I refer to your editorial of December 30 headlined, 'Public protest', which alludes to a change in policy towards policing of public demonstrations.
The recent proposal by the Hong Kong General Association of Recycling Business to stage a vehicle procession involving some 100 vehicles during the morning rush hour in Central gave rise to grave concerns about serious disruption to traffic and major inconvenience to the general public. These concerns were exacerbated by the fact that the procession was planned for the first working day after a long holiday.
For any public demonstration police do make contingency plans which aim to strike a balance between facilitating freedom of expression whilst respecting the rights of others to go about their daily business unimpeded. Naturally the overriding consideration is to ensure that public safety is protected.
Where possible these plans include advance quantification of numbers of persons and vehicles which might be involved. This is only prudent to ensure the deployment of sufficient police resources to achieve the aim.
In this particular case, as soon as it became apparent that the scale of the planned procession was to be greatly reduced to realistic and manageable numbers, the need for such information was removed and collection stopped. The revamped procession then proceeded without incident.
Readers can be assured that there has been no change of policy, significant or otherwise, to the way in which public processions and meetings are policed.
