Police on Mission to Convict

Officers from the bomb disposal unit walk around Poly U campus

   

The Hong Kong Police continues with its agenda of opaqueness and vindictiveness.

Yesterday Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu reported to the Legislative Council that over 5,800 people had been arrested since June, and that 932 of them have been charged with various offenses.

Containers of petrol bombs are rounded up together

Some 2,600 people had been injured during the demonstrations and sent to hospital, including 470 police officers. Meanwhile 19 live rounds were fired in the past six months, hitting three protesters, all of whom have been discharged.

When it comes to tear gas, Lee says about 10,000 rounds of tear gas were fired, the highest number fired in a single day was November 12 when the police fired 2,300 canisters in seven districts, including at Chinese University campus.

There were requests to reveal what chemicals were used by the police for crowd dispersal including the ingredients of pepper spray, the blue dye shot from the water cannon, and tear gas.

However, Lee denied lawmakers' request to know where the police had bought their weapons, saying it would be inappropriate to disclose the information as it "would affect police's operational capability".

Protesters and the public have been exposed to tear gas

The same refrain was repeated today when the new Hong Kong police chief Tang Ping-keung told a news gathering that he could not reveal the ingredients in tear gas as it would reveal too much information. He said the Environmental Protection Department could do its own testing for dioxins in the environment and how it was generated.

This is outrageous for the police chief to claim the chemicals used in tear gas cannot be disclosed. We all know tear gas is toxic, we want to know by how much so that we can better treat people -- over 85 percent of the population.

But no, apparently this is a trade secret.

By the way Tang said the force did not oppose an independent inquiry, but strongly suggested all complaints be filed with the IPCC or Independent Police Complaints Council.

Police chief Tang Ping-keung welcomes independent inquiry

Huh huh. So far, over 1,200 complaints have been filed. So what are the complaints and how have these cases been dealt with so far?

Meanwhile this morning the police along with firefighters, psychologists, police negotiators and paramedics entered Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus to try to find any other protesters left there, but more importantly to collect evidence.

They found petrol bombs, chemicals stolen from laboratories on campus, and the police began not only photographing what they found, but even dusting the items, particularly petrol bombs to try to find out who made them.

This just shows how keen they are to prosecute, leaving little room for any kind of negotiation, which is what is really needed now following the landslide victory of the pro-democracy camp in the District Council elections. The pro-democracy councillors represent the will of the people, which means there are four more demands to be met.

Police dusting petrol bombs for any clues of who made them

With both sides still at odds with each other, the chances of any kind of resolution still remain far apart...

Health Concerns About Tear Gas

What are the health effects from inhaling tear gas after five months in HK?

The Hong Kong government seems to think residents don't need to be concerned about the impact of some 5,000 rounds of tear gas that have been fired after almost five months of protests.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said today that water and air quality in Hong Kong have not been affected by the firing of tear gas.

Health minister Sophia Chan doesn't have any concerns

On a radio show today, Chan said: "According to the air quality index recorded by the Environmental Protection Department, there are no irregularities from June till now," she said, adding the Water Supplies Department reported similar findings.

She added that tear gas had a limited diffusion range, and that there had been directions given to cleaners on handling affected areas.

Her statements contradict what local medical professors wrote in the medical journal The Lancet, where they reported the deployment of tear gas in subtropical environments such as Hong Kong could expose people to high concentrations of chemical irritants over a prolonged period.

The professors also raised concerns about the lack of government-led decontamination and urged the administration to invest in health surveillance and long-term environmental monitoring.

Emily Chan authored a report in The Lancet

In an article published in The Lancet last week, the medical team led by Professor Emily Chan Ying-Yang, of Chinese University, said she was concerned about tear gas deployment in enclosed spaces, such as busy railway stations and near commercial shopping centres, as well as high-density residential areas that sit in the "hot and humid subtropical environment of Hong Kong".

The tear gas used by police contains o-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile, an irritant that interacts with mucocutaneous sensory nerve receptors, according to the report. Emily Chan said the government should have official guidelines and self-help advice on dealing with the side effects of tear gas.

Citing a published systematic review of 5,910 people exposed to chemical irritants, the team said two had reportedly died, and there were cases of permanent disabilities, including blindness, vegetative state from traumatic brain injury, amputations and loss of limb function, as well as persistent respiratory complaints, among 58 others.

Humidity in subtropical areas could cause tear gas to linger

"However, data on long-term sequelae, carcinogenicity, and environmental consequences in the urban context are scarce," the medical team wrote.

The government doesn't seem to care about the health affects of accumulated tear gas fired on people every week in Hong Kong, nor does it care to keep track of how it impacts residents.

We may not see the effects until a few months or years down the road. By then it will be hard to prove it was tear gas.

Just another sign the government has a hands-off approach to making Hong Kong better.

Perhaps even more ironic is that health minister Sophia Chan also warned people that flu season was around the corner and encouraged people who were unwell to wear masks despite the anti-mask ban in place.

We may not know the long-term effects of tear gas

Just demonstrates how some people don't really have long-term thinking in Hong Kong...