - some of them may even be just boys fresh out of school - who were first on scene. Can you imagine having to ascertain the victim's status, free him from under the bus while a crowd threatens to go ballistic around you?
So easy to judge from home what you would/would not do. Until you are there in that moment, not a single one of us is clear about what reaction will arise from within us. And I think many of our uniformed guys did well to stay level headed and not worsen a situation with their own possible prejudices despite having the state's power, authority and yes, guns and batons at hand."
