WITH smoking being banned in public places, two things will inevitably happen - people doing their civic duty to ensure others follow the law, and people who take offence at strangers telling them what to do.
As such, it is logical that fights and claims of fights would go viral online.
Recently, it was claimed that a man was threatened at a Johor Bahru restaurant for telling someone to not smoke due to the ban after a video he recorded in which he made the allegation went viral. Is this true?
VERDICT:
FALSE
Johor Baru North OCPD Asst Comm Balveer Singh said that while an incident occurred, no threats were made as was claimed.
“A police investigation found that the incident happened at a restaurant in Taman Perling here. However, no threats were made against the account holder and there was no physical fight,” he said.
ACP Balveer urged those that have information regarding the incident to forward their information by contacting Johor Baru North police hotline at 07-5563122.
On the incident, he said that a man has lodged a police report claiming he was threatened to fight after reprimanding a restaurant patron for smoking at the premises.
ACP Balveer said that police came across a short video clip on X (formerly known as Twitter) uploaded by the account holder.
“In the video, the person stated that he told off a person for smoking inside a restaurant but the smoker instead wants to fight him. The person then questioned the current smoking ban and will be lodging a police report,” he said here on Saturday (Oct 26).
ACP Balveer added that the account holder is a 47-year-old man and added that he lodged the report on Thursday (Oct 24) at around 1.16pm about the incident for Health Ministry action.
He then added the police are looking into the matter seriously and reminded the public to adhere to the government’s ruling and law on ban of smoking in public areas.
Meanwhile, checks have found that the video has since been removed on X.
