Hong Kong police admit ‘mistargeting’ colleagues during operations against protesters but deny hitting undercover officer with baton
- Senior Superintendent Kelvin Kong said plain-clothes officer was let go while man hit with baton was later arrested, dismissing suggestions he was a policeman
- Most of the incidents happened in shopping centres in chaotic situations, he said
Hong Kong police admitted on Friday that officers had “mistargeted” their colleagues during clearance operations against anti-government protesters over Christmas by wrongly intercepting a plain-clothes detective and hitting a commander with pepper spray.
“It was very chaotic and in the past few days, most of these circumstances happened in shopping malls, where there was a large number of rioters and our officers,” Kong said, adding that officers were sometimes mistargeted.
During a mall protest in Sha Tin on Christmas Day, Chief Superintendent Rupert Dover was hit by police pepper spray during a clearance operation.
Kong said police were limited to using batons and pepper spray inside malls and no great harm would have been done to protesters or officers.