GOING viral lately on social media sites is a video clip showing policemen who were riding an Angeles City Police Office vehicle and even introduced themselves as personnel from Station 5 and serving an arrest warrant to a person in the said city.
In the video, it was seen that a group of persons were inside the lawn of a house chatting with each other and who seemed to be the visitors of the owner of the house. Suddenly, policemen appeared at the gate asking for the whereabouts of the person they are serving a warrant. A couple of persons went inside the house and informed the subject person and they went out where the policemen were waiting.
The person that was the subject of the supposed warrant of arrest was then handcuffed and read with the warrant with some realistic statement from the policemen as if it was a legitimate service of a warrant of arrest. Some of the visitors of the subject person panicked and some were even heard crying as the policemen accosted to the police service vehicle the person they "served with a warrant of arrest".
A few minutes later in the video, the subject person appeared and the occupants of the house were told that it was a mere prank and not a real service of a warrant. They realized then that it was April 1 that marked the April Fool's Day.
Frankly, pranking seems to be popular these days. The word prank was seldom used before until this recently when the phrase "it's a prank" is made an expression especially to the younger generation. Pranking usually results into a funny situation
The pranking incident at Angeles City drew the attention of netizens who called it an untimely prank now that our policemen are quite too busy from their crime-solving tasks and add to those is their duty manning checkpoints and quarantine posts.
What is more appalling in the video is the violation of health protocols of those people seen mingling with each other while having no facemasks and not observing social distancing. It seemed that there is no pandemic for them.
Fortunately, there was no crime reported that policemen need to respond that time. There was no emergency to attend to during the moment that they are merely doing some acting scenes just to prank those in the said residence. From the netizens' point of view, it was simply a waste of time and resources too for them to do some pranking activities. Further, the policemen used government resources, aside from government time, in doing such pranking.
The policemen's vehicle should have been used more appropriately such as those in their patrols and police visibility efforts other than in an activity that is more personal rather than governmental. The fuel used by the patrol vehicle should have been used for more worthy undertaking.
As a development meanwhile, Angeles City Mayor Carmelo "Pogi" Lazatin Jr. has ordered the relief of all personnel from the City Police Office Station 5 in relation to a prank video posted on social media. He has ordered Angeles City Police Office (Acpo) City Director to relieve all personnel from PNP Station 5 effective immediately and to conduct an investigation on all PNP personnel involved in the alleged "pranking incident" and file administration charges and violation of quarantine protocols, including not wearing of face masks, non-observance of social distancing protocols, and violation of the prohibition of mass gatherings.
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