Hong Kong protests: security chief John Lee lays blame for water-barrier obstruction across city on ‘rioters’
- Security fencing around police stations, government buildings is causing problems for city’s disabled, opposition lawmakers say
- Lee says barriers are only in place because of ‘violent acts’ and such measures will not be needed if protests are peaceful
Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu and legislators locked horns in the Legislative Council on Wednesday over the measures, which were installed around police stations and government buildings following the escalation of the unrest that started last summer.
The debate was triggered by Labour Party lawmaker Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung when he referred to complaints from wheelchair users, who he said had reported that a large number of the water-filled barriers erected on pavements outside official buildings were getting in their way.
Displaying a photograph of water barriers blocking nearly half the passageway leading to a lift on a footbridge connecting to the government headquarters, he said: “How can wheelchairs pass such a narrow path?”
Cheung said visually impaired people also complained that tactile guide paths linking to those premises were blocked by the barriers.
The perimeter fencing has remained in place even as the protests sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill last June have been reduced in scale over recent months.