#FirstHand #May16
"Five Demand Not One Less" Echoes Through Shopping Mall During Weekend

14:33 | New Town Plaza, Shatin
Pro-democracy civilians continued to chant protest slogans in the shopping mall, as protests in conventional forms, such as demonstrations and rallies have been disapproved by the police in the name of gathering ban.

#ShopWithYou #GatheringBan

District Councilor and Activist Demand Mall to Explain Constant Police Presence
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/20829

#GatheringBan #FailedState
Hong Kong government’s new requirements to reduce public gathering seem to be illogical and unscientific. They are suspected to be a means to restrict political activities

#FailedState #PoliceState
HK Government Extends Gathering Ban to July 2, Banning July 1 Rally, Police Refuse to Issue LONO

The Hong Kong Government has extended the gathering ban to July 2 to coincide with the annual July 1st march organized by the Democratic Front. Jimmy Sham of Civil Human Rights Front rebuked the police for using the pandemic as a way to suppress protest.

After discussing the potential arrangements for the July 1st protest with the police on June 24, Sham met with the media and slammed the police for their perfunctory attitude.

He said that the police did not even note down anything with paper and pen, and they "held the meeting without any expression".

Sham described the police's attitude as if they were saying “We both know that the protest won't be approved". Sham believed that the meeting was just a procedure as the police have no intention to give out the Letter of No Objection.

Source: InMedia #Jun24
#July1 #GatheringBan #LONO

After the police dispersed foreign domestic helpers last week, the Labour Department today (15 Aug) sent temporary staff to explain the two-person gathering ban and mask orders in various Asian languages, displaying posters and distributing leaflets near the bridge of Mongkok train station. Ironically, this working group has more than two people and clearly violates the two-person gathering ban; however, the government likely invoked exemptions to legalize their own actions.

#FirstHand #Aug15 #GatheringBan #DomesticWorkers #GovernmentExemption

#FirstHand #Aug30
Police to Ticket Shoppers and Reporters for Violating Gathering Ban in Shopping Mall

18:30 | Langham Place, Mongkok
Police announced that they would ticket the civilians and reporters entrapped by them on the firsr floor of the shopping mall for violating the gathering ban.

Ten minutes later, police announced their next action on the second floor, demanding civilians and reporters to disperse.

#GatheringBan #599GTicket

Bizzare: Police Tickets a Man on Wheelchair for Breaching Gathering Ban

In late evening in Mongkok, a middle-aged man on wheelchair was ticketed by the police for violating gathering ban.

He showed the ticket to the reporters, saying he would seek exemption.

Source: United Social Press #Sept6
#PoliceState #Wheelchair #GatheringBan #599GTicket

#PoliceBrutality
Mother to seek Legal Assistance before Pressing Charge Against Hong Kong Police for Injuring her Children

On Sunday, September 6, 2020, a 12-year-old girl went with her mother and 20-year-old brother to Mong Kok for lunch. As the mother went for groceries, the brother and sister went shopping at Sai Yeung Choi Street.

Watch footage from HKUST Radio News:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/25058

For no apparent reason, several male police officers wrangled the young girl and forcefully pinned her to ground between their legs. The police also ticketed the girl for violating gathering ban.

The Police Force released a statement later on, claiming that the girl looked “suspicious” and officers on the scene only applied "minimum force" to subdue her.

Watch footage from RTHK:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/25058

The girl, traumatized, was wounded on her arm and knee. She pleaded for her mother to bring her home but her mother advised her to first seek medical assistance.

The mother of the 12-year-old girl and the 20-year-old boy, Mrs Ho, told reporters that her son and daughter were intended to shop for stationary in Mong Kok. As police cordon lines were set up in Yau Ma Tei, blocking their way to the stationary shop, they then tried to meet up at Sai Yeung Choi South Street.

When Mrs Ho arrived at Sai Yeung Choi South Street, she was shocked to find her daughter sitting inside the police cordon line. When asked, police said her daughter and son "breached the gathering ban" and were therefore ticketed.

Mrs Ho condemned the police for their unjust enforcement and for their groundless accusation on the brother and the sister for violating the gathering ban. A passerby said he saw 4 policemen pushing and dragging the young girl. He told the police to stop. Then, the police accused him of "walking with" the brother and sister and hence "exceeding" the number of people allowed under the anti-pandemic ordinance.

Mrs Ho said she will seek assistance from the District Councillor and lawyers before pressing a charge against the police. She stressed that she will not pay an unreasonable fine ticket.

Source: Cable News; Cupid News #Sept6
#PoliceState #599GTicket #GatheringBan
#Complaint #PrivateProsecution

#FailedState #COVID19
The HK Government to Earn At Least HKD1.443 million of Fine from Civilians Ticketed by the Police

As of Dec 6, 2020, the Hong Kong Government issued over 7,217 fine tickets to the local population, which amounted to over 1.443 million HKD.

The Hong Kong Police issued 99.3% of these tickets and prosecuted 56 cases. The remaining 54 tickets were issued by the Food and Health Bureau.

With the coronavirus outbreak, the Hong Kong government implemented “group gathering restriction” since 29 March, 2020.

However, the fixed penalty of HKD2,000 will expire on 11 December, 2020, meaning that the authorities will possibly increase the penalty to HKD5,000 per ticket.

Source: Stand News #Dec6
https://bit.ly/37xRj93

#GatheringBan #Ticket #599G #GovernmentRevenue

#DoYouKnow
A Multiple Choice Question According to Police's Behaviour

The Epoch Times devised a mock multiple choice question for the Liberal Studies subject in Honh Kong regarding police's behaviour on July 1, 2021 in Hong Kong:

"On which occasion (see photo) is the Social Gathering Ban Cap. 599G being violated?

A) Two people going shopping
B) Dozens of people watching a Pro-Beijing Show
C) Several Hundreds of people working together

Tips: According to Cap. 599G Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation: except for the exempted group, the 14-day prohibition on group gathering remains at no more than four persons in the public area from June 23 to July 7.

Source: Epoch Times #July1

#GatheringBan #July1Protests

#FailedState
Police Bust Dinner Gathering due to Rape Report; Hong Kong's Top Government Officials Violate Gathering Ban

Several top government officials including some heads of disciplinary forces in Hong Kong were found violating the gathering ban, as Stand News revealed on July 7, 2021.

Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Hermes Tang; Director of Immigration, Au Ka-wang; and the Undersecretary for Security, Sonny Au were all fined in a dinner event that took place in Wan Chai on March 2, 2021.

According to two sources, among the 9 people involved, at least one top manager of a China-owned property developer that is listed in Hong Kong Stock Market was present at the dinner. The related company, however, did not respond to the inquiry of Stand News.

The said dinner was discovered when the police investigated a rape case. According to sources, the rape took place in the same venue as the dinner, which is a residential unit in Wan Chai.

The man who was arrested and charged for attempted rape worked for a China-owned enterprise and had participated in the dinner gathering.

On July 8, 2021, the heads of customs and immigration department issued two separate but identical statements, claiming that they have paid the fine.

However, they refused to answer the journalists questions with regard to the nature and the purpose of the dinner and the conflict of interests. The government officials did not revealed whether they were treated.

Source: Stand News #Jul8
https://bit.ly/3AIMA27

#GovernmentOfficial #GatheringBan #599G #Rape #Dinner

#FailedState
Carrie Lam Defends Top Officials for Violating Gathering Ban in Extravagant Banquet with Property Developer: "You can't just turn away after seeing abalone"

Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/30485

#FailedState
Carrie Lam Defends Top Officials for Violating Gathering Ban in Extravagant Banquet with Property Developer: "You can't just turn away after seeing abalone"

On July 11, 2021, Hong Kong Chief Executive #CarrieLam spoke in a #CommercialRadio program and defended three top government officials who had violated the #GatheringBan by participating in an extravagant dinner with another 5 people in March 2021.

One of the five people comes from the top management of Evergrande Real Estate Group, a China-owned property developer headquartered in Shenzhen.

Read more:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/30467

The three top officials are Commissioner of Customs and Excise #HermesTang; Director of Immigration #AuKaWing; and the Undersecretary for Security, #SonnyAu. The banquet cost at least HKD 2,380 per head.

Lam claimed that “they didn’t know what was on the menu" and they couldn’t just "stand up and leave when they saw abalone."

Lam called on people to look at the incident in a "more humanised way”.

In the same program, Lam also openly said that she 'does not expect" #JohnLee, former Secretsry for Security and the new Chief Secretary, to do much, other than national security issues. Lam added that Lee, the second highest government official in the city, was not familiar with "poverty alleviation, youth or ethnic minority works".

Source: RTHK; Stand News #Jul10

https://bit.ly/3yS0xc2

#Abalone #Banquet #599G #AsiasFinest #Inequality #PropertyDeveloper #Evergrande

Overpassing gathering restrictions, more HK Government Officials found in private dinner with #CCP officials and businessmen

In a tip-off story published in late August 2021, the Under Secretary for Security #SonnyAu Chi-kwong, Director of Immigration #Au KaWang and Commissioner of Customs and Excise, #HermesTang Yi-hoi were found attending a controversial private dinner with senior executives of #ChinaEvergrande in March this year in Wanchai.

Police reportedly fined the three top officials for violating the COVID-19 gathering restriction.

Sources further revealed that more high-ranking CCP officials have also attended the private dinner, including officials from the Liaison Office of the Central Government in Hong Kong, and the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in Hong Kong.

At the time of this report, the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in Hong Kong has not responded to press inquiry. The Security Bureau, on the other hand, did not deny that assistant Commissioner Song Ru’an has attended the dinner.

The Bureau, however, stressed that only three Hong Kong officials were involved. It refused to divulge further, citing privacy and ongoing criminal case investigation as reasons.

Hong Kong Police did not reply whether a fine ticket will be issued to the assistant commissioner, Song.

Other attendees of the private dinner were Lai Wai-ha, Deputy Director of China Affairs of the University of Hong Kong; a commissioner of Fire Department and current senior executives of four Chinese enterprises in Hong Kong.

Responding to press inquiry, the University of Hong Kong (#HKU) denied that it was an official event saying that Lai was "invited by her friends" to the dinner.

The Fire Department said the concerning official has left the Department so it could not comment on personal matters.

All four Chinese enterprises have yet to respond.

Source: Stand News; #Aug30
https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/%E9%AB%98%E5%AE%98%E7%8A%AF%E8%81%9A%E9%A3%AF%E5%B1%80%E9%A7%90%E6%B8%AF%E5%85%AC%E7%BD%B2%E5%89%8D%E5%89%AF%E7%89%B9%E6%B4%BE%E5%93%A1%E5%AE%8B%E5%A6%82%E5%AE%89%E8%A2%AB%E6%8C%87%E6%9C%89%E4%BB%BD%E5%87%BA%E5%B8%AD-%E4%BF%9D%E5%AE%89%E5%B1%80%E6%9C%AA%E5%90%A6%E8%AA%8D-%E6%B8%AF%E5%A4%A7%E8%AD%89%E9%AB%98%E5%B1%A4%E5%87%BA%E5%B8%AD

#Gathering #GatheringBan #Officials #FailedState

#FailedState #COVID19
Dozens of Hong Kong top officials and legislators attended birthday party of a CCP representative violated pandemic restriction

13 senior government officials and 19 legislators in Hong Kong were among the 170 attendees sent into a 21 days quarantine in Penny’s Bay after they attended a birthday party of a CCP representative on January 3, 2022 despite the government’s own pandemic warning.

They included police chief Raymond Siu, immigration chief Au Ka-wang, Home Affairs Secretary Caspar Tsui and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui.

In nearly identical wording, senior officials sent out their statements of apologies in past couple of days. However, only 3 among the 13 officials mentioned that they used the mandatory “Leave Home Safe” tracing App when arriving the premise.

Lawyers who examined photographs of the event said the signs indicating criminal offences included guests chatting unmasked, the failure to use the “Leave Home Safe” exposure alert application and the large crowd that was present.

The party, held on January 3, 2022, was to celebrate the 53rd birthday of Witman Hung Wai-man, a delegate to China’s top national legislature. The well-connected politician invited a long list of the city’s political establishment, ranging from the home affairs secretary to the security chief.

The embarrassing incident came as concerns had been raised in recent weeks after a number of Omicron cases were identified in Hong Kong. Health officials openly asked citizens to avoid large gatherings in the middle of an Omicron outbreak.

Days before the incident, Lam summoned top officials from Cathay Pacific airlines and said they must take responsibility for their aircrew breaching self-isolation rules even if “they may not know their employees’ every act”.

Source: inmediahk; #Jan9
Image: WhatsNew Media
https://bit.ly/3Fasij1


#Covid19 #Pandemic #GatheringBan
====
Related article

Hong Kong Government Officials and Politicians Breach Gathering Ban, Carrie Lam dodges responsibility
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/31863

#Poll #PublicOpinion
57% Hongkongers tend to "live with COVID" as "zero-COVID" is unreachable

The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (#HKPORI), a research institution in Hong Kong, conducted a survey by asking 7,000 Hong Kong citizens to evaluate the existing COVID19 measures.

57% of the respondents believe that "living with the virus" is more realistic than having zero COVID19 cases. Almost 90% of the pro-democratic citizens shared this view.

Among the non-democratic supporters, 40% supported the view of "living with the virus" and while another 40% looked for a "zero case" scenario.

The supporters and the opponents to the implementation of population-wide compulsory testing are divided into 41% in respective fraction; however, the opposition to other COVID-19 measures was more than half.

55% of the respondents oppose "3-dose vaccination". 53% of them disagree to shut down more venues. At last, 54% of them do not want gathering regulation to be tightened.

The survey reveals that the people opt for "living with the virus" as having "zero COVID cases" is almost impossible due to the continuous mutation,

The spokeperson of the institute Dr Chung Kim-Wah pointed out that there is a gap between "believing that the policy is helpful" and "supporting the policy". This reflects the tendency of Hong Kong people to take risks in order to return to their normal life.

Source: Inmedia #Feb11

https://bit.ly/3I06o49

#zeroCOVID #ChungKimWah #Covid19 #GatheringBan #PolicyMaking

Hong Kong Police Arrest #StandWithUkraine Citizens

A netizen uploaded a 11-second video on Twitter. The video showed a man and a woman, wrapped in Ukrainian flags, being taken away by police on March 24, 2022 in Central.

Hong Kong Police confirmed that they ticketed 5 people for violating the anti-gathering ban.

Video: https://mobile.twitter.com/virginiaylau/status/1506931402247671813

Source: Twitter; Ming Pao #Mar24

https://m.mingpao.com/ins/%e6%b8%af%e8%81%9e/article/20220325/s00001/1648136995410/%e4%b8%ad%e7%92%b0%e8%88%89%e6%94%af%e6%8c%81%e7%83%8f%e5%85%8b%e8%98%ad%e6%a8%99%e8%aa%9e-5%e7%94%b7%e5%a5%b3%e6%b6%89%e9%81%95%e9%99%90%e8%81%9a%e9%81%ad%e7%a5%a8%e6%8e%a7

#PoliceState #Suppression #GatheringBan #HongKongProtest