My Take | Hong Kong police show they are still Asia’s finest
- Officers exercised extraordinary restraint when protesters besieged their headquarters, and those Western countries that criticise them should look at the behaviour of their own forces first
When police deployed standard anti-riot gear and tactics against protesters, most of them violent, on June 12, local activists, the foreign press and governments, made it look like it was Tiananmen 2.0.
Then, those young people repeatedly blockaded the police headquarters, physically and verbally abused officers and damaged public property.
They were met with extraordinary restraint, such as what we saw on Wednesday night, but there was nary a word from those same high-minded critics.
Imagine how police in major Western cities would have behaved if their headquarters had been surrounded and their officers abused and beaten. I say kudos to our highly disciplined force and shame on those protesters, cowards who wore masks to disguise their identities so they don’t have to take responsibility for their actions.
Sadly, Hong Kong police are judged by different standards than those applied to their counterparts in Western democratic countries.