Hong Kong Geheime Staatspolizei

Unidentified flinching object: In Hong Kong protests, police wage assault on facts
By David Crawshaw and Timothy McLaughlin

Riot police move to disperse protesters outside a police station in Hong Kong early Monday. 

HONG KONG — The “yellow object” lying on the ground had a distinct shape, evident in the video footage that surfaced later. 

Certainly, a good portion of it was bright yellow. 

It appeared to have arms. 

And two protrusions that resembled legs. 

Someone had dressed the object in dark-colored shorts.
As Hong Kong police officers swarmed over the object and roughed it up in a dark alley, it appeared to squirm.
In a city grown accustomed to clashes between demonstrators and police as the government responds to months of protests with tear gas and mass arrests, the incident on Saturday and the official response to it illustrated a breakdown in the relationship between the police force and the public.


Galileo Cheng@galileocheng
A high definition, in focus video showing the malpractice by the police, shot by Yuen Long resident Ben, obtained for @HKFrontline - Acting Senior SP (Ops)(NTN HQ) Vasco Williams, that is not an ‘yellow object’ #antiELAB #ExtraditionLaw #HongKongProtests


The episode underlined a harsh reality in this global financial hub, once admired for its legal system and official transparency. 

With Beijing asserting increasing control over the city’s institutions and Hong Kong’s leader refusing to allow an independent inquiry into police behavior, authorities here appear not to fear the consequences of violating protocols intended to uphold the rule of law.
Instead, their approach this week was to obfuscate.
Asked Monday about the incident in Yuen Long, an outlying area of Hong Kong, acting senior superintendent Vasco Williams said footage showed an “officer kicking a yellow object,” not a man lying on the ground.
“We don’t know what that object is, but there are other videos that are more clear that show the entire incident,” he said. 

“And there’s no malpractice by the police whatsoever.” 

There was no assault, he added during a heated news conference.
The man shown in the video being kicked by police was a member of a group that deploys volunteers to negotiate between police and protesters at rallies, the group said. 

He was later arrested, local media reported.

Riot police stand guard behind a burning barricade after a protest march in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong, on Saturday. 

Williams conceded that the case warranted investigation but suggested that the video could have been “doctored” — an idea that was quickly debunked.
“Knowing you are being videoed, do you think any officer would be that stupid to assault someone under detention? I don’t think so,” Williams said. 

Hong Kong’s daily police briefings are carried by numerous news outlets and watched by thousands. Nearly as soon as Williams spoke, netizens pointed out that more than a month ago, two officers were arrested after being captured on security footage beating a 62-year-old man restrained in a hospital bed.
Shortly after the news conference, posts that appeared to be from Williams’s account on the job networking site LinkedIn were revealed, drawing even more negative attention to the police from those supporting the pro-democracy movement.
The account, which used the name Vasco W. and listed “Superintendent at the Hong Kong Police Force” as the job description, included derogatory comments about protesters, pro-democracy lawmakers and Hong Kong residents in recent months. 

Images of the posts were taken by The Washington Post before the account appeared to be deactivated.

Throughout the protests that have rocked the city, triggered by a now-shelved plan to allow extraditions to mainland China, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has refused to countenance an independent investigation into police tactics — one of protesters’ five demands.
Those tactics have become more forceful over recent weeks, with police making more than 1,550 arrests and deploying water cannons and stinging blue dye along with tear gas.
A report last week by Amnesty International accused the force of “reckless and indiscriminate” tactics, including torture, beatings and other mistreatment of detained protesters. 

The report followed criticism of the police by the United Nations.
Asked Tuesday how her government could rebuild trust in the police without a fully independent investigation, Lam said her backing of the force does not mean she “condones irregularities.” 

Lam has said the existing police watchdog has her “full support” to conduct fact-finding studies, but critics note that the body is headed by an official she handpicked, is packed with her associates and loyalists and is not authorized to call witnesses.
Pressed about the video of the “yellow object,” Lam said it would be difficult to opine on “what is right, what is wrong, what is true, what is fake, because there have been . . . different versions [of] the same incident.”
The police have been under extreme pressure, she said, adding it was “quite remarkable” that there have been no fatalities.

The protests represent a challenge to the authority of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, who warned in 2017 that any effort to contest China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong was a “red line.” 

Although not an independence movement, the protests have come as Xi faces pressure on numerous fronts, including China’s trade dispute with the United States, a slowing economy, rising food prices, a recalcitrant Taiwanese administration and accusations of cultural genocide against the Uighur people and other Muslim minorities in China’s East Turkestan colony.
Chinese authorities appear particularly anxious for calm ahead of Oct. 1, the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China. 

Protesters are planning to disrupt official events in Hong Kong, where the government has already canceled a fireworks show.
On Tuesday in Hong Kong, a pro-democracy lawmaker, Roy Kwong, was attacked by three masked men as he tried to get into his car. 

The trio kicked and punched Kwong and recorded the assault on video, according to other lawmakers from the democracy camp.
“The fact the attackers recorded the ambush leads me to believe that the attackers were paid to do this and the video would be needed as proof in order to get paid,” said James To, a pro-democracy lawmaker. 

“By beating him, it is sending quite an alarming signal that Hong Kong is a place without regard for rule of law.”

Amnesty International Condemns Police Aggression in Hong Kong Protests

BY FRANK FANG

Violence again erupted in Hong Kong’s Yuen Long on the evening of July 27 after hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered for a peaceful march in the afternoon to oppose an attack a week earlier by suspected triad members at the local metro station.
Amnesty International issued a statement following the violence, saying that the actions of the local police had been “unacceptable.”
“The violent scenes in Yuen Long tonight were in part because Hong Kong police chose to inflame a tense situation rather than deescalate it,” Amnesty said.

“For police to declare today’s protest unlawful was simply wrong under international law.”

Riot police fire tear gas towards protesters in the district of Yuen Long, Hong Kong, on July 27, 2019. 

It added: “While police must be able to defend themselves, there were repeated instances today where police officers were the aggressors; beating retreating protesters, attacking civilians in the train station, and targeting journalists. Alarmingly, such a heavy-handed response now appears the modus operandi for Hong Kong police and we urge them to quickly change course.”
On July 21, a group of men in white t-shirts, wielding wooden or metal poles, rushed into the Yuen Long metro station and began beating passengers, according to footage taken by commuters and journalists at the scene. 

Democratic party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting was among the at least 45 injured.
The attackers targeted any passengers dressed in black because they were likely to have taken part in a peaceful march earlier in the day against the Hong Kong government’s extradition bill. 

The march drew 430,000 people.
A number of attackers have since been arrested by the police, who noted that some had triad backgrounds.
The attacks triggered the UK government, the U.S. State Department, and multiple rights groups, including Amnesty International, to issue statements expressing concerns about the violence.

Reclaiming Yuen LongProtesters hold up signs saying how police had colluded with local gangs in a march on Yuen Long, Hong Kong, on July 27, 2019. 

The march on July 27, named “Reclaiming Yuen Long,” was organized by Hong Kong resident Max Chung to call on the government to meet seven demands, including the withdrawal of the extradition bill and an independent investigation into the violent civilian clashes on July 21.
The police did not grant Chung the approval for the march, and the Hong Kong’s Appeal Board on Public Meetings and Processions turned down his appeal of the decision on the grounds that such a march could pose threats to public safety given the events on July 21.
Despite the police objection, the march still proceeded, with participants marching from Shui Pin Tsuen Playground to Yuen Long’s metro station.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Eddie Chu and Leonard Cheng, President of Lingnan University of Hong Kong, were among the participants.
About 288,000 people took part in the march, according to Chung’s estimate.
Protesters join a march in Yuen Long, Hong Kong, on July 27, 2019. 

But the peaceful march quickly descended into clashes when police began firing tear gas, rubber bullets, and sponge grenades to disperse the crowds. 

Protesters were reportedly throwing rocks and bottles at police.
Hong Kong media reported that several reporters were hit by the police’s rubber bullets. 

Some protesters eventually retreated into Yuen Long metro station. 

Then, at around 10 p.m. local time, violence escalated as police moved in on protesters inside the station. 

According to Hong Kong media HKFP, baton-wielding police cornered protesters and some of them fell to the ground as people tried to flee. 

Bloodstains could be seen spattered on the floor.

An officer uses pepper spray to disperse protesters inside a metro station in the district of Yuen Long, Hong Kong, on July 27, 2019. 

At around 1 a.m. on July 28, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority announced that 24 people had been injured, with 2 in serious condition.
Hong Kong media The Stand News reported that 11 men aged between 18 and 68, had been arrested on charges including unlawful assembly, assaulting police officers, and possession of offensive weapons.
The Hong Kong government has since issued a statement, calling the Yuen Long march “illegal” and condemning “radical protesters” for deliberately breaking the law by charging at police cordon lines and blocking roads. 

It also stated that police would take serious follow-up actions with arrested protesters.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo in a press conference at noon on July 28 condemned the police again for use of excessive force on citizens, social workers, and journalists. 

She added that the police’s ban on the march, in contradiction to Hong Kong’s Basic Law that guarantees the freedom of assembly, had created a “vicious cycle” provoking more people to come out and protest.
At around 3 p.m. local time on July 28, Hong Kong media HK01 reported that Max Chung had been taken away by police on the charge of inciting unlawful assembly. 

Local police have since confirmed the arrest.