Hong Kong | Police reputation suffers as officers get a bad name

As the Occupy Central protests stretch into yet another weekend, the reputation of Hong Kong’s police force is suffering in the eyes of local residents. Long known as “Asia’s finest”, Hong Kong’s bobbies in blue risk being cast in an unfavorable light by some for their harsh-handedness towards Occupy Central protesters following their now infamous use of tear gas back in October. Yet while Occupy supporters berate them, anti-Occupy factions are also becoming disillusioned, claiming the police aren’t doing enough to ensure the city remains safe day-to-day in the long-standing confrontation with groups occupying the city’s Admiralty and Mongkok districts.
One of the groups disappointed by police behavior is Hong Kong’s expat community. Following a police check on Wednesday night at the popular Mes Amis bar in Mongkok by about 20 officers, a witness posted comments on Facebook regarding his confronting one officer over his perception of the force’s disproportionate actions.
This attitude of mistrust was also reflected yesterday at a demonstration in Admiralty following the arrest of two Occupy Central marshals the day before. Alex Kwok Siu-kit and Ricky Or Yiu-lam were arrested after restraining attackers who threw animal organs at Next Media Chairman Jimmy Lai Chee-ying in Admiralty, the South China Morning Post reported. The two marshals joined about 100 demonstrators on a march to police headquarters yesterday afternoon to protest the charges.
According to an article by Alan Yu, the marchers echoed statements made by pro-democracy lawmakers at an earlier press conference, who said they were worried about government officials and police management pressuring officers on the ground to serve political ends.
Occupy marshal Or said this could destroy trust in the police. “For years, we were taught to help the police fight crime. But it turns out helping the police means we’ll start as witnesses and end up as suspects and get charged”, SCMP quoted him as saying.
Likewise, fellow marshal Kwok, a union leader, stressed that protesters had nothing against officers on the ground. “We don’t want to oppose police officers on the front line. Our enemy is the Hong Kong government,” Kwok told the paper.
Further public mistrust has been stoked by reports that many of the troublemakers who engaged in violent acts last month at the Mongkok protest site while police stood idly by were working for the triads or on behalf of the central government. A report in yesterday’s SCMP City Digest revealed that a defendant currently on trial for damaging a passer-by’s cellphone in Mongkok claimed he was a spy for Beijing. Mo Nim-luen maintained in court that he was a member of the Ministry of State Security, despite the judge insisting that his secret identity was irrelevant to the proceedings. VM