Daughter of South Korean farmer who died of injuries from water cannon warns Hong Kong police the weapon is far from non-lethal
- Baek Nam-gi died 10 months after being knocked over by a powerful jet of water during an anti-government protest in 2015
- Daughter says water cannons are not necessary to maintain public order
As Hong Kong police prepare to deploy their new water cannons at anti-government protests, the daughter of a South Korean farmer who died of injuries inflicted by a similar weapon three years ago warned that the supposedly non-lethal jets can be deadly even if officers exercise extreme caution.
Baek Doraji, daughter of farmer Baek Nam-gi, called on Hong Kong police to release in full the cannons’ operational guidelines for the sake of transparency, as the city’s opposition lawmakers have repeatedly demanded to no avail.
“It is not necessary for police to use this harmful weapon on citizens,” Baek, 37, said in an interview. “As far as I know, [South Korean police] have never used water cannons since my father’s accident.”
She said that, even though water cannons are supposed to be non-lethal, in reality police struggle to control what parts of protesters’ bodies they hit because the target is moving, especially during chaotic situations and at night.
In November 2015, her father was struck by a water cannon’s jet during a protest against then president Park Geun-hye, who is now serving a 24-year jail term for corruption. The farmer fell backwards, hit his head and lost consciousness. He remained in a coma and died about 10 months later. He was 68.