Spoken or implied, it’s a question many have confronted walking in Hong Kong: can you spare some change?
Reigniting an age-old debate, one man’s fierce and decidedly unsympathetic response to a disabled beggar in a Central MTR station has spurred discussion online about how much sympathy should be extended to people panhandling in the city.
The commuter’s rant — in which he demanded the double amputee leave immediately — was filmed on Saturday about 1:30pm and uploaded to YouTube the same day.
Viewed thousands of times, it features a man in a white T-shirt telling the beggar to “go back to the mainland.”
“Get out of here or I will call the police,” he shouts, as the beggar pulls socks over his stumps and attaches his prosthetic limbs before hobbling to the exit.
“I have no idea why the immigration department would let these people come to Hong Kong,” he adds.
Though often visible, begging is technically illegal in Hong Kong under the 1977 Summary Offenses Ordinance (Cap 228 s 26A).
Persons convicted of begging in Hong Kong may face up to three months imprisonment and a fine of up to HK$1,000. Repeat offenders, meanwhile, risk penalties of up to 12 months in prison.
It is also a practice that’s been associated with entrants from the mainland and linked to organized syndicates. Police arrested 411 mainlanders for begging in Hong Kong between 2011 and 2015.
Some commended the man for taking action.
“Nice job, I don’t understand why the beggars don’t stay in the mainland but come to Hong Kong,” said commenter.
Another commenter took a dig at Chief Executive Carrie Lam for a gaffe last year in which she gave a HK$500 note to a beggar who turned out to have been trafficked from the mainland, Hong Kong Free Press reported.
“Since our chief-executive once gave a beggar HK$500, [it] makes them believe that begging in Hong Kong is easier and legal,” they wrote.
However, some expressed more sympathy for the beggar and his plight.
“I have seen this beggar once in Tai Wo Station, he told me that he got hit by a truck when he was escaping from someone who kidnapped him,” one person wrote on YouTube.
“I know that begging is illegal, but as a human being, we should still help him.”
Another suggested that, rather than berating the man, the commuter could have rung police or a government agency to take action.
