Police Hold Laser Pointer Demo To Justify Arrest

Police have sought to justify the controversial arrest of a university student for buying laser pointers, demonstrating how the devices can set paper on fire and warning that lots of things – possibly even eggs – can be dangerous in the wrong hands.

Baptist University Student Union head, Keith Fong, was arrested in Sham Shui Po on Tuesday night on suspicion of possessing offensive weapons after several off-duty officers, dressed in black, said they saw him buying 10 laser pointers at a stall on Apliu Street.

Explaining the arrest at a press conference on Wednesday, senior superintendent Li Kwai-wah said the officers witnessed the stall owner showing Fong how to use the devices – and Fong bought 10 of them for HK$4,200.

Li – who referred to the pointers as laser "guns" – said Fong then lingered in the area, and officers found him to be suspicious because “as everybody knows, many things are happening in these couple of days in Sham Shui Po”.

He said if Fong had offered a reasonable explanation when he was questioned, he could have been released, but he tried to run away.

Video footage of the arrest showed the student telling the officers that the pointers were for star-gazing and he tried to run because he didn't know who the black-clad officers were when they accosted him.

“From all our experience during the last two months, our officers have from time to time been attacked by the laser beams, the high energy ones. And some of them have received medical treatment and are still followed up in the hospitals,” Li said.

All the circumstances added together, he added, made Fong’s actions “very suspicious”.

Officers also carried out a demonstration with a laser pointer, aiming it at a piece of paper until it became scorched and a small amount of smoke came off.

They said the pointer was one of those seized from Fong and it was "high energy", even though there was no mention of its wattage on the pointer. The police said laboratory tests will later be carried out to find how strong the pointer is.

Protesters have thrown eggs at police stations on occasions and Li was asked whether people should be worried about being arrested for buying the food product. He responded by citing the Public Order Ordinance, saying anything that is “suitable for causing injury” to others can be treated as an offensive weapon.

But Li added that, personally, he doesn’t think eggs are offensive weapons, and people will also be okay to carry umbrellas with them.

Fong's arrest prompted more than a thousand people to surround Sham Shui Po Police Station on Tuesday night, with officers firing about 20 rounds of tear gas to disperse them.