An American man has been sentenced to jail for his role in an MTR station scuffle with a police officer in 2019.
Samuel Phillip Bickett, who was found guilty of assaulting a police officer during a trial last month, will spend four months and two weeks in prison, the court determined Tuesday.
The sentencing comes about a year and a half after the 37-year-old got involved in a tussle in Causeway Bay MTR station in Dec. 2019. After witnessing a man—later identified as a plainclothes officer—hitting a teenager who jumped the MTR turnstile, Bickett attempted to snatch his baton away and held him to the ground.
Moments before the altercation, video showed the police officer saying “no” when asked by another foreigner if he is “popo,” a slang term for police.
Until they produce a warrant card, they are just a person with a weapon threatening you. Any person my arrest a person with an offensive weapon. #HKPoliceState #HKPF #HongKong pic.twitter.com/jL7p9c110N
— HK9000 (@HKer9000) December 7, 2019
Magistrate Arthur Lam said, however, that the officer was not hiding his identity and that Bickett’s actions were a “serious threat to public order” that could have incited violence.
Bickett was on his way to meet his friend for dinner at the time, according to Washington Post.
The episode occurred about six months into the 2019 demonstrations, triggered by an unpopular extradition bill but later evolving into a broader movement against the Hong Kong government and Beijing’s increasingly heavy-handed role in the city.
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