MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte wants police officers to use batons again as their “first line of defense” to prevent them from drawing their guns when suspects resist arrest.
He has been wondering why the police stopped issuing batons in the first place, he said in his weekly pre-recorded address on Monday.
“You know, when a person resists arrest and he becomes violent, the first impulse of the police [officer] without a baton is to hold his gun. He might not draw it, but he holds his gun ready for action,” Duterte said.
“Now if you have a baton — the batons before were rubberized — and you just hit the hand, or just hit the body, that’s painful. Maybe you…
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