Hongkongers sure do love to grumble. Whatever side of the fence you sit on, you have to admit that Occupy Central has given us all ample opportunity to do so.
The government has so far recorded more than 1,500 complaints related to the pro-democracy movement, the vast majority of which are against the police.
As of Wednesday, the city’s Complaints Against Police Office had received 1,328 Occupy Central-related complaints, of which only 34 have been passed on to the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC). According to the Hong Kong Economic Journal, the IPCC has already started on 15 of these investigations.
Included in this list is the beating of Civil Party member Ken Tsang Kin-chiu, who was reportedly attacked by seven police officers in Admiralty in the early hours of Oct. 15. Concerns have been raised about the slow pace of the investigation of this particular case, which happened more than three weeks ago.
IPCC member Edwin Cheng Shin-lung has stated that the council will resume its work on the Tsang case once the police has finished a probe.
The 1,328 Occupy-related complaints against police compares to a total of 829 collected between 2011 and 2013. That does not, however, promise lots of wrist slapping, as of the 2011 – 2013 cases, 84 percent were dropped and most of the remaining complaints were determined to be fake or not involving wrongdoing by the police.
Similarly but not quite so dramatic in number, the Transport Department has received 270 complaints related to public transport services and traffic that have been directly affected by the occupation of roads in Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.
Primary concerns included change, truncation and suspension of routes, insufficient services, unstable frequencies, and road closures due to heavy traffic congestion.
A total of 213 bus routes are still diverted and eight suspended, while 20 green minibuses have been diverted in Mong Kok. The MTR is continuing to increase services to cope with passenger demand.
Both the Transport Department and the Police have vowed to keep a close eye on the Occupy situation and keep the public updated.
Is it too much to ask for democracy and clear roads at the same time? Yup, seems that way.
Photo: Laurel Chor/Coconuts Media
