The Hong Kong police force have been accused of violating its own pledge to treat mentally incapacitated people with care, after officers allegedly pushed an autistic man to the ground and pepper-sprayed him last Friday.

The man, in his 20s, was also said to be assaulted and verbally threatened by officers on June 12 during a police operation to disperse a crowd in Causeway Bay, where a mass protest commemorating the first anniversary of the anti-extradition bill movement was taking place.

Southern district councillor Tiffany Yuen, who was following up the case, said the man had merely got off a bus in Causeway Bay, but was subsequently arrested and maltreated by police officers. She said the man was taken to North Point police station and was not accompanied by an appropriate adult for more than four hours, until she contacted the man’s mother.

Yuen said the police had guidelines on helping the mentally incapacitated and questioned if the officers involved had observed those guidelines.

Under the police force’s “Mentally Incapacitated Person (MIP) New Package,” the police pledge to protect the rights of MIPs to ensure that they are “treated with care, respect and fairness and their special needs are properly catered to.”

The guidelines aim to ensure that police officers can identify an MIP and provide support, such as medical attention and the company of an appropriate adult during any interaction with the MIP. Members of the force are believed to receive special training in this area. An MIP has the right to ask for the company of an appropriate adult.

Legislator Fernando Cheung said the police could identify an MIP from the person’s speech and behavior, or by checking a “care card”, which detailed the medical and communication needs of an MIP. He said that since the anti-extradition bill protests began in June last year, police had arrested a number of MIPs and denied them their rights to be accompanied by an appropriate adult or a social worker.

Cheung Chi-wai, external vice-president of the Hong Kong Social Workers’ General Union, said the current guidelines had become non-existent amid the police’s aim to suppress protesters.

He was worried that MIPs might be misunderstood and might fail to receive fair treatment during the legal process. He urged the police to let social workers play the role of an appropriate adult after arresting MIPs in order to protect their rights.

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