Pakatan reps fuming over cops taking pictures of homes

(NST) – No prior notices, no introductions.

The policemen, in plainclothes and uniform, stopped their vans abruptly, alighted, took out their cameras and started snapping images of the houses in front of them and left in the same hurried manner in which they had arrived.

Their action has earned the wrath of the house owners who happened to be Pakatan Rakyat state assemblymen.

Incensed with the way the police had conducted themselves, five PR assemblymen yesterday demanded an explanation from the top brass in the state.

The five — Thomas Su (Pasir Pinji), Loke Chee Yen (Kepayang), Lim Pek Har (Menglembu), A. Siva Subramaniam (Buntong) and Chang Lih Kang (Teja) — said the action of the policemen had alarmed them and their families.
Lim said yesterday the policemen did not even introduce themselves to her family.

"They took pictures of my house and just left. None of the policemen gave their namecards or identified themselves," she said, adding that the incident happened at 5.30pm on Friday when she was not at home.

Similar complaints came from the other assemblymen.

"This is harassment and intimidation. What else to make of this type of conduct? The police must explain what their men were doing in front of our houses," said Su, a PR state executive council member.

The police team, numbering about 20, had gone to his house at 6.30pm on Friday.

State police chief Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah said his men were identifying the homes of all state assemblymen as part of their efforts to extend protection to them.

"The pictures will be given to police units to make it easier to find the houses," he told the New Straits Times.

Zulkifli, however, admitted that his "boys" might had conducted themselves in a manner that gave rise to misconceptions among the five assemblymen.