HK Police - your rights?

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  1. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by KnowItAll:
    Claire - Just having that memorized is suspicious enough.


    I just know my way around BLIS, sometimes need to advise people on their rights. Never been stopped and asked for my ID card by the police - even after more than twenty years in HK. Guess I don't look suspicious enough.

  2. #12

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    Me neither in ten. I've been asked for it as a witness to a road traffic accident, and many years ago it was suggested to me that I might like to leave a premise where they were carding most of the other people present


  3. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by KnowItAll:
    we all know that "behaving suspiciously" is a bit like porn "I know it when I see it" ( [[/url] )
    Surely NOT looking at porn is suspicious !!

  4. #14

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    Well I've now been stopped twice and asked for ID (which I have always carried). While it isn't nice re being stopped and showing my ID, its their job, that is fine, and I have nothing to hide.

    Its the questions I have been asked on both occasions. Samples include:

    - Where do you live
    - Where are you going
    - What job do you have (and they look very surprised at my response)
    - Are you going to work tomorrow (which I have no idea why they are asking me that)
    - Oh you have lots of money with you (I had 6 HK$100 bills with me)
    - Where are you from
    - Will you leave HK once your contract has expired
    - When did you arrive to HK

    Reading the ordinance, seems they can stop me and ask for ID, however it doesn't say anything about asking such questions, unless I guess they are suspicious that I have or will commit a crime. However, why would the above questions help them determine if I have or will commit a crime?


  5. #15

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    The Hong Kong police use a horrible profiling system when it comes to stopping people.

    In my previous job, one of the programmers (local early 20s) went out his hair dyed brown / blond.

    He was stopped a few times a day (no kidding). Four or five days later .. he fixed his hair color and was not stopped anymore...

    Go figure ..


  6. #16

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    These days so many people dye their hair brown or blonde that the police couldn't stop them all! LOL Mind you, I do think they should stop those with that horrible reddish purply dyed hair - absolutely ghastly and is, IMO, a crime against good taste.


  7. #17

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    Pin - must be that Chungking mansions look that you have when you're in your work attire. (And I'm NOT joking about this).

    South Asians get stopped more often due to the illegal workers being employed by govt sub contractors... (spot the irony in this)

    I'm surprised to hear though that you've taken so much crap from them after having told them what you do when you're not in your Clark Kent outfit.


  8. #18

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    I hope it's not going to go crescendo until the Horse Olympics...
    The cops here are quite scary. I don't know if it's the tone of their voice, but they make everything sound so dramatic. I got pulled over this weekend, the traffic cop was so angry and flustered, screaming at us, that my kids started to cry! For a nothing offense that he eventually let me off for....


  9. #19

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    I have not been stopped but being an older WM makes it less likely here.

    I know many other HK younger people who have been stopped including my local friend who says he got stopped one night a few weeks ago while walking to a pub to meet me (he has lived here all his life).

    First, I should admit my bias. I worked in the police business for some years and see things a bit different than a pure rights point of view. I am a true believer in rights and freedoms of individuals but only to the point they harm others.

    I was born and raised in Vancouver and I have seen that City and the suburbs deteriorate along with the police ability to control crime due to changing community standards. That City is relatively safe for most, but nothing like HK where I can walk late at night in most areas and not fear being robbed or shot. Vancouver has far too many areas where you can no longer say that.

    The police now have far more restrictions in Canada and the scales protect wrong doers far too much. In the 1970s if the police in Canada did not inform a person of their rights, it didn't get the case dismissed. It would be a judgment call by the Judge not a knock out blow like Miranda in the USA. Now it is a knock out blow. No rights or the rights screwed up or arguable, case dismissed.

    Similarly now the police have to give warning in Canada that they have a search warrant and are coming into a dwelling house with a search warrant! Bizzare!!!! The whole idea of that was to catch them off guard so the evidence could not be destroyed or they wouldn't start shooting.

    I could go on and on but the point is this. HK people enjoy what seems to be a very, very safe city. If the scales are tipped in the favour of personal rights like in Canada, it just means that it truly becomes the "criminal justice system" versus justice for all.

    I know all the arguments about - if we give up our freedoms the government will keep taking more and more away. I am not sure that cuts it.

    The public good has to prevail over individual rights not to be stopped and asked questions as much as you don't want to have that happen to you. It is something to ponder. Safety or the right to walk in freedom and be mugged.

    This is not a black and white issue either as the mere presence of more police in HK is a huge deterrent to crime which is not the case in Canada. They haven't the police numbers there but they never have too few parking cops to give out money making tickets to cars. Crime doesn't pay the City so they dont give the police the resources to clean up the downtown eastside.

    Last edited by Football16; 13-05-2008 at 07:14 PM.

  10. #20

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    >> I worked in the police business

    At which point, I'd like to point out that not all cops are created the same. Just like any workplace, you have the good apples, the bad apples and some durians too.