Hong Kong police double National Day deployment to 6,000 officers, citing threats to force and calls for violence
- Force anticipates chaos on Thursday despite banning request for march by opposition group
- Deployment is the largest in six months and officers will continue with strategy of quick and early intervention to prevent gatherings
Hong Kong police have doubled to 6,000 the number of officers they will deploy to handle any chaos that erupts on National Day after witnessing an increase in online messages calling for attacks on its members and other forms of violence on the public holiday, the Post has learned.
The threat to public order has been updated to “relatively high” from “moderate”, but police are still gathering intelligence and additional manpower will be mobilised if needed, according to an insider.
March organiser Civil Human Rights Front lost its appeal against a police ban on the procession and called on residents to wear black to show solidarity on Thursday. The Security Bureau defended the police’s decision, saying the right to assembly was not absolute.
The arranged manpower would be the biggest police deployment in the past six months, the insider said. The decision to allocate more officers was made during a high-level police meeting chaired by deputy chief Siu Chak-yee on Monday afternoon.
The Post understands police increased the number of assigned officers from 3,000 after reviewing risk assessments and noting an increasing number of messages posted online that advocated assaulting members of the force and other violence. The previous large-scale police deployment was on July 1, when about 5,000 riot officers were monitoring a protest that coincided with the anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.