Letters | Hong Kong police in riots city: scared boys with lethal toys need better leaders
- In 1967, officers faced down aggressive rioters with little save their discipline and resolve. Fast-forward to 2019, and over-armed officers facing less dangerous protesters are clearly in need of leadership
Fifty-two and a half years ago, my troop of Royal Marines and I had our anti-riot drill honed by the mostly unarmed and unarmoured, but extremely impressive, smart, disciplined and crisply authoritative personnel of the Hong Kong police.
The poorly led rank and file of today’s police force, overreliant on technology instead of disciplined authority, have too often run amok. Scared boys with lethal toys need better leaders than it seems the force now has. The results of these failings have brought the force into disrepute and caused a rift between society and police that might take a generation or more to mend.
That this same force seems incapable of admitting some of its officers have broken the law and should be brought to justice is a disgrace. It is far worse that a senior officer should be so far distanced from properly lawful conduct that when an officer fires a potentially fatal shot, he pronounces that action entirely justified with no respect for due process.
Worst is the supine non-leadership at the top of the Hong Kong government that not merely allows such conduct by police, but appears to condone it.