Pubdate: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 Source: Nation, The (Thailand) Copyright: 2010 Nation Multimedia Group Contact: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1963 Author: Meechai Burapa STOP THESE SHAMEFUL POLICE PROCEDURES With an effort to amend the Constitution going on, we might as well propose the deletion of Article 39. This article states that a suspect or defendant in a criminal case is presumed innocent, and that before the court convicts a person, he cannot be treated as a convict. This right has been repeatedly violated, and no one raises the issue. A case in point is the recent police news conference in which a drug suspect was thrown before a pack of reporters who had a field day abusing him verbally. The suspect dropped his head in disgrace, but a four-star police general gently pushed the man's chin up to face the snarling wolves. He even touched-up the suspect's tousled hair. A lot of you may argue that the man confessed to the crime so he deserved the abuse. Well, in that case, add to Article 39: "If a suspect has confessed, he is considered guilty and can be subject to public ridicule and lynching." Meechai Burapa Chiang Mai - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake