- Title: Hong Kong police applaud behaviour of Sunday protesters
- Date: 19th August 2019
- Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (AUGUST 19, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** SUPERINTENDENT (OPERATIONS), FANG CHI-KI, SENIOR SUPERINTENDENT (MEDIA LIAISON AND COMMUNICATION) OF POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS BRANCH, KONG WING-CHEUNG, CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS BRANCH, TSE CHUN-CHUNG, SENIOR SUPERINTENDENT OF ORGANIZED CRIME AND TRIAD BUREAU, LI KWAI-WAH, AND CHIEF INSPECTOR (OPERATIONS) KU SIU-FAI WALKING INTO NEWS CONFERENCE HONG KONG POLICE BADGE ON WALL (SOUNDBITE) (Cantonese) CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS BRANCH, TSE CHUN-CHUNG, SAYING: "Around 11pm (1500 GMT) last night there was a clash between a demonstrator and a man on Harcourt Road. One of the men was injured. In spite of this, compared with the demonstrations of the previous two months, the situation was generally peaceful yesterday, and most of the participants were rational and obeyed the rules." NEWS CONFERENCE BEING FILMED BY MOBILE PHONE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS BRANCH, TSE CHUN-CHUNG, SAYING: "The protest that took place on Sunday, shows if protesters are peaceful, rational and orderly, the police will not and have no reason to intervene. Violence only begets violence. It's never a solution. The police appeal to members of the public to reject all forms of violence and revert to peaceful and orderly expression of speech." JOURNALIST AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS BRANCH, TSE CHUN-CHUNG, SAYING: "But very often we find that our warnings fall on deaf ears and that's why a lot of people gather around and it's necessary if at the time we need to use force. We try our best to inform the general public before we use that." JOURNALIST ASKING QUESTION AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS BRANCH, TSE CHUN-CHUNG, SAYING: "And given the escalated violence and the kind of weapons being used by the protesters there is a need for our officers to escalate the use of force." POLICE LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2019 13:25
- Keywords: Hong Kong police extradition bill protests protesters
- Location: HONG KONG, CHINA
- City: HONG KONG, CHINA
- Country: Hong Kong
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice
- Reuters ID: LVA001ASVTIYV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Hong Kong Police on Monday (August 19) praised an estimated 1.7 million anti-government demonstrators who braved heavy rain to rally peacefully on Sunday (August 18), marking a change to what have often been violent clashes.
Speaking at a news conference, Chief Superintendent of the Hong Kong Public Relations Branch, Tse Chun-Chung, said the protest showed "if protesters are peaceful, rational and orderly, the police will have no reason to intervene."
The large turnout indicated that the movement still has widespread support, despite chaotic scenes last week when protesters occupied the Chinese-ruled city's airport.
Hong Kong is gearing up for further protests this week, with police saying with the kinds of weapons used by protesters police may need to escalate their use of force.
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