Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Seen in the cold light of day

I don't think there will be many people wanting
to answer that call now...
Can they possibly be proud of their (colleagues') actions



djmblue said...

This is extremely upsetting. The teargas and the pepper spray, I can ALMOST see the rationalization but a group of officers kicking a handcuffed man? That is unacceptable.

YTSL said...

Hi djmblue --

In recent weeks, we have seen occurrences on the streets of Hong Kong that previously we only saw in Hong Kong films.

E.g., the assault on Ken Tsang looked like a scene from a movie. Only if in the movie the "good" police did that, it'd be against Triads who had done something truly awful -- not a social worker, and one entrusted to be on the nominating committee for the chief executive to boot!

nulle said...

HK Police just becoming an organization of Licensed Thugs.

HK Police is becoming more like PRC Public Security Bureau everyday.

I see ZERO rationalization for a group of HK Police beating the stuff out of Ken Tsang no matter what Ken alleged pour over them. Ken Tsang is already arrested!

YTSL said...

Hi Nulle --

The "nicest" explanation for what's happened that I can come up with is this: the Hong Kong police actually are NOT used to having to deal with this kind of thing (to emphasize how unusual the events of the past 2 and a half weeks are). Therefore, some of its members have over-reacted as a result of shock, are cracking under pressure, etc.

Part of the pressure may come from having the feeling/idea that if they fail in their assigned duties, the PLA (and thugs from the mainland) will be sent in -- and as we well know, the PLA is capable of much worse along with those thugs.

But yes, this is a theory to try to explain, not a rationalisation. If you are supposed to be upholders of the law, you do NOT do things like gang up to beat up a defenceless man (whose hands were literally tied)!

nulle said...

I rather have the PLA showed up as compared to the HK Police since having the PLA on the streets of HK does more damage to CCP image and reminds us of history in 1989 (and possibly lead to a hit in international investment of China.)

HK Police are held at a higher standard, otherwise the HK Police can not be trusted and have ZERO creditability.

US Police beat protesters all the time, but they are throwing rocks and m-cocktails. US Police also gets sued for (tens of) millions and some officers go to prison (for life) On top of that, Police procedures are change to prevent police brutality from occuring again...

YTSL said...

Hi Nulle --

I am appalled by your statement that you'd rather have the PLA show up for action on the streets of Hong Kong than the Hong Kong police. I don't think anyone who turns up at the Occupy protest areas -- or those who turn up for the annual June 4th vigil and/or July 1 marches would want that.