[Official Statement]
Hong Kong Public Doctors’ Association Condemns the Police Force for deliberatively Shooting Civilians

The Association strongly condemns the Hong Kong Police Force for exercising excessive force to disperse protests and severely harm the protesters with live rounds.

The Police Force started to clear the area of Ho Pa Street at 4 PM. One of the Police shot a Form 5 high school student at a short distance. In a video on the internet, only the forearm of the policeman who fired was attacked, which contradicts to the testimony provided by the Police Force that the policeman was under life threatening danger. The student fell to the ground and bled excessively right after being shot. A protestor who accompanied the student witnessed the situation and attempted to help the student at once, yet he was pressed to the ground by another riot police.

The policeman did not express a verbal warning to the protestor before firing and shot a vital area of his body at a short distance. Moreover, although the policeman could have fired the Remington shotgun in his left hand with less-lethal beanbag bullets at other parts of the student’s body, he chose to fired the pistol with live rounds which is capable of inflicting lethal damage aiming at the left side of his chest. Such action from a policeman is no different from execution and is disproportionate to the necessary force the Police Force ought to use. The Association strongly condemns this malpractice. After the event, the Police Force reported on social media that the student was only shot near his left shoulder instead of the left side of his chest, viciously distorting the truth.

Many individuals from different parts of the society repeatedly expressed concerns that the Police had failed to exercise minimal force to stop protestors in situations where the violence of both sides was asymmetric. The policemen in the frontline exhibited hostility towards the press and medical personnel and disrespected protests by civilians and basic human rights. Yet, the Commanding Officers of the Police Force refused to scrutinise their subordinates and defended their malpractices on multiple occasions.

Since the beginning of the series of protests in June, the Government of Hong Kong had never expressed any intention to resolve the political issues in the city and had attempted to eliminate the young generation with brutality. It will only worsen the current situation. The malpractices of the Hong Kong Police Force severely damaged its reputation which was built over decades. On top of allowing innocent civilians to suffer needlessly, the Government of Hong Kong also created hatred between the Police Force and the civilians and disgraced the image of Hong Kong at an international level.

May all the wounded recover as soon as possible.

Hong Kong Public Doctors’ Association
1 October, 2019

Read more on the Gun-shot Schoolboy:
https://publielectoral.lat/s/guardiansofhongkong/7456