Down the drain...

It was a change of venue. From Starbucks Curve to Starbucks 1U to Starbucks Uptown. Had dinner at Naili's. Was supposed to eat with Jo but she couldn't make it on time. Proceeded to Starbucks after that, waiting for the rest to arrive. Jo's call came: "I've been robbed. Laptop is gone."

Shocked beyond comprehension. No words to describe. Mun Yee called Jo to clarify. She's safe. Bag and personal documents not taken, only laptop. All felt weird. Li Kim says Uptown is not safe to be walking around alone. Alex says girls shouldn't walk alone. Jyon says she already kena 5 or 6 times and still not scared? MJ frets about our country's lost bearings.

Deep down, I felt sick. Was it my fault for not thinking of her safety? After all, I should have offered to drive her over. Instead I thought nothing of it when knowing she was supposed to walk over to Naili's.

Anyway, the important thing is that she's safe and not harmed.

Now to do some serious thinking. Our police force human resource is really crappily assigned. Out of the 100%, only 30% of the force is deployed for crime prevention. The remaining officers are for top management, administrative, special branch, and all other branches not related to crime prevention. So are we surprised that we never ever see patrol police officers doing their ronda rounds? Instead we normally see the ubiquitous traffic police hiding behind trees trying to catch minor offenders. Or special branch officers tracking down innocent bloggers (detention without arrest, anyone?).

Must we resort to citizen's policing? Should we lobby our Ms. fried mee hoon to step up crime prevention efforts? Will we have the patience to deal with all this shit?