Probe underway after Vietnam cop is filmed assaulting car driver

By VnExpress   July 25, 2016 | 06:19 am PT
Probe underway after Vietnam cop is filmed assaulting car driver
A still image from the clip that purportedly shows a traffic cop on duty assaulting a car driver last Saturday. The Ho Chi Minh City police department is launching a probe into the incident.
The officer said he resorted to doing so after being insulted repeatedly.

Le Dong Phong, the director of the Ho Chi Minh City’s police department, has ordered the setting up of a task force to investigate a clip filming a cop on duty punching a driver following a verbal spat.

In the three-minute clip that has gone viral online since Saturday, the police officer on duty, who was identified by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper as Vo Nguyen Minh Khoa, was filmed assaulting the car driver on that day.

According to the report that Khoa, a member of the Rach Chiec police traffic squad, filed to the city's police department, the incident took place at around 7:20 a.m. on the highway near the Suoi Tien Theme Park in District 9.

In the clip, Khoa was writing a ticket for the car driver, who, according to Khoa’s report, was pulled over because he abruptly changed the lane without any notice in advance.

The car driver, who has not been identified yet, was filmed grilling Khoa about his offense, but the latter just kept mum. According to Khoa’s report, the car driver kept verbally attacking him and was uncooperative.

Khoa said he then put the driver’s license into his pocket to prevent the driver from grabbing it back. But the driver was reportedly trying to snatch his driver’s license from Khoa’s pocket.

The reaction of the driver prompted Khoa to punch him in the face several times, the officer wrote in his report.

Khoa then left the scene after several bystanders stopped by and objected to his heavy-handedness, the clip showed.

It is not immediately possible to confirm Khoa’s account of the incident. The police said they would summon the car driver for further questioning.

The Vietnamese masses are already of the opinion that the traffic police is the country's most corrupt institution as found by several international surveys.

Analysts say while it is true that while many times the police are doing their job, their tainted image and entrenched public prejudice are at work against them.

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