Emotional Hong Kong security chief blasts mockery of officer’s death at sea, says city determining if laws broken
- Chris Tang questions how Hong Kong ‘has become such a cold-blooded place’, accusing creators of rap parody of inciting hatred against police
- Four members of the city’s disciplined services are currently suspended over online comments celebrating senior police inspector Lam Yuen-yee’s death
Hong Kong’s security chief has said authorities are determining whether members of the city’s disciplined services suspended last week for mocking the death of an inspector may also have broken criminal laws.
Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung on Saturday said he felt “regret and anger” over the incident, in which four officers, including a member of the force, made comments celebrating the death of senior police inspector Lam Yuen-yee, who was killed in an anti-smuggling marine operation.
“I doubt whether they still honour their original intention of serving residents,” Tang, the city’s police commissioner until his promotion in June, told a radio programme.
“As disciplinary service staff, they should put themselves in others’ shoes and understand that their colleague worked hard for Hong Kong.”
After Lam’s body was found in the waters off Lantau Island, a constable attached to Ma On Shan Police Station allegedly took to social media to say she “deserved” to die, while an assistant at the Correctional Services Department posted: “It’s so satisfying to see a million people happy with the incident”.