Hong Kong police groups call for tougher emergency powers as officers fire record numbers of tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and beanbag rounds
- Junior Police Officers’ Association warns that force cannot deal with problem alone, while Hong Kong Police Inspectors’ Association echoes call
- Government accused of failing to take any effective measures, with police performing duties in war zone-like ‘riots’
A day after radical anti-government protesters marred China’s National Day celebrations with a violent rampage across Hong Kong, police revealed that they had fired about 1,400 rounds of tear gas, 900 rubber bullets, 190 beanbag rounds and 230 sponge-tipped rounds at them.
That was in a single day, contrasting with 3,100 tear gas rounds, 590 rubber bullets, 80 beanbag rounds and 290 sponge-tipped rounds between June 9, when trouble first broke out over the now-withdrawn extradition bill, and September 20.
Police also fired six live rounds on October 1, and arrested 269 people, aged 12 to 71, for various offences, including rioting. Among them were 93 students.
A total of 117 people were taken to hospital, and 30 officers were injured as well.
While appealing for more powers to crack down on protest violence, the Junior Police Officers’ Association (JPOA) complained that the city’s embattled leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, had failed to offer any concrete solutions to the months-long crisis, and that the force could not deal with it alone.