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Opinion
Police and protesters need to make peace, to end the insanity of Hongkongers fighting Hongkongers
- From the maligned shotgun-wielding sergeant to descriptions of vandalism as violence, Western media exaggerations play directly into Beijing’s hands
- Continuing the violence will only erode global support for the protesters’ cause. Peaceful protests are the only way forward in a deeply divided Hong Kong
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Robert Boxwell has worked and lived in the Asia-Pacific region since the early 1990s.
Remember the shotgun-waving police officer outside Kwai Chung police station, the one whose photo was all over global media with sensational headlines like, “Hong Kong police officer makes a grave safety error waving a shotgun in protesters’ faces”? This was supposed to be evidence that Hong Kong’s police were using excessive force. It was not.
The full story is only now coming out. For whatever reason, videos from BBC, NBC and others pick up the action at around the time the police officer, Lau Chak-kei, begins pointing his shotgun. What they do not show, but which was captured in a 30-second grainy video posted on social media, was Lau and another police officer defending themselves after being attacked by about a dozen men.
Piecing together a timeline from photos and videos of the incident, Lau’s restraint and professionalism seem nothing short of extraordinary.
About 20 seconds before the shotgun-pointing photos were taken, another photo shows Lau at the instant he was attacked from behind by at least four men, their faces obscured by identical light-blue surgical masks. The men do not exactly look like idealistic students. Lau’s helmet was on. One colleague, wearing a light-blue shirt under his riot gear, is coming to his assistance.
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