Hong Kong police need not apologise for doing their job

My hat off to our Police Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung. Among our top government officials he quickly stands out in his very short tenure as one who knows exactly what he is doing and executes his clearly defined objectives with professionalism, guts and determination. He deserves public support, as our safety and law and order depend on him.

I know a young man who has aspired to be a policeman since he was a child. Now an auxiliary policeman, he became thoroughly demoralised after walking his beat for only a few months.

He found that law enforcement is no longer a respectable job and he was regularly insulted during his work by people obviously on the wrong side of the law.

His only instructions from his superior were to stay calm and walk away.

This is not an isolated incident. We all know of a young woman who hit the police a third time and almost got away with a slap on the wrist.

And, if you go to YouTube, you can find videos showing how police officers were being publicly humiliated. Mind you, many of these videos were taken by people who broke the law, and they knew that by intimidating the constables with a video camera they could do almost whatever they liked. Judging from the responses to these videos, our citizens have had enough of this nonsense.

Our last police chief was nicknamed 'Sorry Sir', and he set the objective of police work as that of a service provider. That means if you want to organise a protest, the police are there to serve and facilitate you. And if you violate traffic regulations, they are supposed to assist you. If certain police officers do not serve you well, citizens are entitled to express their anger and dissatisfaction through complaints and protests.