Hong Kong police are not the enemy

Police forces in democracies (or semi-democracies, as here in Hong Kong) can only sustainably operate with the tacit agreement of the majority of the people.

Any hope, in Beijing or Garden Road, that the Hong Kong police force can be used to squash the aspirations of a large section of the people is completely erroneous. The police force is composed of Hong Kong people and their views probably mirror much of the rest of mainstream society.

The impasse can only be resolved by way of a clever and pragmatic climbdown by both sides. There will certainly be an important role for the police to play in support of this, but the solution is essentially political.

As the demonstrations peak, there will be an understandable temptation by those in power to order the police to swiftly retake lost ground, thus saving face for the administration and regaining some trust with the large number of Hong Kong people who cannot understand why the government hasn't adopted a tougher line already.

However, a sudden move in this direction, before some form of accommodation or tacit agreement is reached, would be a serious mistake and might even bring more people out onto the streets and invigorate a now somewhat flagging movement.

The police force, especially the junior police officers, currently feel bruised and bemused under the withering barrage of criticism: this levelled at them from the media, the public and some grandstanding politicians; who say they thought they were going to be killed by the 87 rounds of tear gas that were let off at nine different locations.