Singapore is famously known as a food paradise. But do we have an ugly secret? Both parties – staff and customers – have been caught in the act of rude behaviour. Some have hurled abuse while other just make a scene to humiliate one another. Still other disputes have very nearly become violent.
In March this year, Facebook user Tan Carol recounted her experience at Fat Po, a restaurant on Tebing Lane, Punggol, where two men were being aggressive and hostile towards the staff. The men got aggressive after the staff told them to put off their cigarettes. They were also forbidden by the staff from eating food bought from elsewhere in the restaurant. The Singapore police later said they are looking into the dispute.
In the latest of such incidents, a 17-year-old teenager who was seen being beaten up by a noodle stallholder with a ladle in a coffee-shop in Sengkang has been sent to a hospital. In a video which has gone viral in social media, the teen can be seen arguing with the stallholder before he flipped a tray at the stallholder.
The video appears to be footage from CCTV. It is unclear how the argument started or what it was about because the video has no sound. The stall holder who got enraged by the behaviour of the teen, then took matters into his own hands and gave the boy a beating of his life using a ladle.
According to Police who spoke to Stomp about the incident, a 51-year-old man is assisting the police in investigations while the youth has been conveyed conscious to a hospital. The Police added that they had been alerted to a case of voluntarily causing hurt at Block 455 Sengkang West Avenue at about 5.50pm.
Another vide which emerged later shows a woman who appears to be the mother of the youth confronting the noodle stallholder about the assault on her son. She can be heard saying she will would be calling the Police.
The videos have garnered thousands of comments from social media users. Many users slammed the teen and said that he deserved the beating. Others chided the mother for taking the side of her son and for being uncouth.
Some users however said that the noodle stallholder should not have resorted to violence after being provoked by the youth. They pointed out that if he had kept his cool, the youth would have been the one who would have gotten into trouble with the Police.