Public Owe The Police An Apology, Says Carrie Lam

Hong Kong people who have opposed the police over the past two years owe the force an apology, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Friday.

On RTHK’s English-language Backchat programme, Lam said the police have been unfairly treated since the 2019 protests, noting that even civil servants were against them.

"Events unfolding in the last year, including the report done by [the police watchdog] the IPCC, which is a very detailed fact-finding report, and all these cases brought before the courts, one has to realise that for those who've been sympathetic to the rioters, and resist or anti-police, I think they owe the police an apology," she said.

The CE also rejected the notion that the force was used to respond to a political problem.

"It's a security problem. People are throwing petrol bombs, attacking ordinary people, setting fire on people who held a different opinion, throwing a brick at an old man and killed him… these are security, highly risky behaviour," she said.

When it was put to Lam that people had felt frustrated that they couldn’t have a dialogue about their grievances, the CE warned against using this as a justification for violence.

“Come on, you are treading on very dangerous lines,” she said.

“For people who are unhappy, dissatisfied with the environment they’re living in, with the government of the day… that could not justify violence, that could not justify breaching the law and killing people. Let’s be very clear on that.”