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Kuwait: Police Brutality Caught on Video?

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Kuwait, Human Rights, Law

Police brutality has been caught on video around the world. Here's one from Kuwait which was posted on a popular blog and attracted a lot of comments – many attacking the blogger for posting it.

Mark, from 248am, posts the following video [1]:

He writes [2]:

I found this video on YouTube which is supposedly of Kuwaiti policemen beating up some Iranian drug traffickers at the Doha port. The video is very low quality so it’s very difficult to confirm that these are actually Kuwaiti policemen and that this actually happened at the Doha port. The policemen in the video above though are wearing flak jackets that are very similar to the local police. I also have no idea if this video is recent or not.

Tariq comments:

It’s very hard to tell what is what but the big picture here is “POLICE BRUTALITY” is everywhere not only in can check the youtube and you will find its international

Frankom finds the treatment unacceptable and notes:

بغض النظر اذا كانوا قادمين الكويت تسلل أو معاهم مخدرات أو أي شيء آخر

المفروض يتعاملون وفق القانون

Regardless of whether they were entering Kuwait illegally or had drugs on them or anything else, they should have been treated according to the law.

And q80 raises a lot of questions:

1.The video is not clear with low quality.
2. You can’t confirm it is Kuwait police.
3. You can’t confirm it happened in Doha port.
4. You don’t know if it is recent or old.
5. We can’t confirm they are Iranies.

And let us suppose that these are Kuwaiti police beating up Iranians we don’t know the reason for it. Maybe they are traffcing drugs. Maybe they didn’t respond to Kuwaiti orders to surrender and idetify themselves. Maybe they are in Kuwaiti water illegally. Maybe they shoot fire on Kuwaiti police.

Meanwhile instantcravings makes light of a sombre situation:

That cop with the stick.. whatever it is that peeved him off.. i wouldn’t want to do or be anywhere near it !
lighter note….some of the malls would love to have him on their security payroll!

And Bu Yousef asks:

‘If’ this was a drug smuggler, where is the brutality?

Abdulla agrees:

Drug traffickers, that sums it all, to me anything goes with them. What they are trafficking is deadly and ruined countless life’s and families.

You call it brutality, I call it pay back.

But Burhan begs to differ:

Beating drug traffickers is not a way to stop drug trafficking. Its not like you are stopping the people growing the stuff or the guys that are paying them to take the drugs.

Not sure why people think this is a good idea. What’s next? Beat the drug addicts?

No one has yet to force someone to take drugs. Like Chris Rock says, “Drug dealers don’t sell drugs, they offer drugs.” All you have to do is say no.

I guess that’s too hard for people – so now we end up with alleged policemen beaten alleged drug “dealers”.

Mark also came under a lot of heat from his readers for posting the video.

Taz writes:

I’ve always felt that mark likes sharing or bringing bad stuff in Kuwait to the public.. like drunk kuwaiti police dancing that happens to be one in a million and many other stuff that makes us look bad.

And bu ziad advices:

it’s better that you stay away from posts that may cause animosity because of sociopolitical issues. It’s just a friendly advice and surely you are free to write what you wish.

To those, Just replies:

Don’t know who’s actually worse, the police in the video or the people saying this shouldn’t be posted because of cultural sensitivity?