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PART IV
THE MEASURES TAKEN TO DEAL WITH THE DISTURBANCES
65
(a) Arrest of demonstrators at Tsim Sha Tsui. In describing the arrest of four demonstrators at Tsim Sha Tsui, one newspaper reporter told us of demonstrators having been pulled by the hair when being arrested and pulled to the ground and stamped on, and LEE Tak Yee spoke of a superintendent and other policemen clubbing people in the crowd, although in a statement he made to the Reform Club, a few hours later on the morning of the 6th, no such allegation appeared.
From the evidence before us, which included a news-film of the incident, it appeared that no more force than was necessary was used on this occasion. The allegation about pulling hair may have arisen from a misapprehension (see paragraph 101) and the allegation by LEE Tak Yee was, we think, untrue.
(b) Arrest of HOR Wan Wah. In his evidence, HOR Wan Wah told us that he was kicked twice when being arrested. He admitted resisting arrest and there may have been some sort of collision at the moment when he was, as photographs show, in a very excited state; but from photographs taken at, and immediately after, his arrest as well as the oral evidence we would discount any likelihood of deliberate maltreatment at this time.
(c) Incident in Mong Kok. One reporter told us of seeing three youths stop- ped in Nathan Road at about midnight on April 7/8th by a party of five policemen and pounded for one or two minutes with rifle butts. He was closely questioned on this incident and agreed that he was behind the glass door of a hotel on the other side of the road, that the lighting was poor, the distance about 200 ft. and the policemen had their backs to him. Whilst these circumstances might not have prevented him seeing what he alleged, they seemed to make unlikely his further claim to have overheard the remarks interchanged between the police and the youths at the time. Consequently a doubt descended on the whole of his story but we cannot say with certainty whether it was true or untrue.
240. It is commonplace during and after the occurrence of rioting anywhere in the world for accusations to be made of police brutality. This may be partly due to the fact that police inevitably tend to encounter, in certain sections of the public, a measure of unpopularity from the nature of their task in enforcing the law, which is made particularly onerous in Hong Kong by the failure or inability to find an adequate solution to the problems of hawking and of narcotics. This unpopularity can provide fertile ground for rumour and there is evidence that, in the April disturbances, ill-founded rumours of unjustified arrests and violence aroused anger amongst uncommitted bystanders and were sometimes started or recounted with that object in mind.
241. Obviously, it is possible that, in dealing with the rioting, isolated in- cidents of unnecessary force may have occurred but we have no reason to think