Four activists demand criminal probe into police brutality claims
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.
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.