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PART V PERSONS INVOLVED
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away. The arrest has already been described in paragraph 131. He said he was sur- prised when he was arrested as he did not know why, and was not told by the Police why he was arrested. When shown a photograph of the arrest, he agreed he was shouting but claimed to be saying only 'You just can't arrest me like this with- out any reason, you have to tell me a reason'. He was later charged with holding a banner and causing obstruction and pleaded guilty. His appeal against the sentence of eight strokes of the cane and six months imprisonment was partially successful; the imprisonment being remitted.
Other evidence regarding the background and motives of participants
374. There was a practical limit on the numbers of witnesses we could call. Those demonstrators and rioters who gave evidence were selected by our counsel as the most significant, mainly from the prisoners at Chi Ma Wan Prison, which housed those who were older or had received heavier sentences.
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Data on all persons arrested
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375. We had, however, three other sources of information throwing some light on the type and kind of individuals involved in the disturbances and, in some cases, on the reasons they gave for involvement. Appendix 7 is a factual statement of the number of people arrested and charged as a result of the disturbances, showing their age group and previous convictions, if any. It will be seen that 905 were arrested and charged, whilst 560 were arrested but released without charge; presum- ably because they had been caught up inadvertently in the curfew etc. Amongst it those charged, the predominant age group is that of 16 to 20 years but amongst those released the age groups are more evenly balanced. The proportion of those with previous convictions is higher as the age groups get older which gives the impression that these groups were rougher and tougher than the youngsters. But this impression may be misleading because, given the same propensities, the older age group is inevitably liable to have more previous convictions. Those involved in offences more serious than just curfew breaking tended, as one might expect, to have a higher proportion of previous convictions but, in this category, there appears to have been no clear tendency towards a higher proportion of convictions for the older offenders, largely because the figures for the 21 to 25 year group seem to be so much out of line with those of the categories on either side of them.
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376. The most significant feature of this appendix is the comparatively high proportion of those in the 16 to 20 years category who were involved in offences more serious than curfew breaking. This would seem to point to this age group as the main source of the violence.
Analysis of Chi Ma Wan prisoners
377. A more ambitious document was the analysis of the 313 prisoners held in Chi Ma Wan for offences arising out of the disturbances; more ambitious
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