Channel NewsAsia, 11 May 2014
Senior Minister of State for Law and Education Indranee Rajah has come out strongly against the perpetrators behind the two vandalism cases that occurred this week.
Ms Indranee said vandalism is not acceptable, pointing out that there are avenues for the public to express their views.
She said: "My view on vandalism, that's a no, no definitely… because you should respect common property. You should respect the areas that other people live in and what they see.
“If you have a viewpoint that you wish to express, there are ways and means of expressing it. You do not have to damage property to do that.”
On Wednesday, graffiti was found along the rooftop of Block 85A at Toa Payoh Lorong 4. Five 17-year-olds have been charged with vandalism.
Vandals strike Bishan MRT depot
By Grace Chua, The Sunday Times, 11 May 2014
By Grace Chua, The Sunday Times, 11 May 2014
Police are investigating a case of vandalism at SMRT's Bishan depot - the third such incident in four years.
The latest incident occurred last Monday, with the police confirming yesterday that they received a call for assistance at 6.17am that day.
The Sunday Times understands that there was no physical breach of the depot's fence, and that the graffiti, a wordless red scrawl 3m long and a metre high, was discovered before the train left the depot for service.
Camera footage, which the police are reviewing, showed the train was clean at the end of service the night before, sources said.
Although the incident happened on Monday, it only came to light after the Chinese evening newspaper Shin Min Daily News broke the news yesterday.
The Land Transport Authority and SMRT then confirmed the incident and probe.
"SMRT discovered the graffiti on the exterior of a train at Bishan depot on the morning of May 5 and reported the incident to the Singapore Police Force and the LTA," said an LTA spokesman, adding that the authority "takes a serious view of the incident".
SMRT spokesman Alina Boey said the transport operator was helping police in the investigations.
In May 2010, two vandals cut through the fence of SMRT's Changi depot and spray-painted graffiti on one side of a train.
One of them, Swiss national Oliver Fricker, was given seven months' jail and three strokes of the cane, while his accomplice, Briton Lloyd Dane Alexander, remains at large. SMRT was fined $50,000.
In August 2011, despite extra patrols, improved lighting and closed-circuit television, a hole was cut in the fence at the Bishan Depot, and the words "Jet Setter's", measuring nearly 9m long and 1m in height, were spray-painted on one of the trains.
For the second breach, SMRT was fined $200,000 by the LTA, which then said that the operator neglected to adequately oversee day-to-day security operations in its depots.
Last year, SMRT replaced two separate contractors and instead engaged security firm Certis Cisco to monitor its stations and depots round the clock.
Surveillance cameras and reinforced steel fences were also installed around its Ulu Pandan, Changi and Bishan depots.
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