Hong Kong Police Defend Shooting Protester as "Lawful and Reasonable" - Alex Eberhardt

Hong Kong Police Defend Shooting Protester as "Lawful and Reasonable"

URL:https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hong-kong-police-defend-shooting-protester-lawful-reasonable-n1061086


Recently video footage was released of a Hong Kong Police Officer shooting a protester during a riot. It sparked outrage in the western world as we in the west tend to side with the protesters rather than the Mainland Chinese government. The people of Hong Kong want a more democratic society, something that the mainland is currently threatening and so there have been very many protests. Protests have been both extremely peaceful and violent. However up until now, no one had been shot. Only non-lethal methods such as tear gas had been deployed.

This whole story sparked my interest a lot. Use of force by the police is a hot topic here in the USA right now. I also work for a police department and have had a lot of training regarding use of force policies. I also have some patrol experience (I'm not a sworn officer, but most of the time I am pretty much doing the same job) and insight into some situations like this. I also am a Chinese major and have a big interest in what happens to the people of Hong Kong.

Honestly not sure if this is what you want from these blogposts but I think I have some interesting insight into this whole situation. I am currently kind of in the middle as to whether or not this shooting was justified. First of all, the HK police have used tactics that would be considered excessive by USA standards. There was a video of civilians being overly sprayed in a metro car, something that is pretty much 99% of the time unacceptable. The civilians were just sitting there crying when they were sprayed, and then weren't even arrested so there was no reason for the HK police to spray those civilians. The shooting however is a little different.

Now I do not know what kind of use of force policy Hong Kong police have, but from a USA perspective, this shooting probably also would have been deemed reasonable. It's really intense in situations like that. I was on scene for a similar incident in which a woman had metal cane she was trying to swing at the officers. Sounds not so bad, but one good hit to the head by a metal cane can kill you pretty easily. Fortunately the officers got close enough to her and were able to tase her and then take her into custody. However that was conducted in an environment where there was one offender, and like 9 officers, later at night when no one else was out. In this situation, the officer was almost surrounded by very aggressive people, already had his gun out, and was attacked by a man with a metal pole. There was even a Molotov cocktail thrown at the police. If that breaks on you, you're basically dead. So that is like, a really intense situation. When you're looking at the footage from your computer screen, it's easy to see it all logically, but in the moment, you are so pumped up with adrenaline, trying to calculate a bunch of shit at once. You will make decisions you wouldn't make if you were calm. Being angry or scared is worse than being drunk. You won't think straight because you can't, you're in survival mode. I think that's what happened here. There were many things the officer could have done to prevent this shooting from happening. I agree that it was not a necessary shooting. However you have to consider the difference between reasonable and necessary. In that officer's situation, it's a really high standard to hold him to considering the situation he was in. I think the majority of people in the world today, even with good training, would have reacted similarly.

So if this stuff is to stop, mainland China needs to either give up, or find a way other than force to try and deal with Hong Kong. Otherwise more people will just continue to get hurt.


by Alex Eberhardt