The police chief yesterday refused to retract his claim that officers who blocked a cameraman from filming a protester's removal from a state leader's event last year were reacting to a 'black shadow' - but suggested he had been misled by his own men.
Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung said the force would learn lessons from the Independent Police Complaints Council's interim report on the handling of the visit in August by Vice-Premier Li Keqiang.
The report was released last week and upheld 10 of the 40 allegations against the police and endorsed the Complaints Against Police Office's verdict on nine of the 16 complaints.
Tsang was widely criticised last year for telling legislators that two members of the department's VIP protection squad who blocked a Now TV cameraman's lens had reacted to a 'black shadow' and got their hands stuck in the camera. The cameraman was filming four men in black suits who removed a resident of the Laguna City in Kwun Tong who was wearing a T-shirt commemorating the June 4 crackdown.
The IPCC's report dismissed Tsang's explanation. Tsang said yesterday he had not had time to analyse his officers' account of the incident before being asked about it by the Legislative Council's security panel. He answered because he had wanted to clear up public concerns, he said.
But he said withdrawing his account now would be 'unrealistic'.