Four men who were arrested after joining a rally against development plans for the northeastern New Territories a month ago say they are outraged that police have refused to launch a criminal investigation into their police brutality claims. "They [officers] just told us all accusations involving police officers go to CAPO [the force's Complaints Against Police Office]," Napo Wong Weng-chi, a member of the League of Social Democrats, said yesterday. Wong said he got the explanation only after he demanded a response and that officers did not take any statements relating to the alleged incident. Wong - along with lawmaker Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung's assistant Chow Chun-yu, and activists Jaco Chow Nok-hang and Leung Wing-lai - have claimed that while being taken by police van to Aberdeen police station on June 13, anti-triad officers turned off the lights and drew the curtains, then beat and spat on them non-stop for 20 minutes. Wong said he had little faith in the police complaint system, as no complaints of police brutality had ever been endorsed by the force or the police watchdog. In 2012-13, the police faced 323 allegations of assault, and none of the complaints were classified as "substantiated" under the current complaint system. Icarus Wong Ho-yin, of the Civil Human Rights Front , accused the force of double standards. "Would police tell the rape victim to complain to CAPO instead?" asked Wong, referring to the 2008 incident in which a 21-year-old woman who reported the loss of her mobile phone to police was raped by a detective inside Mong Kok police station. "Making a complaint to CAPO doesn't reflect the severity of this case; the police should at least launch a criminal investigation," he said. In response to media inquiries, the police said the case had been referred to CAPO and it would be handled according to established procedures.
