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Hong Kong police’s rule by fear (Edward Chin)

蘋果日報 2020/06/13 09:18



As a returnee to Asia since 2000 with most time spent in Hong Kong, I am deeply concerned whether Hong Kong’s freedom and autonomy will remain intact moving forward. The national security law applied to Hong Kong will become effective literally in weeks or months. No one knows the details yet, but judging from CCP China’s records on fair business practices and human rights, individuals and corporations are on a “high alert” mode, finding ways to hedge the risks of inhabiting and doing business in Hong Kong.

To make matters worse, the Hong Kong law enforcement officers’ tactics on crowd control and order maintenance have become highly controversial since June of 2019. In the name of law and order, with super generous overtime remuneration package unheard of, a low ranking police constable making a USD5000 equivalent monthly salary can easily see their salary doubled with their overtime shift spent in “controlling riots and maintaining orders” at street corners, which is a system that is heavily abused and less challenged. The incentive gets even greater with more overtime on the beat. It is important to note that Hong Kong police officers received a total of around HK$950 million (1 US dollar to 7.8 HK) for overtime pay from June to November last year during the time of the peak of the social movement. The auxiliary police pay scale is more transparent: https://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_en/11_useful_info/aux_police/pr.html

Good cops can turn into bad cops when a system is corrupt. It is recently recorded that two Hong Kong police officers stole close to USD 1.9 million dollars’ worth of drugs during some anti-drug trafficking operation. The two police officers carried large amounts of crystal meth and cocaine possession. Again, one could argue that only few cops are bad and there are only a selected few bad apples. But infectious greed sometimes spreads like virus, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Since the social movement of last year, some police officers with no real identification have no longer been hiding their ill-willed intent to hurt the demonstrators. It is also widely believed that CCP’s law enforcement agents have already integrated into the Hong Kong police force, masqueraded in riot police uniforms or dressed as “speedy dragons” since last summer.

As a frontline observer at times, I see uncontrolled risks when lethal weapons are handed down to some “very dangerous tactically dressed people”. Then again, one can say that the police are not the real culprit, are they? Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee and Commissioner of Police P K Tang have orchestrated “horror shows” in Hong Kong all too often, condoning “the police” pointing guns at civilians and journalists on city streets or in shopping malls.

Assuming the national law is passed around summertime before the Legislative Council(LegCo) election on Sept 6 this year, with the blessings from authoritarian Beijing, the police patrolling on Hong Kong streets could turn the city’s general atmosphere to a tenser level; more fully geared Hong Kong police and “Special Chinese Agents” could man voting booths with Federal Riot Guns (FRG) on LegCo election day, which is supposed to fire non-lethal tear gas rounds. On “red alert” days, more rubber bullet guns would be carried by the riot police at street corners in Mongkok, TST, Central or even perhaps outside high school or university campuses, if students dare to perform a “human chain” to denounce the national security law, or sing “Glory to Hong Kong”. When the Hong Kong and Beijing government framed Hong Kong demonstrators as terrorists of sorts, it will be no surprise to see police officers with shotguns and semi-automatic pistols with real rounds to patrol, to subdue any crowd when the national law comes into effect. It is quite a drastic change from one year ago, but don’t let fear hold you back.

Let us not forget the case of high school teacher Raymond Yeung, who became partially blind when his face was hit by a police projectile on June 12, 2019, the day of the big confrontation between the police and the demonstrators, perhaps the date and month that signified the “Fight for Hong Kong.” While things looked bleak, it came at a surprise to see the court accept the case of a traffic cop firing a live round in the abdomen of a protestor in November of last year, sufficient evidence to bring a trial to the police officer. It is a small beam of hope that might bring some form of justice to those protesters who have been heavily injured. To successfully convict the police officers is another story.

I was most shocked when a “suspected person” of non-Chinese ethnicity was pinned to the ground in Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong on May 7, 2020. The police’s knee-on-neck tactic to the “suspected person” took away the suspect’s life. Was it necessary to apply force to someone’s neck for 7 to 8 minutes? Why not just handcuffed him? It was reported that the suspect was drunk and already unconscious. After more than one month, the Hong Kong police still has not reported the nationality and identity of this non ethnic Chinese “deceased suspect” to the media or general public. Justice delayed is justice denied, and it is a threat to the Hong Kong society. Hong Kong needs a police force that would meet the international standards, but we are in a downward spiral.

After the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA a few weeks ago on May 25, 2020, some states in the US and in other countries have already banned the using of knees to press and subdue arrested people (especially on the neck). Will the Hong Kong police force ban the using of this kind of so called “necessary force”?

In the early months of protest of last year, the police fired tear gas indiscriminately inside MTR stations. Hongkongers have since experienced tear gas, been beaten or got arrested in the crossfire inside and above certain stations in the protest areas. When a city is ruled by fear, it has come to the point of no return. When a totalitarian regime and its police force is not subject to the law, resistance continues.

(Edward Chin runs a family office. Chin was formerly Country Head of a UK publicly listed hedge fund, the largest of its kind measured by asset under management. Outside the hedge funds space, Chin is Convenor of 2047 Hong Kong Monitor and a Senior Advisor of Reporters Without Borders (RSF, HK & Macau). Chin studied speech communication at the University of Minnesota, and received his MBA from the University of Toronto. Twitter: edwardckchin Youtube: Ed Chin Facebook.com/edckchin Email: [email protected])
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