A police officer was among those arrested in Tuen Mun for allegedly posting pro-democracy fliers and messages in an apparent attempt to create a Lennon Wall in the New Territories in the early hours of this morning.
According to a report by on.cc, the group of eight — five men and three women, aged 13 to 60 — were apprehended by several uniformed police officers at about 3am on Friday morning. The group were said to be trying to set up a Lennon Wall near the MTR Tuen Mun Depot.
Tuen Mun district councillor Lee Ka-wai said that he had gone to the scene upon hearing the news, and found the group of eight standing against the wall surrounded by at least 10 cops.
Officers seized cash, electric drills, glue, paintbrushes, zip ties, and pro-democracy fliers and posters from the group, one of whom was a police officer, according to on.cc.
Lennon Walls — so named for the first one, in Prague, created in the 1980s around a mural of John Lennon — have sprung up around Hong Kong since last June, serving as clearinghouses for posters, Post-It notes, and other various messages in support of the city’s pro-democracy protesters. (They have also been the scene of occasional clashes.)
In what is sure to be bitterly ironic to the many critics of the police’s frequent, heavy-handed use of force in suppressing Hong Kong’s long-running protest movement, this is the first time in the last seven months that a police officer has been arrested, TVB News reports.
The outlet added that the arrested officer in question is a 31-year-old from the Castle Peak division in the Tuen Mun police district. He was in the area at the time with his 26-year-old girlfriend and her 52-year-old mother.
The group were arrested on suspicion of “possessing anything with intent to destroy or damage property.”
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