‘Stunned’ Hong Kong police reject official review of tactics and equipment for Mong Kok riot, believe it’s a ‘whitewash’
Anger and discontent over the equipment supplied to officers for the Mong Kok riot grows in the ranks of Hong Kong police
Representatives of rank-and-file police have delivered an unprecedented snub to force top brass as resentment grows over the handling of last week’s street violence in Mong Kok in which almost 100 officers were injured.
The Sunday Morning Post has discovered that at the end of a 90-minute meeting called by Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung to hear their concerns over decisions taken during 10 hours of rioting, the heads of all four police staff associations refused to pose for a “display of unity’’ photograph with the police chief and his top deputies.
According to a number of officers of different ranks and experience who have spoken to the Post, the “unity photo” incident reveals worrying levels of discontent within the 28,000-strong force whose morale has taken a battering since the Occupy protests of 2014.
READ MORE: Angry Hong Kong police criticise ‘feeble’ senior management over Mong Kok riot arrangements
One long-serving officer, who requested anonymity, said “stunned’’ rank-and-file police could not accept the explanations force bosses gave and were sceptical about a promised “review’’ to find out what went wrong, believing it to be a “whitewash’’.
“I wouldn’t say this is a force in crisis, this is a force in serious crisis. We need the senior management, the government and the public to back us and let us do our job ...”
Police Commissioner Lo cancelled his holiday to meet officers injured in last week’s violence and to convene the meeting to address a feeling among officers that different calls over tactics and equipment could have prevented so many officers being injured.
“That is, enforce the law in Hong Kong, regardless of who breaks it, be they rioters or so-called ‘outside agents’,’’ the officer said in reference to allegations that at least one SAR bookseller was removed from the city and taken to the mainland by security officials linked to Beijing without notifying the Hong Kong police.
Officers who have spoken to the Post also expressed a lack of confidence in the promised review of the riot which forced an exposed traffic officer to fire two rounds of live ammunition into the air as he faced a violent mob.