LettersHong Kong protest violence cannot be condoned, but neither can police brutality

Are Hong Kong police really using minimal force, when they brandish rifles, threaten bodily harm and arrest first-aiders? If this is not the Hong Kong Police Force we used to know, we must say so

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A riot police officer points a gun at protesters attempting to escape the Polytechnic University campus, during clashes in Hung Hom on November 18. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 20 Nov 2019Updated: 8:00am, 20 Nov 2019

Along with many Hongkongers, I feel incredibly strongly about what has been happening at Polytechnic University. I know many individuals on the police force and have always tried to understand their situation, but things are becoming absolutely incomprehensible.

Officers have carried semi-automatic rifles – even submachine guns, by some accounts – into the fray. A police spokesperson has threatened protesters with live ammunition. In one video, an officer is purportedly heard saying: “Don’t run, I want a repeat of June 4!” Parents rushed to Hung Hom and wept before officers, one even threatened suicide. Religious ministers rushed to the scene begging the police to guarantee safe release of anyone who wanted to leave peacefully.

Let’s play devil’s advocate for a second, let’s try and see this from the police’s perspective. The target was to arrest all rioters, clear the Cross-Harbour Tunnel and restore normality to a campus where Molotov cocktails were being made. As no one should condone continued violence, perhaps there is a logical explanation for the police’s actions.

However, understanding is not the same as condoning, and there is no moral way to condone the officers’ actions, which have only worsened the whole situation.

The police engaged in an incredible amount of dishonesty and needless intimidation. The police arrested everyone who surrendered, although they had followed police instructions and exited through a designated street. Perhaps the police thought the protesters understood exiting as unconditional surrender. No one saw it that way.

What we saw was a dishonest tactic, a 180-degree turn, which ended violently. Are the police seeking revenge or just being overzealous? Either way, these traits have no place in a professional police force and especially not what once was “Asia’s Finest”.