Hong Kong police defend arrest of Baptist University student leader for possessing laser pointers, even as lawmaker and professors question evidence to prove motive of accused

Police call items ‘laser guns’ and defend arrest by demonstrating power of beams they produced at press conference

Lawmaker and professors condemn arrest, saying pointers were bought legally and it was not clear if they were meant to harm anyone

Reading Time:4 minutes

Chief Superintendent of Police Public Relations Branch John Tse (centre) says the beams emitted from the laser pointers can “flash blind” someone and also cause serious eye injuries. Photo: Roy Issa

Published: 9:41pm, 7 Aug 2019Updated: 11:30pm, 7 Aug 2019

Hong Kong police have defended the arrest of a student leader for possessing 10 laser pointers by experimentally showing at a press conference on Wednesday how the beams they emitted could burn a hole in sheet of paper in 10 seconds.

Describing the seized items as “laser guns”, Chief Superintendent John Tse Chun-chung of Police Public Relations Branch said the beams could “flash blind” someone and also cause serious eye injuries.

To make their point, police pointed one of the lasers at a piece of paper no more than arm’s length away.

Police said three of their officers needed medical treatment during the protests and violent clashes over the now-abandoned extradition bill in the past two months, after demonstrators pointed lasers at them.

The force conducted their demonstration less than 24 hours after Keith Fong Chung-yin, 20, the president of Baptist University Students’ Union, was arrested for possessing 10 of the pointers.

Police officers pointed one of the lasers at a piece of paper at arm’s length away to show how it could burn in 10 seconds. Photo: Roy Issa

Fong was taken into custody after he spent HK$4,200 (US$536) to buying pointers from a stall in Apliu Street, Sham Shui Po, at about 7.30pm on Tuesday. His arrest prompted hundreds of protesters to besiege the district police station that evening.