Yes, Hong Kong’s police have made mistakes but they have also shown commendable restraint - imagine what would have happened otherwise
- Many of the police tactics have been inadvisable but officers are still Hongkongers who want to do what is right for their city. The police had a difficult relationship with the public even before the protests and an overhaul of community relations is needed
It is just over 50 years since Woodstock. The guys who organised it admitted they didn’t know what they were doing when they asked a hippie commune, Hog Farm, led by a man named Wavy Gravy (true) to provide security for half a million drug-, booze-, sex-, and rock-and-roll-filled concertgoers. Security went without a hitch – they called themselves the “Please Force”.
The lack of community liaison is due to years of negligence by the police leadership, who have placed no priority on developing relationships with the public. Some weeks ago, at London’s crowded Notting Hill Carnival, the Metropolitan Police were handing out (reusable) water bottles with “Metfriendly” on them. When the 2019 Water Revolution calms down, our next police commissioner has a lot of bottles to distribute.
Protesters see the police as an occupation force
‘How to kill Hong Kong police’ and what comes next
Truth is the first casualty in the fog of conflict. The police have been accused of sex attacks, cover ups, even murder. These are cheap shots; unproven but effective, and used as excuses for the next conflict. Police families have been threatened, and their children abused. For 100 days now, officers have been attacked with spears and petrol bombs, working long hours without proper rest.
I am proud of the real Hong Kong when you can pass the scene of a riot hours later and see little evidence of mayhem. Indeed, the absence of pedestrian railings helpfully assists jaywalking. Serious damage is wrought alongside the most expensive watch and jewellery shops in the world – which remain untouched. In London and Paris, rioters walk off with televisions. We are still in the rioter’s Little League.
I support the Hong Kong police because the ordinary officer wants to do the best for the city. They want to be solving crime and keep the economy moving – not fighting vandals. In the past few weeks, I have seen police dealing with a midnight landslide in Pok Fu Lam and directing traffic past a fallen tree in Stubbs Road. I was treated with immense courtesy in Happy Valley when I made an insurance declaration.
I left a calm (legal) gathering and was rewarded with a big smile after giving a watching officer a “thumbs-up”. My grandson and I walked past a tooled-up police van – they had time to give him a grin and a wave. The police are Hong Kong people too.
Their position reminds me of Kipling’s poem about the common soldier, “While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' “Tommy, fall be'ind/But it's “Please to walk in front, sir” when there's trouble in the wind...”
Richard Harris is chief executive of Port Shelter Investment and is a veteran investment manager, banker, writer and broadcaster, and financial expert witness