Hong Kong’s biggest police union slams ‘shameless’ and ‘despicable’ organiser of rally after attacks on four plain-clothes officers
- Junior Police Officers’ Association accuses group spokesman of inciting the crowd, resulting in four officers being surrounded and beaten up
- Separately, force denies allegation one of its officers deliberately showed reporter’s ID card to a camera
Hong Kong’s biggest police association has called the organiser of a rally that descended into mayhem on Sunday “shameless” and “despicable”, accusing its spokesman of inciting the crowd, resulting in four plain-clothes officers being attacked by protesters.
The condemnation by the Junior Police Officers’ Association (JPOA) on Monday came after chaotic scenes erupted at the protest for universal suffrage in Chater Garden, Central the previous day. Two police community relations officers tried to call an early end to the rally, which the force had approved, after outbreaks of violence.
But the organiser, Ventus Lau Wing-hong, handed one of them a microphone and told him to make the declaration. Protesters quickly surrounded the police pair and attacked them, leaving them with bloody head wounds.
As the pair fled with colleagues, they were again surrounded and beaten with sticks and other weapons.
Lau said on Sunday night he did not recognise the pair and asked to see their warrant cards, and that it was an operational failure by police to send a few officers into the crowd.
But in a letter to its 28,000 members on Monday, JPOA chairman Lam Chi-wai said: “To one’s surprise, the organiser was doubtful about the identity of the attacked public community relations officers, and incited the sentiment of the protesters.
“After the attack on the officers, the spokesman shifted responsibility to police. It is shameless.”
Lam and police said the officers had earlier met Lau to discuss arrangements for the rally and it was not possible he did not recognise them.
“The organiser trashed relations and trust with public community officers and integrity counted for nothing. Such behaviour is despicable,” the letter said.
Officers used pepper spray to disperse protesters and several rounds of tear gas were fired.
Immediately after speaking to reporters in the evening, Lau, a spokesman for the group Hong Kong Civil Assembly Team, was arrested for obstructing police and violating the conditions laid out in the force’s letter of no objection for the rally.
Senior Superintendent Ng Lok-chun told a radio programme that Lau had failed to declare the rally over. However, footage showed Lau had announced the end of the rally at about 4pm and called on protesters to leave peacefully.
Separately, police have defended their use of pepper spray after journalists were caught up in the dispersal of anti-government protesters in Mong Kok on Sunday night.
Two officers attacked, tear gas fired and organiser arrested in rally chaos
Chief Superintendent Kwok Ka-chuen, of the police public relations branch, said the journalists affected by pepper spray were among a crowd that included masked individuals, but said he would instruct officers to exercise more caution when deploying the chemical irritant.
“Of course, we do not want to misfire at reporters. I will remind officers to be more aware of who is around and to issue more warnings before using pepper spray,” Kwok told RTHK on Monday.
Anti-government protesters staged a flash mob protest on Sunday night, blocking roads around Dundas Street, Sai Yeung Choi Street and Soy Street as riot police chased after them.
Police appeared to drag a reporter out of a shop where he had been receiving treatment for pepper spray. RTHK, Stand News and HK01 reporters were among those affected by the chemical agent.
In a statement, RTHK’s spokeswoman said police had used “unreasonable force” when reporters were cooperating with police orders and moving away.
However, Kwok emphasised the pepper spray had been used as part of a dispersal operation against an unlawful assembly, adding people wearing masks and first aid workers were also in the crowd.
Similar incidents occurred at previous protests, when police repeatedly advised reporters not to film officers at “zero distance” as such behaviour would obstruct dispersal operations and that masked protesters would use journalists as a cover. In one case, a man mingled with reporters and the crowd and slashed a police officer in the neck.
In the past the force has also said persons suspected of “impersonating” reporters engaged in acts inconsistent with the duties of reporters, and even attempted to obstruct police enforcement, participate in illegal and violent acts, snatch suspects from police officers.
Hong Kong privacy watchdog to investigate police officer over doxxing allegation
Earlier on Sunday, a Stand News reporter covering the Chater Garden rally was stopped and searched twice in nearby Admiralty.
In a video capturing the search published on the media organisation’s Facebook page, the officer could be seen holding out the reporter’s identity card to the journalist’s camera, which had been filming live.
“Of course, privacy is an important issue to us, but we still need to investigate the details of this case,” Kwok said, adding the journalist could make an official complaint if he was unhappy.
The reporter was not wearing a press vest at the time of the incident, Kwok added.
Stand News’ Ronson Chan, who appeared on the radio show after Kwok, said his colleague was displaying his press pass and it was clear the officer knew he was being filmed because he could be heard on camera telling the reporter to stop recording.
The reporter’s camera phone was later snatched out of his hands and damaged in the process, Stand News reported.
Chan, who also had his ID card displayed on a live stream while covering a protest last December in Tai Po, said police treated reporters differently to others when they were stopped.
“You will not see police loudly reading out a normal person’s name when they are searching them, but they do that to reporters,” Chan said.
The Privacy Commissioner issued a statement saying it would investigate both incidents.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association expressed “extreme anger” over the ID card and pepper spray incidents and seriously condemned the force, accusing police of continuously breaking their promise to respect freedom of the press and the right to media coverage.
