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Global spotlight on police brutality and that of Hong Kong (Yan Kei)

蘋果日報 2020/06/22 10:17



Killing of one African American by a police officer sparked a wave of global protests against racism and police brutality. These protests were coined as Black Lives Matter. Millions around the world marched on the streets condemning racism and police brutality. When I first saw in a video clip a police officer pinning George Floyd’s neck to the ground with his knee, I had flashbacks of many instances of similar use of force by the police on young people in Hong Kong. Very often, two or three police officers in riot gear sat on one youngster. It was a gruesome scene even to watch. And those Hong Kong young people were not as well-built as George Floyd, but looked extremely fragile physically. Some of them were protesters but there were others, like social workers and medical workers. Yet, you could see two or three policemen literally exert all their weights on one person. It is obvious that the purpose of this action was not to restrain a person from resisting. Most of those young people did not even resist during the process of arrest. The purpose of those violent and excessive force was to physically exert pain—an instant punishment. Was that legal? No. I wonder how many such victims of police violence have suffered permanent damage to their bodies. According to international human rights law, such actions by the police constitute torture. Then we saw police casually pepper-spray people on the streets. Just a few weeks ago, an old man was pepper-sprayed—he was just a passer-by. Even people who did not support protests in Hong Kong were shocked to see the excessive use of force by the police in riot gear. And daily police briefings have at times become nonsensical. One good example is that when a video footage showing a police officer kicking a man dressed in yellow was shown to the public, a police spokesperson described that man as a yellow object. Thereafter, “yellow object” has become an meme on social media circulating globally.

Hong Kong Police Force(HKPF) had been a better police force than those of other Asian countries until 2014. Since then we have been witnessing HKPF gradually losing control, professionality and integrity. Today we do not see it as an accountable institution for it just counts on press briefings that shield itself from accusations of its illegal actions. The public has lost trust in it. Creating terror by violent actions has been further widening the rift between HKPF and the public, as well as triggering off fightbacks of a group of diehard young protesters who have been outraged by police excessive violence. And these youths are motivated by a cause—to counter police violence and more importantly achieve democracy and clear lines of accountability in Hong Kong. A lack of accountability of the police will allow them to function with impunity and lead to corrupt practices. People in Hong Kong fought hard in around 1973 to clean its then corrupt and unaccountable police force. Reforms in Hong Kong culminated in the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the master pay scale structure that allows the police and the ICAC to gain higher salaries as compared to other civil servants. Gradually, we saw a development of a more professional police force with enhanced integrity. But this is no more the case.

Subsequent to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer and the protests around the world brought about by the case, there has been a spotlight on police brutality afresh. In the US there is an intensifying demand for cutting funding for police departments. US Congress is in the process of introducing a legislation to reform American police. The bill would make it easier to prosecute police officers for misconduct and ban chokeholds, kind of excessive force that killed Floyd. The world know well that is the right way to go, especially in a democratic society. Yet, what Hong Kong has been doing is just the opposite, for example, to increase funding for HKPF and arm the force with more lethal weapons. This is certainly not the right thing to do, especially when the people are demanding a thorough and independent investigation into police violence and punishments on those police officers who are responsible for the use of excessive force. The situation is going to further escalate protests. Young people may resort to more extreme tactics. We are going to see a vicious cycle of violence reoccurring in Hong Kong. Hong Kong authorities and HKPF need to find a way to rebuild the public trust in them and regain its integrity. They are not going to achieve that by allowing the police to act with impunity and resorting to violent tactics.

(Yan Kei, Advocate for criminal justice reform)
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