A few gangs of criminals masquerading as protesters are holding Hong Kong hostage. They need to be locked up. If a “demonstrator” throws a petrol bomb or attacks someone with a steel bar or defaces an MTR station or a China bank, they should be jailed for weeks, months or even years. To get the worst offenders off the streets the police should ensure they are charged with imprisonable offences. Rioting and crimes of violence always result on conviction with jail sentences. The system must move quickly. More magistrates may need to be hired, special courts set up. In the 2011 London riots the courts sat all night. Carrie Lam and her band of ditherers need to ensure the system smoothly and rapidly puts away the criminals disguised as protesters.
Hong Kong is wounded. Citizens cannot go about their normal lives. The tourism sector is on its knees, so too the retail sector. More than 2000 restaurants have reportedly been closed. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs or taken pay cuts. Some of Hong Kong finest blue-chip companies are seriously impacted. All because of a few gangs of criminals. The police should be conducting a war of attrition targeting the worst repeat offenders.
At the same time there should be accountability on the other side. Far too often the discipline of the police force has broken down. The journalist who allegedly had a beanbag fired into her eye from close range by a police officer. The white-shirted man, unmasked, talking to an policeman who was pepper-sprayed from a yard away in the eye. Innocent by-standers and pedestrians have been tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed with no warning. Journalists, medics and other first responders have been targetted against all internationally accepted norms. Carrie Lam’s insistence that the Complaints Against Police Office can handle it is not satisfactory. It is not credible for the police to be investigating themselves.
The city’s crisis calls for an independent inquiry headed by a judge. It would be normal and appropriate in a situation of this severity. But it is not going to happen. Carrie Lam said bluntly in her policy address that she is responsible to Party rulers in Beijing. They will never agree to appear to kowtow to political protests. Universal suffrage, another aim of the protesters, is not going to happen too for the same reasons. Also, the Party rulers see democracy as a recipe for chaos. Are they wrong when you look at failing Western societies too divided to get to grips with their problems?
The city will have to calm down for there to be any chance of movement on the political front. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Hong Kong’s law-abiding citizens are fed up with the seemingly never-ending disruption to their daily lives for no obvious benefit to anyone. We want our city back. We say to the police and the courts lock up the worst offenders.
FOOTNOTE: A senior retired police officer wonders what happened to the Security Branch. “It is a pity the police did not mount intelligence-based operations from the start to target serious/professional rioters. In the old days the Special Branch would have been an invaluable resource. What is the Security Branch up to? If they don’t have the resources, why not?”
The formerly high-ranking officer said, “The way forward is to preserve the 50-year rule beyond 2047 with no change. Achieve that first, then think about democratic change, if at all viable. Preserve what you actually have rather than destroying a relatively free society with few constraints that not many countries can match. Perhaps Hong Kong has become too isolated over the years and needs more exposure to the real world. Remember Hong Kong needs the rest of the world; the rest of the world does not need Hong Kong.”
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