Police Logic Hardly Laser-Focused

Super cool light show using laser pointers on the Science Museum last night

At 6pm tonight, the president of the Baptist University Student Union Keith Fong Chung-yin was released from police custody, though he is still suffering from a fever. He was arrested on Tuesday night in Sham Shui Po for being in possession of 10 laser pointers.

On Wednesday the police held their daily press briefing and defended the arrest of Fong by describing the laser pointer as "laser guns". Chief Superintendent John Tse Chun-chung of Police Public Relations Branch said the beams could "flash blind" someone and also cause serious eye injuries.

Police arrested student Keith Fong for having laser pointers

To make their point, the police demonstrated by pointing one of the laser pointers at a piece of paper no more than an arm's length away and it burned in 10 seconds.

During the protests no one is an arm's length away when using these laser pointers. If anything they are more than 20, 30 metres away.

However, the laser pointer they used in the demonstration is the SAME LASER POINTER that they had confiscated from 20-year-old Fong. In other words they tampered with the evidence.

When reporters at the press conference pointed this out, Tse assured them that the police carefully handles evidence in a specific detailed procedure. He added the laser pointers used last night at the Science Museum weren't as strong as Fong's.

Really? How do they know that? Did they check every single one?

And again -- why were they tampering with the evidence? When Fong was arrested, the laser pointers he bought did not have batteries in them. And now the police put batteries in them and used them to claim how dangerous they are.

Police used Fong's laser pointer to show how dangerous it is

How can the police prove that Fong was going to do something malicious with these laser pointers? In a video clip taken by a witness, Fong told the police he and his friends wanted to use them for stargazing.

But the police didn't buy his explanation and arrested Fong, which infuriated residents as well as staff and students at Baptist University, and that led to tear gas thrown at them at the Sham Shui Po police station...

Meanwhile protesters held their own press conference, the second one in two days. They wear hard hats and masks, and are from different age groups, to show it's not just young people out on the streets.

In their press conference today they said it is all and well for the police to demonstrate the effects of a laser pointer on a piece of paper, but how about demonstrating the effects of rubber bullets, bean bag rounds and sponge grenades within five metres.

We want to watch THAT demonstration!

Sales of laser pointers in Sham Shui Po are brisk

These last few days in Sham Shui Po, shops carrying laser pointers are having a bonanza, selling the cheaper ones for about HK$60 a piece to up to HK$150 each. Fong apparently got some quality ones, apparently spending HK$4,200 for 10 laser pointers.

A reporter tried to replicate the same demonstration the police did but was unable to start a fire on a piece of paper at the same distance using a similar laser pointer.

If these laser pointers are "laser guns", then why are shops in Hong Kong allowed to sell them?

The police's lack of logic is completely irrational and illogical. And they consider themselves "Asia's finest"???