Deaths In Police Custody: Here Are Some Answers, Bozo!

Hantu Laut

Death in police custody not only happened in Malaysia, it happenned all over the world, but in Malaysia opposition politicians made political mileage out of it. 

The oppositions have no real concern for rights of citizens but used  the unfortunate incidents as political tool to rile up unsuspecting Malaysians to hate the police and ultimately put the blame on the government.

There are many reasons detainees died in custody.Some detainees are excessively violent and needed strong arm tactic to be subdued and things can get out of hand giving the police no choice but to use excessive force. Some may have died due to overzealous policemen who went over the limit of proper police conduct. Suicide, is another cause of death in police custody. The U.S. and U.K findings on death in custody are almost similar.

In the U.K,  considering the police force was less gung-ho than in the U.S,  there were 5998 deaths recorded between 2000 and 2010 that give an average of 545 deaths per year.

In Malaysia, the latest death in police custody was that of a former engineer P Karuna Nithi of unknown causes, which raised the ire of some opposition Pakatan Rakyat's elected members. They waste no time to harangue the government including Prime Minister Najib.

The Malaysian public are being cheated by opposition politicians into thinking that death in police custody only happened in Malaysia and nowhere else.

Malaysians are easily fooled because they are the proverbial "katak dibawa tempurong", they either don't read at all, or read only juicy stuffs.

Below are some answers to deaths in police custody in the U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 2,000 criminal suspects died in police custody over a three-year period, half of them killed by officers as they scuffled or attempted to flee, the government said Thursday.

The study by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics is the first nationwide compilation of the reasons behind arrest-related deaths in the wake of high-profile police assaults or killings involving Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo in New York in the late 1990s.

The review found 55% of the 2,002 arrest-related deaths from 2003 through 2005 were due to homicide by state and local law enforcement officers. Alcohol and drug intoxication caused 13% of the deaths, followed by suicides at 12%, accidental injury at 7% and illness or natural causes, 6%. The causes for the deaths of the remaining 7% were unknown.

The highly populated states of California, Texas and Florida led the pack for both police killings and overall arrest-related deaths. Georgia, Maryland and Montana were not included in the study because they did not submit data.

Most of those who died in custody were men (96%) between the ages of 18 and 44 (77%). Approximately 44% were white; 32% black; 20% Hispanic; and 4% were of other or multiple races.

"Keep in mind we have 2,000 deaths out of almost 40 million arrests over three years, so that tells you by their nature they are very unusual cases," said Christopher J. Mumola, who wrote the study.

"Still, they do need to be looked at to determine whether police training can be better or practices can be better," he said.

State laws and police department policy typically let officers use deadly force to defend themselves or others from the threat of death or serious injury. Deadly force also is allowed to prevent the escape of a suspect in a violent felony who poses an immediate threat to others.

The Justice Department study released Thursday suggests that most of the police killings would be considered justified, although it does not make that final determination. About 80% of the cases involved criminal suspects who reportedly brandished a weapon "to threaten or assault" the arresting officers.

Another 17% involved suspects who allegedly grabbed, hit or fought with police. More than one-third of the police killings, or about 36%, involved a suspect who tried to flee or otherwise escape arrest.

The report was compiled at the request of Congress in 2000 after the 1997 struggle between New York police and Louima, a black security guard who left the precinct house bleeding after officers jammed a broken broomstick into his mouth and rectum. A few years later, two police shootings of unarmed black men followed, including Diallo, who was shot 41 times after he reached into his pocket for a wallet.

Since then, following police sensitivity training, New York has seen a few killings involving suspects and officers, including last year's shooting of Sean Bell, an unarmed black bridegroom-to-be whom police say they believed was reaching for a gun.

New York now ranks sixth nationwide in the number of police killings, behind Arizona and Illinois, according to Thursday's report.

Other findings:

• Among law enforcement, 380 officers were killed in the line of duty over the three-year period and 174,760 were reportedly assaulted, according to FBI data. Most of the deaths were accidental (221), while 159 were homicides.

• Blacks were disproportionately represented in arrest-related deaths due to alcohol or drug intoxication (41% vs. 33% for whites); accidental injury (42% vs. 37% for whites); and unknown causes (46% vs. 39% for whites).

 Read more.