Police under fire for attempt to get 'chalk girl' taken away from her family
Lawmakers seek explanation why police sought child protection order - refused by a magistrate yesterday - for 'Lennon Wall' teen
Lawmakers have called on police to explain why they applied for a care and protection order to detain a 14-year-old girl who was arrested for allegedly scribbling graffiti on the "Lennon Wall" at Admiralty but not charged.
Tuen Mun Court magistrate Winnie Lau Yee-wan said yesterday she found there was no need to grant the order after considering the facts of the case and the girl's social welfare report.
"I can understand why the police made the application," Lau said. "However, after reading the social welfare report, I find that it is not necessary to grant the child protection order at this stage."
The magistrate did not give the reasons for her decision.
Later, Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said he found the application by police "extraordinary" and "unusual".
He said care and protection was a day-to-day practice in court. But the police did not follow the normal procedure in this case by making the application directly to the court rather than consulting social workers for their opinions first.
"The police ought not to apply for the care and protection order as a method to bring white terror [a term associated with political repression] to a young offender," he said. "I think the police owe the public an explanation."
Another lawmaker, Wu Chi-wai of the Democratic Party, said it was "very rare" for police to make such an urgent application.
"The police should make clear to the public whether there is a new direction in dealing with a particular type of juvenile offender," Wu said. "If the police do not clarify [their reasons], people may believe it is a means for police to exercise political pressure and lose trust in them," Wu said.
The police denied they had any political consideration when applying for a care and protection order for a child. They said they would consider the background and the best interests of the child in every application.
The girl was arrested on Christmas Eve, accused of drawing flowers on the wall, which was plastered with pro-democracy messages during the 79-day Occupy Central movement.
Police applied for the protection order in Tuen Mun Court on December 29 and a magistrate sent the girl to a children's home, pending the social welfare report.
The girl was released after a High Court judge granted her bail on December 31.
She has never been charged and she is not under police bail, but police said the case was still under investigation.
