Hong Kong starts standing down riot police after budget hike
27 February, 2020
Hong Kong's riot cops will begin returning to regular law enforcement duties such as for example crime prevention and traffic control because violent protests have faded, the force said on Thursday.
The announcement came a day following the force was given a 25 % bump in its twelve-monthly budget by the city's pro-Beijing leadership, including a doubling of its equipment allowance and plans to add another 2,500 officers.
The police have already been maintaining a long term roster of riot officers after huge and sometimes violent protests raged for seven straight months this past year.
The rallies and clashes have since died down, partly due to exhaustion and arrests but also as a result of the emergence of COVID-19.
"Considering that large-scale violent protests have declined recently, the authorities will deploy officers in the anti riot brigades in stages and with versatility to bolster other frontline officers in law enforcement work, including community crime prevention and elimination and traffic control," the authorities said in a statement.
Hong Kong's protests were triggered by a proposal to permit extraditions to mainland China's opaque and party-controlled courts with millions taking to the streets.
As the government dug their demoheels in and deployed police to suppress the rallies the movement morphed right into a popular revolt against Beijing in addition to a demand greater freedoms and police accountability.
A lot more than 7,000 arrests were made while police fired nearly 30,000 crowd control munitions such as for example tear gas and rubber bullets.
Clashes became a weekly and sometimes daily occurrence with videos of police beatings and arrests quickly going viral.
Polls show the city's once revered police are now loathed by significant chunks of the populace and officers are routinely heckled and abused.
Police defended their tactics and said they used appropriate force to complement hardcore protesters who embraced violence including arson, vandalism, petrol bombs, rocks and corrosive liquid.
No officer has been sanctioned over the protests and the very best brass have said no cases of inappropriate force was displayed by their officers.
The city's police watchdog is investigating the force's handling of the protests but activists accuse your body to be toothless and stacked with government loyalists.
Several international policing specialists stepped down from advising the panel saying it had neither the resources nor expertise to do the job properly.
Protesters want a judge to oversee a fully independent inquiry in to the police, a demand city leader Carrie Lam and Beijing, in addition to the force, have dismissed.
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