Was dining with my sister at the Beauty World Hawker Center when we witnessed a violent outburst from the stall owner of “LM Fruit & Juice” towards his next door neighbour.
The confrontation became so tense at 1 point that the old man rushed into his stall and attempted to get a knife with the intent to stab his neighbour.
Alarmed customers called police, to which a SWAT team was dispatched to contain the situation. Customers like myself were both disturbed and concerned for the poor young man who could nearly be sliced. He remained calm throughout the ordeal.
When the situation deescalated, police did not take any action against the violent elderly stall holder, only acted as a barrier to protect the younger neighbour. But questions continue to linger on the minds of those who saw the entire incident.
What if such a thing were to occur again and someone is eventually hurt in the process? Accounts of this extremely aggressive stall holder slowly emerged as other stall owners spoke with their customers to quell the situation.
Apparently, this is not the first time the elderly stall holder had behaved in such a manner. He has PPOs against him for physically assaulting his wife at the stall and intimidating other stall owners and customers alike when he does not get his way or win an argument.
How can NEA allow such behaviour to persist at a public Hawker Centre, where an innocent bystander could get injured by aggressive stall owners? Isn’t it a waste of public resources to dispatch SWAT teams every time this elderly stall holder decides to use his knife to settle differences with others?
