[EDIT 1]: Yes, the next time I go back to T2, I will go make a police report. In light of how it went down yesterday, I was just too tired to want to deal with it immediately.
[Edit 2]: Look. At the end of the day, if you don’t want to read the whole story, just read the last paragraph. In summary: I was not going to physically engage/shove a who I believe was a mentally unsound person. God knows how he would have reacted- that isn’t something I wanted to deal with. Furthermore, just because he behaved in such a manner does not justify me using force against him. Anyway, I just feel like the police could have done better in handling the situation in light of the complaints – and since they allow such conduct to go unpunished, this man may continue doing this and cause others to feel uncomfortable. All I ask is that we take such matters more seriously.
[(hopefully, final) Edit 3]: Perhaps I was not sufficiently clear in what I was trying to bring across. Indeed, maybe the policemen really could not have done anything in the circumstances, given the current regulations they have set in place for their modus operandi. Fair enough. I’m not sure that is the case.
Nevertheless, if that is really so, surely there has to be an intermediate option for recourse for victims such as myself, that lies between law enforcement doing absolutely nothing in the situation because their hands are tied, and me bringing a lawsuit against this disabled man which is unlikely to result in any substantial damages (this is really not worth the money or time). Long story short, things need to change. Be it the current regulations for how the police deal with such situations, or how society views problems such as these, the present situation is just unsatisfactory as a whole.]
Singapore Police Force: for your attention please.
From approximately 2130h on 9/11/2019 to 0500h on 10/11/2019, I believe I was the victim of unlawful stalking, at Terminal 2 of Changi Airport.
Here is a detailed recount of the events as I best remember them, corroborated with photographic evidence (face censored) of my stalker.
At approximately 2100h on Saturday (9/11), my girlfriend and I headed to our regular overnight study spot at Changi Airport T2, O’Coffee Club. This is a regular late-night study joint frequented by many students, ranging from secondary school students (mostly in the day) and university or polytechnic students. We sat at one of the high tables.
As we proceeded to the cashier to purchase our drinks, I noticed that there was a male individual that appeared to be around 60 years old, with little to no hair, dressed in a McDonald’s uniform, sitting at the corner of the store and was staring at me. He also had some form of apparent disability, but I’m no expert on the matter. All of this raised some eyebrows, but I decided to make little of it at the time. After all, he does have every right to be there, and look at anyone he wants. Fair game.
However, things took a turn for the worse as the night progressed. Shortly after, I went to the nearby E-Gadget Mini shop that was next to O’Coffee Club to purchase a charging wire for my earphones. It was only after I made my purchase that I realised that the same man was standing outside the shop, staring directly at me from the outside and was quite clearly, and intentionally, loitering outside the store waiting for me to come out.
When I made my exit, I attempted to scurry past him but he quickened his footsteps to intercept me. Initially, he asked me questions about my age, whether I was schooling, what kind of house I stayed in, whether I stayed with my parents, and some other things that quite frankly I could not be bothered to understand. After a while, my patience developed into irritation as I did not want to entertain him any longer – I had a lot of work to get on to do.
Again, while this made me feel slightly uncomfortable, I decided to dismiss this incident as one of an old, perhaps lonely man that wanted some company. I told my girlfriend to keep an eye out on the man’s behaviour for me, as my back was facing away from him as him and I returned to our respective seats at O’Coffee Club.
Not long after, at approximately 2300h, I made my way to the toilet. I had not noticed him following behind me, and neither did my girlfriend. It was only after I had relieved myself and went to wash my hands, did the same man walk into the toilet and stared at me from the sink. He proceeded to watch me as he washed his hands.
I felt terribly uncomfortable at this point and hid inside the toilet cubicle, and proceeded to text my girlfriend for help. She approached a member of the airport staff, and after 10 minutes, by instruction of the airport staff, I attempted to brisk walk out of the toilet towards her. Upon my exit of the cubicle, he instantly followed me and tried to show me something on his phone. He spoke in Chinese and with my poor grasp of the language combined with my refusal to listen to what he was trying to say, I did not make out what he wanted from me.
It was clear that the man knew his actions were problematic. He immediately backed off from us when he saw I went to the airport staff, and we noticed how he quickly packed his items and left towards the other side of the airport. At the same time, while we stood there waiting for the advice from the member of the airport staff’s supervisor, it became just as clear to me that the man was either obnoxiously brazen or just (by conjecture) mentally unsound, as he proceeded to wave directly at me from the other end of the airport.
For reference, we were stood next to LlaoLlao, and he stood at Golden Duck.
I was brought to the police station, and it was there that in the company of the airport staff that I reported the incident to two policemen returning from what appeared to be their dinner break. I gave them the brief laydown of the situation, and in response they asked me to show them where he was. The airport staff informed them that he was on the upper floor, and was walking upstairs presumably to look for me from a height. The police confronted the man, and ensured that he took the lift down before returning to talk to me. I was told that because he was quite clearly mentally unwell, and he was a member of the McDonalds staff, and that “when old people get lonely” they can do strange things. I understood, and I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, if he had truly left the airport, I would have had no further qualms.
However, it was not long after that he appeared once again, this time, sitting at the benches at the other side outside O’Coffee Club, and resumed his staring act. Acting on the advice of the police, I called them again to ask them for help. They eventually arrived and confronted the man, who insisted that he did nothing wrong and he had every right to do whatever he wanted in the circumstances.
This is exactly what was relayed to me by one Sergeant Teo who was accompanied by another policeman when they came to check on the situation. I was told that “unless he try to bang on the cubicle door and break it open”, the man had every right to do as he pleased, as “the airport is a public space”. I insisted that perhaps this could have been an ambiguous incident, but his acts of loitering outside the gadget shop, as well as loitering INSIDE the toilet waiting for me to come out for 10 minutes – must surely count towards something that they could have relied on as justification to remove him from the premises. To my dismay, they disagreed. That’s right, instead of doing anything concrete and ensuring the safety of members of the public, they just let it be instead of ensuring that the man leave the premises and stop harassing me.
They told me that he promised not to do anything anymore, and he had to leave for work at 2a.m. So, I endured. True enough, he left for work at 2am, so I continued studying as per normal. However, the story didn’t end there. The man returned at 4am and took up the same spot. We left shortly after at 4:30am, and it was at that moment that when we decided to head out towards the exit doors, that we realised he was following me once more. We took momentary respite at the smoking area, only to realise that he was walking up and down to try and locate me. He went to great lengths, even walking on the road to try and look for me but I took care to stay out of his sights behind the potted plants. He marshalled the area with such intent that I had to walk along the side of the road down to the basement floor, to make my way to the taxi stand. Had I actually gone past him to the lifts, in all likelihood he would have seen me and approached me once more. I did not want to have to deal with that.
In retrospect, I could have confronted my stalker at the end of the night when he followed me again. I could have called the police on him again. But it was late, and I was drained and I had a lot of things to get on to so I needed the rest for the next day. I don’t think it is fair and just that as the victim, I had to remove myself from the premises when I felt uncomfortable, because apparently, him loitering outside the toilet cubicles waiting for me to come out is lawful behaviour. Only when he uses force to break in, can law enforcement step in to ensure my safety, despite them already knowing of his previous behaviour? I find this proposition ludicrous and totally insensitive to the rights of the victim.
Under s 7 of the Protection from Harassment Act (PHA) (2015), stalking is prohibited. Under s 7(3), some acts or omissions, in particular circumstances, are ones associated with stalking:
– following the victim or a related person;
– making any communication or attempting to make any communication by any means to the victim;
– entering or loitering in any place (WHETHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE) outside or near the victim’s or a related person’s place of residence or place of business or any other place frequented by the victim or the related person;
– keeping the victim or a related person under surveillance.
In closing, I believe that law enforcement can do better to protect the victims of unlawful stalking, or even harassment in such situations. It is not difficult, nor is it unjust to remove the perpetrator in such situations, when it is arguably clear and obvious that the perpetrator is deliberately engaging in such conduct. Surely, the police must be able to do something to help victims such as myself.
We deserve that the airport (being a public space as they said) is a safe environment and that my rights are protected. Indeed, the man had a disability, and he had every right to be where he was. The behaviour complained of, however, I believe was sufficient to justify his removal from the premises.
I would like to reiterate the fact that the police refused to do anything after I had explained the extent of the discomfort caused, and the lengths he went to just to follow me. Just because I am a man, doesn’t mean that I am less vulnerable to unlawful stalking or harassment, and just because he is disabled, does not mean that law enforcement should ‘give him the benefit of the doubt’ when what he is doing is clearly deliberate, and when it is clear he has the capability to be aware that his actions are wrong. Disability does not count towards the culpability or intention of the criminal, but rather, a mitigating factor in the circumstances – but it is not the role of the police to assess.
What do I want to achieve from this post? I want the police to take such cases more seriously, and ensure that they watch out for this McDonald’s employee just in case he decides to commit such acts against someone else — for other airport patrons’ safety. I want the police to be more alert and less dismissive. I don’t need monetary compensation or anything remedial of the sort but I hope that someone else will not feel like they have been out of options in a precarious situation like mine.
(I did not manage to get photos of him following me into the toilet, or the other incidents, but if I wanted to get witness corroboration, I can do so easily. Anyone from the man working at the gadget shop, to the lady who attended to me when I was escaping the toilet, would have seen his behaviour.)