Hong Kong’s firm grip on the law in Occupy police assault case is a valuable lesson for the mainland
Audrey Jiajia Li says the conviction and sentencing of the seven officers who beat up Occupy protester Ken Tsang – and the open debate afterwards – is notable amid Chinese worry about police brutality
No matter how much pressure police officers are under, their actions must be bound by the law. No civilised society should tolerate police brutality. Illustration: Craig Stephens
Over the past few days, a two-year prison sentence handed down to seven Hong Kong police officers has become a hot topic on mainland social media platforms. Netizens’ opinions are wildly polarised. Many supporters of these officers found the jail term too harsh, while others hailed it as a victory for the rule of law.
Advertisement
On October 15, 2014, the 17th day of the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement, a protester, Ken Tsang Kin-chiu, was arrested along with a few others; he then got knocked to the ground, punched, kicked and struck with a baton by police officers. The officers were later charged, and recently convicted and sentenced to two years in prison.
The pro-police camp argued that the two-year sentence revealed the judiciary’s bias, especially when compared to the five-week sentence Tsang received (for police assault); they point to the provocation by the protester that triggered the police’s excessive use of force.
Watch: More than 30,000 gather in support of Hong Kong officers jailed for beating up Occupy protester
The state-owned Global Timesran an editorial by its editor-in-chief Hu Xijin (written under a pen name). “The verdict is like unfair refereeing in a soccer match ... The judicial system in Hong Kong hasn’t yet shown allegiance to either China’s constitution or to Hong Kong’s Basic Law”, he said.
Some accuse Hong Kong’s legal system of being “colonial”, referring to the British citizenship of the judge. A new media account affiliated with the overseas edition of the Communist Party mouthpiece, People’s Daily, says in a post that “British judges and employees who were trained by the British Hong Kong government are controlling the judiciary branch in Hong Kong”. An online attack on the judge quickly went viral. A WeChat hot article labelled the judge a “British slave”. A ruling party princeling even offered a 10,000-yuan reward for assaulting the judge, David Dufton.
All this sounds like a satire: the seven policemen were convicted for using inappropriate violence, and their supporters are now calling for violence against the judge as revenge. As in a world where the law of the jungle rules, fists talk.
