Police Chief Bats Off 'selective Enforcement' Claims

Hong Kong's police chief fended off allegations of bias during a heated Legco session on Thursday, saying his officers handle investigations impartially and will arrest anyone who has committed a crime.

"When we investigate, we are impartial. If someone has committed a crime, no matter their background, we will arrest them," said Police Commissioner Chris Tang as he appeared alongside Security Secretary John Lee at a special finance committee meeting.

Tempers seemed to flare during the meeting, with lawmakers from the pan-democrat side repeatedly criticising officers for their handling of anti-government protests.

Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Wan asked Tang if he, as police commissioner, deserves to be paid more than HK$300,000 each month, and whether the police are impartial.

Wan made references to the Yuen Long incident on July 21 last year, when police took 39 minutes to arrive at the scene of a gang attack on train passengers, as well as an August 11 North Point incident where groups of people were caught on camera attacking people and then being "escorted away from the scene".

"Is this what you mean by impartial? Or is the reality that deep down you’re really not impartial?" asked Wan.

When Tang began his answer, Wan interrupted him again saying he wants to know if the two incidents demonstrated how the police are impartial.

Tang said that police will act if they have sufficient evidence, saying not all cases have enough evidence. He said 37 people have been arrested in relation to the July 21 incident.

Tang also said that the investigation into an attack on an RTHK English news reporter in North Point during the protests has been completed and that no arrests were made.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, the police chief said that if they have sufficient evidence they will act accordingly, but not all cases will have evidence and "we cannot depend on a single photo or short video before we make a decision".

Pan-democratic lawmakers also criticised the police over how they are enforcing new social distancing measures introduced last month to stem the spread of Covid-19.

Fernando Cheung said that when dozens of people gathered outside Prince Edward MTR Station to mark seven months since the force stormed the station, police asked people who did not know each other to stand in groups of five and then accused them of breaching social distancing laws.

But when an alliance representing small and medium-sized businesses gathered outside the Central Government Offices with a pro-establishment lawmaker, officers simply told them to split up into groups of four and stand apart from each other, he said.

Claudia Mo also asked whether police deliberately put people who didn't know each other into groups of five during the Prince Edward protest.

Tang replied: “We need to gather evidence, in other words we have to find out whether they came out together, their identities, and we have to check what we saw on the ground."

If police get sufficient evidence for prosecution, then they will seek legal advice, he added.