C
The Hong Kong Police neither took any action to disperse the demon-
stration before the New China News Agency nor did they arrest any
member of the RML or other participants.
A week later, on April 13, the RML again approached the
Hong Kong Police to apply for a permit for holding another public
gathering at the Victoria Park on April 22. However, this time the
application was rejected and the RML was informed that there was
another function that would be held in that area and they were also
verbally instructed that there would not be enough police manpower to
help for the gathering. The Police made the above reply on April 20. Nevertheless, the FML decided not to cancel that meeting despite
police's objection.
On April 22, before the scheduled gathering, large groups of plain-clothes police were already around the Victoria
Park (later witnessed by the Police in the Magistrate Court that there were about 30 plain-clothed police and Special Branch Officers at the
scene). At around 3 o'clock, seven members of the RML were arrested at different loaations near the scene and they were Brought back to the Police Station. The arrested were detained in the Police Station
for half a day and later charged with unlawful assembly, because they did not apply for a permit prior to the prtition to the New China
News Agency on April 5 1979. Later, they were' all released on bail.
They EML members defended themselves in the two-day trial. In their defence, they asserted that every citizen has the
right to assembly and freedom of expression. The action taken by the Police was a violation of this fundamental right. The defendants
further alleged that the Public Order Ordinance had been used as an
apparatus by the Hong Kong Government to selectively restrict and
suppress any public meetings, demonstrations and strikes which the Government thinks would endanger the interests of the capitalists
and the colonizers.
The defendants indicated that the selective use of the
Public Order Ordinance by the Hong Kong Police could be exemplified by the different ways the Government handled the dispute between the Police Officers and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (I.C.A.C.) in November 1977 and a series of demolitions and labour
disputes.
11