The extent of the latitude offered the police force is clearly spelt out in the Pol- ice Force Ordinance, Ch. 252, Section 54, which states that any policeman may stop, search, arrest and detain for further inquiries anyone who "acts in a suspicious man- ner, or whom he may suspect of having committed or of being about to commit or of intending to commit a crime”. As John Rear comments, "No requirement of reasonableness is expressly imported into the section”.
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In 1967 during the Emergency over the anti-colonial riots, a further law was in- troduced giving any citizen the power to arrest without warrant any person he or she suspected of being guilty of an offence carrying more than one year's imprison- ment or where the sentence is fixed by law. This provision remains unrepealed.
In spite of the enlarged police force and the greater powers given the force, crime is expanding rapidly. Given the nature of the society, this is hardly surprising. In March 1974 the Business Section of the London Times carried an article on Hong Kong entitled "Where a quick profit is a way of life". In the Colony, the writer explained, "The business population concentrates entirely on the sole aim of making money fast. The local legislation greatly encourages this, especially through extremely low income and corporation taxes... No wonder that corrup- tion is widespread, as one company managing director admitted to me.
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In other words, since the very rationale of the colonial administration is to foster the conditions for capital accumulation, "corruption" is inevitable. Those who are able to exploit others exploit them. Some do this through investing capital. Others through bribery and "squeeze". The police force is not so much engaged in suppressing crime as in mediating between the exploited masses and the ruling class. The police force is a crucial element within corruption and crime.
The administration's lack of concern for the real protection of the inhabitants of the Colony is also revealed, perhaps even more glaringly, by recent developments in the legal system. In June 1973 three new Acts were introduced. One of these, the District Court (Amendment) Act, was especially disturbing. Two senior mem- bers of the Hong Kong Bar Association came to London to ask the Foreign Office to take a more active part in the administration of the Colony, since, they argued, procedures were being introduced which not only would never be accepted in Britain, but run counter to basic legal and constitutional principles.
The District Court (Amendment) Act, in the words of the Times' legal corres- pondent,
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"increased the sentencing power of district court judges to seven years' imprisonment... The effect of the new law was to cut the number of trials by jury and deprive many defendants of legal aid... In the district court, the circumstances in which he [the defendant] can obtain legal aid are strictly limited, as are his chances of electing to be tried by a jury.
"Defendants can, therefore, after a trial before a relatively inexperienced judge sitting on his own, be sentenced to up to seven years' imprisonment without the benefit of being represented by a lawyer.
"In addition, there are virtually no provisions for a shorthand note (or a mechanical recording) to be made of the proceedings. Thus a transcript of a district court case is rarely available, making it extremely difficult to bring an effective appeal against the verdict. A Supreme Court judge
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