Philippine president-elect urges public to kill drug dealers



MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president-elect has encouraged the public to help him in his war against crime, urging citizens with guns to shoot and kill drug dealers who resist arrest and fight back in their neighborhoods.

In a nationally televised speech late Saturday, Rodrigo Duterte told a huge crowd in the southern city of Davao that Filipinos who help him battle crime will be rewarded.

"Please feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have the gun — you have my support," Duterte said, warning of an extensive illegal drug trade that involves even the country's police.

If a drug dealer resists arrest or refuses to be brought to a police station and threatens a citizen with a gun or a knife, "you can kill him," Duterte said. "Shoot him and I'll give you a medal."

The 71-year-old Duterte won the May 9 presidential election on a bold promise to end crime and corruption within six months of the start of his presidency. That vow resonated among crime-weary Filipinos, though police officials considered it campaign rhetoric that was impossible to accomplish.

Human rights watchdogs have expressed alarm that his anti-crime drive may lead to widespread rights violations.

Duterte, a longtime Davao mayor, has been suspected of playing a role in many killings of suspected criminals in his city by motorcycle-riding assassins known as the "Davao death squads," but human rights watchdogs say he has not been criminally charged because nobody has dared to testify against him in court

In his speech on Saturday, Duterte asked three police generals based in the main national police camp in the capital to resign for involvement in crimes that he did not specify. He threatened to humiliate them in public if they did not quit and said he would order a review of dismissed criminal cases of active policemen, suggesting some may have bribed their way back onto the force.

"They go back again crucifying the Filipino," he said. "I won't agree to that."

"If you're still into drugs, I will kill you, don't take this as a joke. I'm not trying to make you laugh, son of a *****, I will really kill you," Duterte said to loud jeers and applause.

The foul-mouthed former government prosecutor said crimes were committed by law enforcers because of "extreme greed and extreme need." He said that he would provide a small amount to an officer who was tempted because his wife has cancer or a mother died, but that those who would break the law because of extreme greed "will also be dealt with by me. I'll have you killed."

Duterte, who starts his six-year presidential term on June 30, repeated a plan to offer huge bounties to those who can turn in drug lords, dead or alive.

While it remains to be seen what will happen to his threats when he takes office, some policemen have heeded his call for a tougher anti-crime approach.

In suburban Las Pinas city in the Manila metropolis, police have apprehended more than 100 minors who defied a night curfew, and men who were either having drinking sprees in public or roaming around shirtless in violation of a local ordinance. The crackdown was dubbed "Oplan Rody" — after Duterte's nickname — or "Rid the Streets of Drinkers and Youth."

http://bigstory.ap.org/58fc2315d488426ca2512fc9fc8d6427&utm_source=android_app&utm_medium=add_to_adblock_browser&utm_campaign=share/


Rodrigo Duterte
Politician

Rodrigo "Rody" Roa Duterte (born March 28, 1945), also known by the nickname Digong, is a Filipino lawyer and politician of Visayan descent, who is the current President-elect of the Philippines, after topping the... wikipedia.org

Born: March 28, 1945 (age 71), Maasin
Partner: Cieleto "Honeylet" Avanceña
Children: Sebastian, Paolo, Sara Duterte, Veronica
Party affiliation: Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod (local), PDP–Laban (national)

Poppy don't play that

Sounds kind of Trump-ish, in his own way. Over-the-top, extremism to excite voters.

Setting aside the rule of law is usually dangerous, however. And that's the worry with advocacy such as this.

Refusing to continue to tolerate the drug gangs and other problems there is NOT a purely binary choice. That is, it is NOT a choice between allowing things to continue as they have, or having each citizen decide on their own who to murder in the streets.

There have been occurrences in other places, where once this kind of sloppy and uncontrolled approach to "cleaning up crime," led directly to the establishment of a dictatorship.

Is he calling for Vigilantism?

of Trump-ish, in his own way. Over-the-top, extremism to excite voters.


Trump does excite voters. Because he echos what they have been wanting.
IF this guy is echoing what his people want, then there is a very serious drug /crime problem & people are feed up & in danger & maybe have been afraid to fight back.. or ..he is manic or maniac & they have a tyrant on their hands

Yeah, that's the short way to put the question. It certainly reads that way.

That might be necessary.
Imagine if Mexican citizens were encouraged to kill cartel members before they took over and set up their own little fiefdoms.
Might be far fewer illegal immigrants.
And fewer mass graves or tens of thousands of brutal murders a year.
And fewer murdered journalists.
And fewer raped and/or murdered and/or missing tourists.

Violence is sometimes necessary.
Otherwise why have a military, why give police access to weapons.
And if your military and cops and the people running it are corrupt as hell?
Who else you got to do it?


IMO not really.
Big difference between Philippines and the U.S.
One guy in Xbox 360 camp says before the big Call of Duty campaign "let's rape 'em!" and one guy leading a death squad that just broke into a woman's college dorm yelling "let's rape 'em!" shouldn't really be compared, IMO.

that could backfire!

I think you have a few things mixed up there. You are contradicting yourself.

If this guy is seriously calling for a citizen uprising to go after drug cartels, on the grounds that the military and police forces can't be trusted (which I certainly HOPE isn't what he's doing), then the whole country will go down the tubes, and you will see no END of panicked, desperate people rushing our way.

And I'm sorry, but I can't accept comparing a small country who's leader is ACTUALLY inciting civilian violence, to a video game, where some dweeb is suggesting virtual rape of game tokens.

And I'm sorry, but I can't accept comparing a small country who's leader is ACTUALLY inciting civilian violence, to a video game, where some dweeb is suggesting virtual rape of game tokens.