Man, 22, hit and subdued after
taunting police by asking ‘Did you lose your conscience?’
By ALMEN CHUI
A 22-year-old passerby has been
arrested and faces a possible charge of “disorder in public” after taunting a
group of riot police with questions about their ability to tell right from
wrong.
On Monday night, the
22-year-old man surnamed Chu stood on the sidewalk at the intersection of
Nathan Road and Boundary Street in Kowloon while a group of riot police stood
on an opposite street.
The riot police were deployed
as protesters had surrounded the Mong Kok Police Station.
It was understood that Chu,
wearing a white T-shirt at that time, shouted at the officers: “Sir, did you
drop something? Did you lose your conscience, [your] humanity?” and “Where were
you on July 21? Where were you when gangsters beat up people?”
A reporter from Apple Daily
captured the moment, which saw at least five riot police chase Chu, hit him
with batons several times and subdue him in the middle of the road.
Chu used his hands to protect
his head while a police officer kicked him a few times. Chu cried: “I have done
nothing wrong, I was only scolding you.”
Chu suffered head
injuries, as blood was seen coming from his head on to his T-shirt.
He was taken to a police vehicle and later sent to hospital for medical
treatment. He needed five stitches for his head wound and was detained in the
hospital.
Reporters inquired about the
event at the daily police press conference on Tuesday, asking what remarks by
the man broke the law and lead to him being arrested. Bradley Wright, district
commander of Mong Kok, said police actions were based on the rule of law and
evidence.
When asked if citizens would
be taken away by police for simply shouting at them, Wright said no one would
be arrested for expressing a view. But, he did not say what the Chu had
actually done to break the law.
After further questioning,
Wright said they would investigate whether the man had committed other offenses
such as “disorder in public places”.
People say there have been
other cases like this. Shatin district councilor Raymond Li was arrested on
Sunday in Tai Wai in the New Territories after shouting at a group of police
outside the MTR station: “Black cops who brutally beat up citizens are
despicable.”
Anson Wong Yu-yat, a human
rights lawyer, said charges of ‘disorder in a public place’ could not be tied
to the sort of remarks these men appear to have been arrested for, news website
HKCNEW.com reported.
Under Public Order Ordinance 17B, any person who in any
public place behaves in a noisy or disorderly manner with the intent to provoke
a breach of the peace, or whereby a breach of the peace is likely to be caused,
shall be guilty of an offense.
Wong explained that the law
did not focus on individual behavior. The focus should be behavior that has an
intention to provoke a breach of the peace.
He didn’t think the words
these men shouted actually broke the law of ‘disorder in a public place’.
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