HK police adds manpower to curb riots
THE government of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said yesterday that the Commissioner of Police has appointed a batch of officers of the Correctional Services Department as special constables to enhance manpower of the police amid worsening social unrest.
The appointment was made in accordance with section 40 of the Public Order Ordinance, said a spokesman for the HKSAR government in a statement.
“To arrange appropriate officers of other disciplined services to share part of and participate in the police’s work would help strengthen the manpower and strength of the police,” he said.
“The ongoing riots over the past few months, with their massive scale, simultaneous occurrence in various districts and grave severity of violence, make it necessary to strengthen the support for the police’s front-line officers,” the spokesman explained.
The newly appointed team, which is a pilot scheme, comprises not more than 100 CSD officers, who are familiar with the use of anti-riot equipment, according to the statement.
The CSD officers will be temporarily deployed to the police on a part-time basis to work as special constables and will be mainly responsible for guarding government premises, said the spokesman, adding that their duties include carrying out anti-riot operations and handling of emergencies.
The HKSAR government does not rule out possibility of appointing officers of other local disciplined services as special constables in the future to ease the burden of the police, depending on police’s manpower needs and how the situation develops, the spokesman added.
Rioters more frequently and brutally attacked innocent residents who disagree with their destructive acts in recent days, such as setting a man on fire, in the latest sign that the prolonged violent incidents in Hong Kong have become even uglier.
A 70-year-old sanitation worker died yesterday in hospital after being hit on his head by bricks hurled by rioters near Sheung Shui metro station.
He was hit on Wednesday and was under treatment in Intensive Care Unit, senior superintendent of police public relations branch Kong Wing-cheung said yesterday.
The police have identified several suspects.
The man who was set on fire by a rioter on Monday suffered from second-degree burns on about 50 percent of his body, Kong said. “He was still in critical condition at hospital,” Kong added.
The 57-year-old man got into a dispute with rioters on a footbridge in the Ma On Shan area. He was beaten up brutally, and was poured with suspected flammable liquid and set on fire by a rioter.
“No civilized society could tolerate this dangerous, even deadly, level of violence,” the police said, denouncing such violent acts of silencing people who hold different views and terrifying the public to force others to stand with them.
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