Plainclothes officers stop trouble at malls: police

Plainclothes officers stop trouble at malls: police

Hong Kong police on Monday defended their policy of officers patrolling in civilian clothes and detaining suspects, saying past experiences show that such actions can prevent large-scale damage.



During "shopping protests" held at some malls during the weekend, officers in plainclothes became involved in shouting matches and scuffles with other people. This led to riot police rushing into the malls and arresting a few protesters, sometimes after bloody clashes.



Social media users had criticised officers for patrolling the malls without showing their identity and accused them of provoking confrontations with protesters.



Answering questions about this, senior superintendent Kong Wing-cheung told a media briefing that officers who patrol malls identify themselves as police before they do any policing work.



Kong said they would show their warrant as quickly as possible when this doesn't affect their work.



"If some shouting protesters or some people with other motives, hope to obstruct our colleagues' work by requesting officers to show their warrant cards, or if we feel it's an unreasonable request, then we'll of course concentrate on handling the arrestees first," he said.



Referring to a bloody arrest made in Sheung Shui, footage of which had been circulated widely, police said they the man had resisted arrest and tried to grab a gun. He even put his finger on the trigger, the officers said, providing a snapshot on their monitor.



In the footage recorded by media who were at Landmark North mall on Saturday, officers were seen bashing the man's head with a baton and a pepper spray canister, and using the spray on his bloodied face.



Police also denied that one of its officers uploaded a picture of a reporter to an anonymous social media chat group used by protesters. The uploader, who was a chat group member, deleted the photo and left the group soon after.



Some local media had reported that the pic came from an officer who was at Kowloon Bay MTR station, who was recording events there. But police denied this, saying the officer didn't have a social media account.