Showing a softer side? Hong Kong police release video of officer explaining laws to protesters and the trouble they could land in
- Video posted on police’s Facebook page shows officer gently trying to persuade residents besieging a police station to leave
- Pro-democracy councillor Chris Mak dismisses act as ‘sugar-coated poison’ while others say forces should have adopted soft strategy earlier
Hong Kong’s embattled police force has tried to show a softer side amid its recent struggle with anti-government protesters, releasing a video of an officer gently persuading residents besieging a police station to leave.
The force released the clip, titled “affectionate dialogue in laser”, on its Facebook page on Saturday. It shows a white-shirted male police officer addressing protesters and residents through a microphone outside Ma On Shan Police Station. The people point laser beams at officers standing on a balcony in the building.
The protesters surrounded the police station for a few nights since August 2, when they were there to support eight people, including Hong Kong National Party convenor Andy Chan Ho-tin, arrested in Fo Tan a day before.
In the video footage, instead of shouting loudly and angrily like some of his peers during previous protests, the officer explains potential offences and penalties to those outside the station in great detail.
“Do you know you are committing the offence of unlawful assembly, which bears a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment?” the officer says, after asking his colleagues to point lights and cameras at a certain protester accused of pointing a laser.
