The report said police officers fired tear gas at protesters on Sept. 28, but it did not mention that exactly 87 such bombs were fired. Photo: AFP
Govt accused of playing down negative events in Occupy report
The government has been accused of playing down several controversial events, including clashes between protesters and police officers, in its Report on the Recent Community and Political Situation in Hong Kong, Apple Daily reported Wednesday.
The report, which seeks to convey to the central government Hong Kong people’s sentiments toward Beijing’s political reform framework, said police officers fired tear gas at protesters on Sept. 28, but it did not mention the number of bombs that were fired — 87, to be exact.
The report also described the attacks on Occupy protesters in Mong Kok and Causeway Bay by triad members as clashes between two opposing camps.
An incident in Admiralty where police officers beat up activist Ken Tsang of the Civic Party was also only described as police officers allegedly applying inappropriate force on protesters.
The report also failed to mention the assault on a citizen by Superintendent Chu King-wai, the Sha Tin police division commander, during the clearing operation at the Mong Kok protest site in late November last year.
Ken Tsang described the report as ridiculous.
“The government said it is taking no stance and adding no opinions in drafting the report,” Tsang said. “If the government was true to its claims, why didn’t it include in the report that over 1,000 people protested outside the police headquarters after I was beaten up by the police and that the social welfare sector has mobilized its members to report to the police on the case?”
The report also did not describe in detail the use of force by the police and simply quoted some of the comments by Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, DBC Digital Radio and members of the Law Society of Hong Kong in condemning the use of batons by police officers.
It also made no mention of how many people were injured or arrested during the period, nor provided descriptions of the accompanying images, the morale of the police, and the police guidelines on the use of force.
Tung Yiu-ming, a spokesman for the Junior Police Officers Association, said the report should be taking a neutral stance but it was obviously not favoring the police.
Civil Human Rights Front official Wong Ho-yin said the report did not touch on the use of tear gas and pepper spray by the police, nor did it mention the public perception that the police were being used by the government to suppress the protesters.
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