'We are not your enemies': Occupy Central’s Benny Tai apologises for worrying officers
Organiser apologises, while officers say protesters aren’t ‘bad guys’
Occupy Central co-organiser Benny Tai Yiu-ting has called on police not to regard civil disobedience activists as "provoking quarrels and making trouble", because they would not regard frontline police as enemies.
Tai made his call in an article published in Apple Daily yesterday in which he also praised the police for "restraint and professionalism" in arresting 511 activists who staged a sit-in on Chater Road after the July 1 march.
His article came a week after the Junior Police Officers' Association (JPOA) was criticised for using a mainland phrase - often translated into English as "provoking quarrels and making trouble" - to describe the behaviour of the sit-in protesters. The criminal charge is regularly used against dissidents and rights activists on the mainland.
In the article yesterday, Tai also said he was "deeply sorry" that Occupy Central had worried "many frontline policemen".
Association chairman Joe Chan Cho-kwong replied that the police would not regard any protesters as enemies or "bad guys".
He said while he appreciated Tai's praise and apology, "the biggest joy for police officers is Hong Kong's public order being retained after their hard work".