Hong Kong police accused of provoking protesters and failing to wear ID during Mong Kok chaos after extradition bill march
- Force facing fresh criticism over handling of protesters after Sunday’s extradition demonstration in Kowloon
- Lawmaker group says officers lost control, but police insist dispersal was necessary for public safety and restoration of order
Hong Kong police came under renewed criticism as officers were accused of failing to display warrant cards and obstructing journalists from performing their duties during Sunday’s chaos in Mong Kok.
A police spokesman said on Monday night that plain-clothes officers must show their warrant cards and explain their identities while exercising their police power and dealing with the public.
Uniformed officers also needed to show their warrant cards except if doing so would affect the operations, harm the safety of the officers, or if the requests were unreasonable, he added.
Critics suspected the lack of visible warrant cards was a deliberate ploy to make it harder for protesters to make complaints against police.
A force spokesman said the purpose of the dispersal was to guarantee public safety and restore order as quickly as possible and to minimise the inconvenience caused to the public due to the road blockage.
“At around 9pm, police set up a cordon line at the junction of Nathan Road and Argyle Street. Despite repeated warnings issued by the police urging protesters to leave, some protesters refused to comply and even acted violently,” the police statement said.
“Police noticed the heavy crowd flow in the area, coupled with lots of narrow lanes, increasing the safety risk at the scene. As such, police decided to take dispersal action.”
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On Sunday afternoon, an estimated 230,000 protesters, according to organisers, marched peacefully through the tourist hotspot of Tsim Sha Tsui to the high-speed rail terminus at West Kowloon.
After the demonstration ended in the evening, thousands marched from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok, where officers formed a cordon and stopped protesters from advancing.
Five people were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer or obstructing officers in the execution of their duties in the clashes that followed Sunday’s protest, where another person was arrested earlier for failing to produce proof of identity.
Protesters were angry that many officers were not wearing their warrant cards. Among those not displaying the ID was a man in a grey T-shirt with a police helmet and shield, who was believed to be a plain-clothes officer.
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“Where is your warrant card? I suspect that you are impersonating an officer,” one protester shouted.
The supposed plain-clothes officer, standing in between several uniformed officers, shouted back: “Police officers do not need to show their warrant cards in execution of their duties.”
That led to commotion as other officers immediately asked their colleague to take a step back.
In other police dispersals in the past month, officers from the special tactical squads were criticised for not displaying any official identification.
But on Sunday, many officers not from the squad were also without their warrant cards on show.
Elsewhere, officers pushed a young man to the ground as police tried to get protesters out of the area.
Another man then started yelling at the officers that they could not walk any further as directed because vehicles were passing through. At this point, an officer shouted at that man and challenged him to a “one-on-one fight”.
Internet discussion forums and social media were flooded on Monday with criticism of the police actions.
Civil Rights Observer, a non-governmental organisation, said officers must wear their warrant cards as required under the Police General Orders. That police did not do so led to the tense stand-off with the protesters, the group said on Monday.
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The orders, which are officer rules set by the Commissioner of Police, stated that plain-clothes officers, when dealing with the public and exercising their police power, must identify themselves and produce their warrant cards.
At the scene of a crime, plain-clothes officers shall wear their cards “in such a manner that they may be readily identified”.
For uniformed officers, when a group of them are working together, only one of the officers present is required to produce his or her warrant card on request, the orders stated.
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In a joint statement to Police Commissioner Stephen Lo Wai-chung on Monday, 24 pro-democracy lawmakers said the police had lost control, abused their power and provoked the protesters.
They criticised the police for hitting protesters with batons and pushing some lawmakers at the scene with their shields.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association also said in a joint statement that officers had repeatedly pushed journalists on the front line and even assaulted them.
In one case, a photographer with Chinese media HK01 was elbowed in his abdomen by an officer while taking pictures of two tourists quarrelling.
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In response, a police spokesman said the force was willing to explain their work to lawmakers, but that must be carried out without affecting police operations.
He added police would facilitate journalists “under the condition that the effectiveness of police’s operation will not be compromised”.
Separately, former security minister Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said the Hong Kong police, compared with their foreign counterparts, had used much less force on protesters.
She added she hoped Hongkongers understood the officers had been under a lot of pressure.
Additional reporting by Su Xinqi and Sum Lok-kei
