Singapore police raid protest held by 5-inch plastic dolls
Anime fans in Singapore staged a micro-sized protest against a Singapore animation distributor by attaching tiny signs to plastic robot and monster statuettes and placing them in public.
The Singapore authorities responded by sending four riot vans. The organizer of the protest, Zer0 told reporters that the police removed the figurines and that plainclothes officers filmed them.
According to the Yahoo News brief, "public protests are rare in Singapore, where outdoor demonstrations are banned and any public gathering of more than four people requires a permit."
Link | Photos here (Thanks, Najjib!)
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wow, thank god we don't live in Singapore! In the US, they would have made sure the figurines were non-dangerous by sending over an entire motorcade of explosives experts, who would have detonated the statuettes in a spectacular display of security, thus neutralizing any potential threat.
what, no tiny cops?
I think they may have called in the Hello Kitty cops in Thailand.
Any public gathering of more than 4 people require a permit?? So people would have to gather in groups of 4 to travel around... Who would want to live in Singapore??
I wonder...
If the law explicitly prohibits people from gathering physically, could you hold a gathering of 20-foot-high armored telepresence robots?
I live in S'pore and there was a local media blackout on this event. No local press mentioned this story at all, which is odd, considering that minor stories like the upgrading of lifts of an apartment block are covered.
William Gibson was slightly off on Singapore then. We are Anime With a Death Sentence, not Disneyland.
It was necessary to send the Riot Police there. What if Ultraman were to use his Specium Ray or Ultra Slash? There would be a lot of destruction upon our fair city!
On another note, we CAN gather in groups of 4 or more. We just can't protest without a permit. I hope that clears things up. See? We aren't that repressed here. Just a little.
You can protest but by peaceful means but not a procession without a permit. Processions and large gathering of crowd can lead to violence, etc, that's why there is regulation. Processions for religious purposes can be seen often - Thaipusam Kavadi procession is a good e.g.
Anyway I think the Zero organiser has committed an offence of some sort, at least littering or leaving objects in a public place, etc. The photographs taken at the scene and items seized are evidence... good luck to you whoever u r, you will be invited to the police station soon...