A group representing junior Hong Kong police officers referred to protesters who vandalized the graves of the parents of a pro-China lawmaker as “cockroaches,” the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) reported on Monday, raising concerns following a weekend in which police attacked protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Protesters vandalized graves belonging to the parents of Hong Kong lawmaker Junius Ho, spray-painting anti-Chinese slogans over them, after videos began to circulate on social media of Ho shaking hands and conversing with members of a violent mob that attacked protesters on their way home from a march last week.
Protesters gathered in Yuen Long, a rural area outside of central Hong Kong, last week against growing Chinese influence in Hong Kong. The rally concluded peacefully but, as protesters made their way towards the Yuen Long Mass Transit Rail (MTR) station, an estimated 100 people dressed in white and carrying weapons began beating anyone seen wearing black, the color of the protest movement. Police said 45 people were hospitalized after receiving gang beatings with metal rods and bamboo sticks, many not related to the protest movement but simply caught wearing black in public.
Ho admitted to chatting and shaking hands with some of the angry mob, who police later confirmed had ties to the organized crime groups known as triads. He insisted that greeting residents in Yuen Long, which he represents in the Legislative Council (LegCo), was not extraordinary or inappropriate and that he knew some of the thugs in the mob personally.
Following the desecration of his family’s graves, Ho threatened protesters with death and has increasingly demanded intervention by Beijing to end the protests.
In response to the cemetery incident, the Junior Police Officers’ Association (JPOA) issued a statement last Thursday condemning the vandalization.
“Such low lives can only be called by the name of the insect which is most afraid of light – cockroaches,” JPOA Chair Lam Chi-wai said in the statement, according to the HKFP. The independent Hong Kong media outlet noted that the Civil Human Rights Front, one of the most prominent pro-democracy groups involved in the ongoing protests, expressed concern that using “hate speech” reminiscent of the radio broadcasts during the Rwandan genocide could lead to more violence on the part of criminal groups opposing the protests.
“Please stop bringing shame upon the police force during this political storm,” the civil society group urged Lam.
Ho has become one of the most prominent voices in Hong Kong against the protests, repeatedly urging the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to intervene and stop the protests. While consistently opposing the pro-democracy assemblies, he did not attract significant ire from protesters until cameras spotted him engaging with the white-shirted mob in Yuen Long. Translations of the videos showing him shaking hands with violent thugs show he celebrated the attackers as “heroes” and appeared to applaud them for beating the protesters.
Following the attacks, protesters vandalized his legislative office, breaking windows and trashing filing cabinets and other work items, and attacked the graves of his parents.
Ho had initially explained his interactions with the triad-linked mob by stating that he knew some of them before the attack.
“Some of them I know – some are village chiefs, teachers, shop owners, and car mechanics,” he said, calling their attacks a “normal reaction to protesters who brought violence to the peaceful community after they stormed the liaison office.”
Ho did not offer any evidence of violence at the Yuen Long protest, nor have police accused the protesters of any violence before the mob attack. Police have confirmed that some of the pro-China attackers have ties to triads.
Following the vandalizations at the cemetery, Ho published a video on Facebook in which he threatened the lives of pro-democracy activists.
“I want to tell you very clearly,” Ho said. “The paths before you? One is a path of being alive, one is a path of not being alive. You must choose which path to take. Decide soon.”
The protesters did not heed Ho’s warning. This weekend, activists had first organized a march to protest the triad gang in Yuen Long. Police refused to grant a permit, and the organizer who requested one, Max Chung, stated that he would march even without one, but described his move as a “personal walk” and actively discouraged a protest. Nearly 300,000 people showed up in Yuen Long, according to Chung’s tally. The protest transpired peacefully until police shot rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd and arrested Chung and several other organizers. Police similarly attacked peaceful crowds in the heart of Hong Kong city.
“Your exceptional level of professionalism and courage displayed successfully restored public order,” Hong Kong Police Commissioner Stephen Lo told officers in a letter to the entire police force on Monday. “I, together with the force management, will always stand by you and do our utmost to overcome the challenges ahead, despite any adversities we face.”
Lo said he was “really proud” of his forces and did not address the use of crowd control weapons on a peaceful assembly.