The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department’s (FEHD) done it again, you guys. Just a few days after sheepishly dropping criminal charges against an ill, 75-year-old woman for selling a HKD1 piece of cardboard, FEHD officers have bumbled their way into another controversy by arresting a woman who dared to give her friends some vegetables on the street.
At around 5pm on Wednesday, a 47-year-old woman surnamed Miu, was returning to her home in Tin Shui Wai from her mother’s farm in Fan Ling. Miu, who had brought seven or eight catties (around 4-5 kilograms) of sweet potato leaves back from the farm, bumped into a friend and her acquaintance while walking near Tin Chak Shopping Centre.
Miu, who said she had she couldn’t eat all the vegetables herself, gave some of the greens to the pair. Miu’s friend offered to pay her HKD20 for the leaves out of politeness, but Miu returned the money.
Once the pair left, Miu says she was approached by FEHD officers, who issued her with a ticket for hawking without a license. Footage shared on Facebook shows that passersby who knew Miu from the neighborhood came to her defense, leading to a heated standoff between the civilians and authorities.
Around 10 police officers, some equipped with riot batons and shields, were sent to the scene to defuse the situation. Miu was arrested (FEHD later said this was for “refusing to cooperate”) and taken to Tin Shui Wai Police Station for questioning. Lawmaker Roy Kwong arrived at the station at 9pm to assist Miu, and she was released on bail at 11pm and asked to report back to the police in mid-July.
After her release, the 47-year-old told Apple Daily, “I’m very, very angry. I never put my vegetables out on the floor, I am not a hawker. The FEHD officer didn’t look closely enough, he didn’t see that I gave the money back.” According to Kwong, Miu will find out in about three weeks’ time if charges will be brought against her. The lawmaker has vowed to bring up the issue at the next Legislative Council meeting.
You’d think by now that the FEHD would have learned to exercise a little discretion, especially so soon after Cardboard Gate (yup, that’s what we’re calling it now). In case you missed it, the department actually pressed criminal charges against a 75-year-old, chronically ill woman who resells rubbish for a living after she accepted HKD1 for a piece of cardboard. The case drew widespread criticism in Hong Kong, and led to 14,000 signing a petition protesting the charge, and lawmakers leading a demonstration outside government offices to support the elderly woman.
Reader Interactions