LettersWhy Hong Kong police have lost the trust of the people they are meant to serve

How can Hongkongers feel safe and trust the police when they see grab squads tie up young people and take them away, while refusing to identify themselves or say what offence was committed?

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Men believed to be Hong Kong police officers dressed as protesters detain demonstrators on Hennessy Road during a protest in Causeway Bay on August 11. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 1:00pm, 25 Oct 2019Updated: 1:00pm, 25 Oct 2019

Public opinion polls demonstrate a dramatic and continued erosion of trust in the police, but Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s hapless administration insists on adding tactics repellent to Hong Kong people.

The first is collective punishment, more associated with Soviet Eastern Europe, or in extreme form with early Chinese history and Fang Xiaoru (1357–1402), whose relatives were executed to the 10th degree of kinship by Emperor Yongle. The second is secret, unidentifiable “grab squads”, more associated with dictatorial South America.

Collective punishment is administered via the MTR (“Shorter MTR services a ‘de facto curfew’?,” October 19). What started as an attempt to obstruct freedom of expression under the guise of preventing “illegal marches” has mutated into an attack on the work and social lives of Hong Kong people.

The government lacks the guts to impose a curfew directly, so the MTR has been co-opted to damage the livelihoods of workers in the hospitality sector, and constrain social life generally by closing stations early – much too early, as Michael Tien Puk-sun, the former Kowloon-Canton Railway chairman, insists.

The grab squads operate without identification, without warrants and without restraint. In Tsuen Wan just a week ago, with horrified locals looking on, black-clad individuals overpowered local youngsters and took them away, while refusing to identify themselves, their authority and what the alleged offence might be.

As long as Lam insists that repression is the solution to dissatisfaction, she will be condemned, and unsuccessful. These improperly conducted abductions cry out for immediate investigation. They must be stopped.

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} How can Hongkongers feel safe and trust the police when they see grab squads tie up young people and take them away, while refusing to identify themselves or say what offence was committed?

How can Hongkongers feel safe and trust the police when they see grab squads tie up young people and take them away, while refusing to identify themselves or say what offence was committed?