Club Night Horror

On the way back, the minute we took our first turning, we met with a road block and 24 who drank the least, as compared to me, was tested positive for alcohol and all of us who are in the car were sent to the police station. Whoever the guy was who stopped us the other night was damn fucking rude. I remember him shouting to 24, asking him to get out of the car so that he (the police) can get in and drive, when it struck us. Why can't anyone else in the car drive? We have one who is sober! Why must we let some stranger drive the car? And God knows where he's going to take us! Talking about making something out of nothing, the cop threatened to handcuff 24 and making a big deal out of it if he doesn't get into the passenger seat and let him (the cop) drive. So 24 complied and at the same time making calls to every higher ranked officer he knows.

We were taken for a joyride back to the police station close to Pasar Seni. Why "joyride"? That guy was taking us in circles and using the long way there when we could obviously get there in less than 5 minutes. And talk about bad driving skills, that stupid cop almost bang into cars which are coming by on the next lane! Did these people even pass their driving tests?!

Once reached the police station, 24 was taken in, while Sammi and I were left waiting outside. To my knowledge, the normal procedure would be to take the driver back for a comprehensive computer check. Issue a summon if found guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol, and someone needs to pick him and the car up. What happened that night was a very long wait.

Sammi and I waited for almost 2 hours before the officer who took us in came out and told me that 24 is not cooperating and wanted me to go in to persuade him to cooperate. Certainly not sounding like the 24 I know, I walked in anyway. The minute I open the door to go in, another officer in shouted at me: "Siapa panggil you masuk?!" (Translation: Who asked you to come in?) I told him that an officer asked me to come in and explained to him what the guy said and what my friend was in here for. The reaction I got was more shouting. The guy screamed at me: "Saya tak panggil you masuk! Keluar!" (Translation: I never asked you to come in! Get Out!)

Yeah. We spend our tax dollars feeding and paying rude and fat hooligans to protect us.

The minute I got out, I couldn't care much anymore. I text 24 and told him what happened, hoping that he is able to read sms in there, and at the same time text everyone I think might have contacts to sort this out.

It wasn't until 5.30am that 24 came out from the room and told me that he needed my help to bail him out. According to him, I just needed to sign a few papers and we can go. He looked pissed and was clearly shaking. I didn't say much. I just agreed to it.

Going with him and another cop dressed in plain clothes, we went to another room upstairs. While waiting to be processed, 24 told me what happened in the room he was brought into: Apparently, the cops told him that in order for him to be able to walk away clean, he had to pay RM3000 in CASH! Who the fuck would walk around with RM3000 in their pocket?! The best part is: the 3k is not even summon money! We're talking about 3k bribe money!!! Yeah... this is what happened behind closed doors in police stations. And now we know. Refusing to pay the 3K they wanted, they gave 24 a hard time in the room. Throwing him threats and all. Thank god 24 managed to grab hold of one of his many contacts and they sent someone over: the guy who escorts us to the place to be processed.

Waiting to be processed took close to half an hour. I have no idea why the fuck do we need to be waiting this long, when clearly there ain't that much "criminals" left sitting in the room but us. When it came to our turn, I found out why. The guy who was doing the processing was taking his own sweet time to write and copy whatever that is needed to be written. At the same time, he was making phone calls to god-knows-who. Just waiting for him to issue us the bail notice, it took him almost half an hour! And at the end of it, he told us that the car has to be compounded until 24 settled the payment on Monday morning! (Offices are closed on Sundays, remember?) When we asked how are we going to get to the place to settle the fine without a car, the guy said, "Ambil taxi." (Translation: Get a cab.)

The whole ordeal ended at about 7am. 24 was clearly nervous and was still shaking. After seeing Sammi got on a cab, 24 and I headed to grab some breakfast. When I got home, it was almost 8am.

After going through all this, they way I see it: Whether we liked to admit it, or not, cops are surely licensed thugs. All they can threaten and extort money from you all they want, and you can do no shit about it. Asking for bribe is one thing. Asking for a 3k bribe is certainly overdoing it!

I really salute 24 for still being able to walk out without a weak knee after the traumatic experience they gave him. And honestly, I really don't see why this cannot be done and handled in a more professional manner?! The government is spending so much of our tax money to crack down this and that, the way I see it, the only "crack down" needed is to clean the police station off these money-sucking leeches! As for those who are not apart of that money-sucking team, send them to some anger management course and courtesy training please! I wanna see our tax money well-spent! Not on some over-priced screwdriver set!!!

- a pissed off citizen © 05112007 -