Albert Cheng

Opinion | Hong Kong police aren’t even doing their real jobs any more. Carrie Lam must restore discipline in the force

Mistrust of police is widespread as Hong Kong enters a new year. The chief executive believes she can restore order and win over the public again with the support of the central government and police. She’s very much mistaken

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Police detain a group of people after a protest march in Hong Kong on January 1. Photo: AFP

Albert Cheng

Published: 6:00am, 10 Jan 2020Updated: 6:53am, 10 Jan 2020

The political turmoil resulting from the extradition bill has lasted more than six months. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has officially withdrawn the bill, but still won’t set up an independent inquiry into police conduct during the protests. Obviously, it is due to the strong opposition of the police, who fear liability for their violence.

As police brutality continues, so the government continues to fall out of favour. According to the latest poll, only 12 per cent of respondents would vote for Lam if they could, while 81 per cent would not. Clearly, police are Lam’s last instrument of control. Hence her reluctance to go against them or green-light an investigation into their actions.

In fact, the government could have borrowed a solution from former governor Murray MacLehose, who handled the conflict between police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption back in the 1970s by granting a partial amnesty to officers involved in corruption cases before a cut-off date. The current administration could have done something similar, with regard to protesters and police.

But it didn’t, and that ship has sailed. After months of intensifying police brutality and complaints of unreasonable arrests, the public is in no mood to accept an amnesty for police. Some protesters have even declared that they would rather go to jail than allow police to get away with brutality.

Following the pitched battles at Chinese University and Polytechnic University, the radical camp was severely depleted and the streets were calmer for a couple of weeks. Again, the government could have held out an olive branch, taken police in hand and allowed the city to recuperate over the festive period. Instead, Christmas was stolen from Hong Kong.

Protesters and police, in uniform or not, turned up at malls. Arrests were made, and tear gas was fired. There was more chaos in Kowloon on New Year’s Eve, which marked four months since the Prince Edward station incident.