Police watchdog reveals details of Occupy protestor assault probe
Superintendent Franklin Chu King-wai was accused of hitting passer-by Osman Cheng Chung-hang with his baton in Mong Kok during the 2014 protests
The police watchdog said on Wednesday it would not tolerate the force “shielding” its officers from investigations as it revealed details of how it objected to the force’s clearing a former senior officer for assaulting a bystander during the 2014 Occupy protests.
The watchdog also for the first time revealed details on how it upheld its stance on the case and the divergence from the internal complaints unit of the police.
The saga dated back to November 26 2014, when Superintendent Franklin Chu King-wai was accused of hitting passer-by Osman Cheng Chung-hang with his baton in Mong Kok, which prompted Cheng to lodge an assault complaint to the force’s Complaints Against Police Office (CAPO), which later ruled the case to be unsubstantiated.
But the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC), the force’s watchdog which reviews CAPO’s probes, revealed on Wednesday that after examining 12 related videos, it asked the office to consider substantiating the assault allegation. It said Chu should not have used force on the complainant continuously, as he was just walking in an orderly manner.
“The force guidelines provide that once the intended purpose has been achieved, the use of force shall cease,” the watchdog said in a report released on Wednesday.
“From the video footage it could be seen that the direction in which the superintendent swung his baton was, at a certain point, opposite the direction towards which the crowds were dispersing.”
In response, CAPO amended the allegation to a less serious one of “unauthorised use of authority” and claimed that Chu had wrongly used his police powers.
In June last year, the watchdog upheld Cheng’s complaint of assault against Chu and insisted on giving the officer a written warning, but the verdict was again rejected by CAPO before it finally U-turned and agreed.
After seeking advice from the Department of Justice, the force launched a criminal probe against Chu in February but had not yet decided if a prosecution should follow. Chu retired in July last year.
When asked if the watchdog found the force were trying to help Chu get out of trouble, the deputy secretary-general of the council, Daniel Mui Tat-ming, said: “You can see from the definition of assault and unauthorised use of authority, there is a fine difference.”
“Anyone shielding police officers is absolutely intolerable in the view of the IPCC,” he added.
The council’s chairman, Larry Kwok Lam-kwong, interjected, saying he did not find any evidence to show such circumstances were present in this case.
“CAPO has completed the criminal investigation of the relevant case. The case has been passed to the Department of Justice pending further legal advice,” a police spokeswoman said.
Overall, the watchdog endorsed 168 reportable complaints from 2014 Occupy protests. Nine officers faced disciplinary action.
