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Yonden Lhatoo
SCMP Columnist
Just Saying
by Yonden Lhatoo
Just Saying
by Yonden Lhatoo

Hong Kong police need to be whiter than white to shed their ‘black’ label as protests return

  • Yonden Lhatoo warns the public relations disaster gripping the police force over the recent arrests of officers has serious implications for tackling social unrest as the coronavirus crisis eases and anti-government protests return
A top police officer told me an interesting story about the siege of Polytechnic University last year, when anti-government protesters of the militant persuasion had occupied the campus.

He recalled intercepting and arresting a group of youngsters trying to flee the war zone and how he was struck by the reaction of a petrified teenager among them when she was being booked.

“Absolutely terrified, shaking,” was how he remembered her. “She thinks I will take her around the back and shoot her. Absolutely terrified.”

A police armoured vehicle burns amid violent clashes between radical protesters and officers at PolyU last year. Photo: Winson Wong

This is the pervasive perception of our police force among large swathes of the population, even though Hong Kong’s men and women in blue are far from the murderous bandits that clueless kids, scurrilous politicians and assorted deplorables with vested interests would have us believe.

The public image of police in Hong Kong has taken a beating. Photo: Winson Wong

I don’t know how this much-maligned force that once laid claim to the title of “Asia’s finest” can ever restore its reputation, but I can tell you what is certainly not helping – 18 officers being arrested for various offences over the past three weeks.

Two officers were found with more than HK$12 million worth of methamphetamine.

The most troubling case is that of four officers detained this week in connection with the record seizure of nearly 300kg of methamphetamine. Two were found to be in possession of more than HK$12 million worth of the drugs, suspected to have been pilfered from the crime scene before the massive haul was announced in a highly publicised move.

Veteran officer ‘may have stolen meth’ from scene of massive bust he oversaw

Just as serious, if not more so because it feeds right into the police-brutality narrative, is the treatment of street sleepers during a crackdown back in February. Nine officers have been arrested over two cases concerning allegations of laying false charges, destruction of property, and misconduct.

“It is shocking to learn that a few black sheep in the force have broken the law ... bringing disgrace to all of us,” a distraught police commissioner Chris Tang Ping-keung wrote in an internal memo to his 31,000-strong army. “I am not just furious over the dishonour brought to the force by such lawbreaking officers, I am deeply upset indeed to imagine that the efforts of other colleagues go in vain.”
Officers march in a parade to honour fallen colleagues. Photo: Winson Wong

To be fair to Tang and his crew, it’s worth adding some context here – 24 police officers were arrested last year, and the total for 2018 was 45. It’s too early to identify a clear trend, and these numbers are no cause for alarm when compared with those from other cities worldwide that enjoy a better reputation for freedom and democracy than Hong Kong.

But perception is everything at this critical juncture, as the city turns a corner in its struggle against the coronavirus crisis and the “revolution of our times” is raring to make a glorious return.

Police chief Chris Tang has called for an internal review of management. Photo: Simon Song

The thing is, this police force has done a lot of growing up and come a long way from being the unprepared, overwhelmed and demoralised entity that it was for much of last year in the face of extreme violence and relentless vilification. It may still be the sinner of a thousand years in the eyes of the protest movement, but it has become much more resolute, confident and aggressive in restoring law and order.

Officers arriving at IFC Mall in Central as protests return to Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So

Backing for the force from both Beijing and the local government is stronger and louder than ever, and all those arrests on the front lines of the protests appear to have sapped the movement’s appetite for militancy to a considerable extent.

But all that progress could easily be flushed down the toilet by a handful of rogue officers. The last thing we need is more fuel to feed the fires of public hatred, courtesy of some real “black cops”.

A group of police officers outside the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar. Photo: Winson Wong

The police chief has ordered an internal review of management, which is a start, but he’ll have to do a whole lot more to mop up the image of the force and weed out the undesirables.

A few bad apples in any organisation are a given, sure, but now, more than ever, the Hong Kong police force, more than any other, has to be whiter than white. There’s no other way around it.

Yonden Lhatoo is the chief news editor at the Post

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This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Police need to be whiter than white to shed black label
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