Michael Hammersley
September 22, 2010
Human Rights
In another case of police corruption, Vietnam has been accused of 19 cases of police brutality, which resulted in 15 deaths. Human Rights Watch has found that Vietnam has a systematic problem of police brutality, which has been covered up over the last 12 months. Victims died after beatings that were inflicted while they were detained. Some victims were killed in public while police arrested them but used excessive force. Vietnamese citizens have been protesting for the past year but it has only been recently that world news has picked up the story. Offenders of minor infractions such as riding a motorcycle without a helmet are being murdered but these cases go unnoticed as the press is controlled in Vietnam by authorities. Now that Worldwide News Organizations have taken the story and exposed it. Vietnam has ordered that these police officers apologize to the families yet no other action has taken place.
Like other places throughout the world, Vietnam is not the only country where events like this run rampant. The article I wrote about last week including the journalist living in Turkey and if we look at our own past, the Rodney King incident. Police and authorities gain a mentality in some situations where they think they are above the law. Even in situations where the people are completely sane and understand the laws of the country in which they live. The “Stanford Prison Experiment” is a great example of that. Human nature and the power of one over another in my opinion fuels these attacks.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/09/22/vietnam-widespread-police-brutality-deaths-custody
4 comments:
It is true that power corrupts one's mind if it is not checked. It is equally true that the lack of awareness about the concept of human rights and non-enforcement of human rights law are also the breeding ground for abuse of power.
Every police or any other public officer in Vietnam should know that their power comes from the people and are employed and trusted by the people to serve the community! I wonder if the Vietnamese government have included this basic knowledge in the police admission test...
That's horrible! Sometimes I can't believe that such awful things are really going on in the world...but they are, and it's definitely a wake-up call.
That is disturbing that people are being murdered by police for such minor offenses. If the police force are corrupt what message does this send to the people? This is a social problem because it can be fixed, the government needs to take this serious and look at what is happening to their people.
I don't really even see why some countries have police or law enforcement. Police are there to maintain order, but in some countries, they do nothing but cause choas. I agree with Emily, what kind of message is this sending to people?
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