Hong Kong's steady descent into a police state

[MatthieuTofu]

Meanwhile down in the southern hemisphere...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...KBN1XU09J?il=0

[MatthieuTofu]

https://twitter.com/ofarry/status/11...077426177?s=21

[MatthieuTofu]

https://twitter.com/stegersaurus/sta...06963224940544

[hongkong7]

I think most police forces struggle with the balance of higher crime rates in the urban poor and many urban poor being ethnic minorities. HK Police is no different. A nepalese chef is more likely to be stopped on the street than a french chef in this town (OK now it;s school kids)

I think on about 5 or 6 occasions when an occasional poster has made bold statements that UK/USA/AUS/USA etc the riot control measures would be much more violent I have asked for recent videos to support this. Nada. If is an easy to spin narrative but not true.

Yeah there is a cop in Australia today on charge unnecessarily using baton on under age not resisting arrest : I have no idea who is guilty but the narrative cops in Australia would give everyone a good hiding is false .
Also Australian cops are not trigger happy just look at Lindt cafe siege : actually they were too slow .
USA I have no idea

[Pauljoecoe]

There will always be the exception that goes rogue and to extremes but my gut feeling is that on the whole UK police are quite restrained, profession and well trained. There is also a thorough system for bringing those who abuse their power to account. Of course your average on the street 'bobby' doesn't carry guns anyway.

I get the feeling that in the USA there may be more trigger happy cops around. Not very knowledgable on Australia.

However, the amount of out of control police here in HK does seem fairly extreme. I have viewed countless excess and unnecessary violence videos around on the internet.

e.g. https://twitter.com/casliveas1/status/1197588289772900354?s=20

[AsianXpat0]

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...909-5/fulltext

Police subsequently assaulted the campus at about 0530 h. At least one doctor who was actively providing medical care to a casualty was arrested.

As social media messages circulated about injured students unable to receive care, the public disquiet increased. In the early morning, I called the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to seek their consideration of involvement.

When questioned about the arrest of medical aid workers at a press conference on the evening of Nov 18, 2019, police asserted that they had intelligence that rioters were masquerading as doctors (and first-aiders) and therefore these people had to be arrested so as to confirm their identity.2This is doubtful since all doctors were in possession of their Medical Council of Hong Kong registration details and identity cards. At least five doctors are known to have been arrested and detained by police for more than 24 h. The police also misleadingly claimed they had invited the Red Cross intervention (Head of Operations of the Hong Kong Red Cross, personal communication).

[bammunu]

If true, there still might be slightest, faintest glimmer of hope. This lady is usually right in the thick of things, so I will take this report at its face value.

https://twitter.com/selina_cheng/sta...27102725836801

[drumbrake]

If true, there still might be slightest, faintest glimmer of hope. This lady is usually right in the thick of things, so I will take this report at its face value.

https://twitter.com/selina_cheng/sta...27102725836801

The story does not add up in several ways.

- security is very tight at the PolyU checkpoint. It's not just a case of showing your ID and getting in. You need to be on a list of people who have been given permission to enter first.
- cops don't come to you, you need to go to a desk to sign in
- I'm sure there are good cops around, but there's only a small group of cops at the checkpoint, so this one would be easily identified if he wrote something down.
- Why write it down - just say it out of earshot of other cops

[AsianXpat0]

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/11/2...-duty-loyalty/

https://twitter.com/LIHKGPick...616714240?s=03

Interesting allegations in the second link.

[William06]

If true, there still might be slightest, faintest glimmer of hope. This lady is usually right in the thick of things, so I will take this report at its face value.

https://twitter.com/selina_cheng/sta...27102725836801

PR effort.