George Floyd protests: lessons for Hong Kong on tackling police brutality and protester violence

The events in the US highlight the terrible consequences of insufficient checks and balances on police power
Using brute force only sows greater discontent, radicalisation and long-term instability. Addressing the causes of violence is harder but more effective

Brian Y. S. Wong

Published: 8:00pm, 6 Jun 2020

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The senseless killing of George Floyd is a stark reminder that American society is not blind to race and that racial identity can be a death sentence.

Floyd’s death also sheds light on the endemic, detrimental effects of an unchecked police force, and how the lack of checks and balances can transform officers into killing machines.

In Hong Kong, some lawmakers and politicians gleefully deride the United States for its alleged hypocrisy for claiming to stand with protesters here, while coming down hard on demonstrators at home.

Meanwhile, fringes of the Hong Kong protest movement attempt to deflect criticism of US President Donald Trump as part of their wider strategy of courting American support – perhaps neglecting the very causes and principles they are campaigning for.

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Amid the broader politicisation of Floyd’s death, here are the lessons for Hong Kong.

First, we must be prepared to call out abuses and lack of accountability in police forces around the world – not just in the US, but also in Hong Kong. The events in the US are the result of police intransigence towards systemic reforms.

The US police force’s lack of accountability and sufficient funding, coupled with entrenched racial discrimination, have left poor, ethnic-minority Americans frequent victims of policing strategies, such as stop-and-frisk.

The causes of police brutality range from a lack of racial sensitivity or civil liberties training and the absence of well-devised protocols to more nefarious prejudices and emotive judgments that influence police action.

Ensuring compliance with the law is of paramount importance, but the actions of the police – from frontline officers to their commanders – must be checked by internal pressures and external scrutiny.

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We should not be competing over which jurisdiction has worse police brutality.

Until last year, Hong Kong’s police force had been hailed as among Asia’s finest. I do not believe the police force is evil or structurally corrupt. Yet, there clearly are systemic issues that must be addressed. Where law enforcement is mishandled, the force must be investigated; where there are groundless allegations, it deserves to be vindicated.

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As the US has shown, it is easier to scapegoat a few frontline officers than to address fundamental structural defects.

It behoves the Hong Kong government to rectify shortcomings in police accountability mechanisms by expanding and reforming the Independent Police Complaints Council, launching a thorough inquiry into police handling of last year’s events, and giving officers mental health support so they are less likely to breach protocol under duress.

A riot police officer fires a pepper ball directly at the back of an anti-government protester in Central, Hong Kong, on May 27. Photo: Sam Tsang

The second lesson is that fixing violence requires dynamic and comprehensive solutions. The authorities should listen to the people, then arrive at a shared understanding or identify common ground, even if it is scant.

In the US, this would mean getting both sides to agree that black Americans’ grievances are valid and that peaceful political demonstration should not be suppressed.

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Just as many American protesters are rioting and looting, it is undeniable that some Hong Kong protesters have turned to vandalism and vigilantism. Condemning violence is easy, but the past year of condemnation in Hong Kong – as with the cries for peaceful protest in the US – has done little to curtail violence.

Indeed, some of Hong Kong’s most violent protester-police clashes happened in November, five months after the June 12 altercation outside the Legislative Council.

Momentarily stopping violence is easy – all you need is a well-equipped police force. But using brute force only sows the seeds of greater discontent, radicalisation and long-term instability.

Resolving the causes of violence is harder but necessary. We need a comprehensive basket of solutions, including judicious punishments and legal sanctions, rehabilitative community programmes, and systemic reforms in governance to convince the public that violence is not the way out.

If it does not act now, the US today could well be Hong Kong tomorrow and find itself embroiled in a de facto civil war between the public and the government.

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Those who view democracy through rosy lenses must realise that democracy alone cannot heal a deeply divided and polarised society. In the US, governance is clearly broken, making the country now perhaps the worst advocate for liberal democracy.

The way out is not unrestrained majoritarianism ending up with disenfranchised minorities, neither is it authoritarian rollbacks of civil liberties. Politicians should exhibit courage and responsibility by listening, apologising and making amends – otherwise, all talk of restoring “peace and stability” is futile.

Brian YS Wong is an MPhil (political theory) candidate at Wolfson College, Oxford, and current Rhodes Scholar-elect for Hong Kong in 2020

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: George Floyd protests provide potent lessons for Hong Kong

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