July 1 Rally Organisers Offer To Amend March Plan

Organisers of the July 1 march on Tuesday offered to implement social-distancing measures as part of their application to police to hold the annual event, but admitted that they don't feel optimistic about their chances despite the changes.

The Convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, Jimmy Sham, said it would be ridiculous to stop people from taking to the streets to air their grievances against the government when most social activities had resumed.

Figo Chan, the group’s vice-convenor, said before going into a meeting with the police officers at the North Point police station, that they had come up with six ways to ensure a safe march, including leaving some street lanes, and controlling the timing of when marchers start setting off.

But even after the meeting was over, the front said the authorities had refused to specify what exact criteria it would need to meet in order to secure approval for the march.

Sham said he felt police were just going through the procedures.

The front's vice-convenor, Eric Lai, accused the police of failing to facilitate the march, saying he's not optimistic his group will receive the all-clear.

"We have given different proposal out of courtesy, on social distancing measures," he said. "There were no answers from the police officers and they did not take the guidelines from the hygiene department as a standard."

CHRF said they have been asking for a meeting with police since May but they didn’t respond till Monday.

Gatherings in public places have been regulated since February in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19, but as the number of cases waned, the restrictions had been eased over the months and now groups of up to 50 people are allowed to gather.