The dead-of–night arrest of pro-dem District Councillor Cheng Lai-king for resending a Facebook post looks like vindictiveness on the part of Asia’s Bitterest. But the possibility that the cops will try to charge her with ‘seditious intent’ suggests a more sinister and calculated step in the long march to Mainlandization. Good commentary on this here and here.
As you might gather from the wording…
…the ‘seditious intent’ law is a tad out of date. It is one of the old and (we were told in 2003) no longer usable offences that would have been modernized and absorbed into the National Security Law required under Article 23.
Some of the more odious among the pro-Beijing crowd have of course been calling for work on an Article 23 law to be speeded up. However, the Article 23 brand is toxic, and after the Extradition Bill fiasco and the 2019 uprising the government would have to be insane to exhume the thing. Then again, to Hong Kong’s new knuckle-draggers in the HK and Macau Affairs/Liaison Office, it might be insane not to.
Alternatively, Beijing could issue imperial edicts – Basic Law ‘interpretations’ – to conjure into being whatever new meanings to existing laws it wishes. The next Chief Justice is reputedly laid back (or maybe just fatalistic) about this rule-by-law device.
Not the first late-night knock on an opposition politician’s door, of course. Certainly not the last.
(More here on the cops’ duplicitous communications on this case, which even by current standards seems to stink.)
Our government does a pretty good job of “bringing into hatred or contempt or inciting disaffection against the Government of Hong Kong” all on its own. It certainly doesn’t need any help.
Just call the crime “provoking quarrels and making trouble”. Perfect.
It would be a useful exercise of the Seditious Intention law to invoke it against Carrie Lam and her minions, including the chief constable and his lot.
My favorite Mainland commie ploy is to try to enforce laws by bending them until they almost break, while at the same time suggesting that the whole principles upon which they are based should be ignored (i.e., the colonial settling of Hong Kong and it’s repatriation to the Motherland). Tell me how the law in principle is not worth spit, but the law must be used to rein in those miscreants that want liberty and a law system that is functional and representative. Oh, I see. Sorry. I will see myself out.
the most terrifying thing about these type of communists is that the entire framework for their way of rule is built on delusion and fantasy. it literally is not connected in any way to reality.
When it comes to point a) through to e) of the sedition definition, the police, the liaison office, the Chief Exonerative and the HKSARG are definitely guilty on all counts over the last 12 months.
How come Quat was not hauled out of her bed in the early hours for providing fake information on her educational achievements on Legco and advisory body records?
https://webb-site.com/articles/quat.asp
Re Article 23 some of you may not have read the report in Apple on 22nd
Lau Wong-fat’s Brother-in-law Slams Junius Ho Selfish for Pushing forward Article 23 in Attempt to Clear 21-July Black History
https://hk.news.appledaily.com/…/ZVSUSHVAUL65PB6B7UZDVBEOBE/
Why arrest at 1.30am?
Why not a polite phone call asking her to voluntarilly report at the police station?
Why not voluntary statement?
Why arrest?
Why?
Arrest means the arrested person is photographed from the front, the left profile, the right profile. Always, as standard.
Arrest means the arrested person being finger printed, all eight fingers, both thumbs, not just the ends of the fingers but the length and rolling from side to side, plus the palms (in two sections), both hands. Always, as standard.
Arrest may mean turning out your pockets and then either a pat down or physical search.
Arrest may mean having to strip.
Arrest may mean an orifice search, which means not just looking down your throat but fingers up your anus and, in the case of a woman, into your vagina.
All these at the discretion (read choice) of the officer then in charge of your case.
Arrest means power by the arresting entity. It means (essentially involuntary) submission. It means humiliation if the officer so opts.
So why was the lady arrested at 1.30am? She had the audacity to seek to get the police to comply with their obligations, by requiring them to produce their warrant cards.
“Look on (my powers) and tremble.”
This is yet further evidence that the establishment will do everything in its power to prevent Police Officers who have committed, or are suspected of having committed, criminal offences from being brought to justice.
The Police will not investigate themselves. The DOJ are useless at the best of times. The Complaints Commission is deliberately toothless. Citizens have to do it themselves, or shame the authorities into doing it, like Ken Tsang had to.
Hence the Norwich Pharmacal application in relation to the Prince Edward beatings. The purpose of that application? To identify wrongoders. There will hopefully be more of these before this is all over.
Plus we hear so much about Hong Kong having the rule of law.
As exemplified by the law being impartially applied by the courts.
The courts being, now, effectively closed.
The only “institution” that is running in its (ab)normal way is the police.
The po po’s behavior makes me believe that the information regarding the trigger happy shooter circulating on the internet indeed accurate.
And at the same time that the police are using deliberately intimidating tactics, I have now been back in HK for 24 hours, have yet to receive the SMS to activate my quarantine tracking app, the hotline is either busy or no one picks up.
It’s not a shambles; it’s a statement of priorities.
At least we now know for sure the name and number of the cop who shot the Indonesian journo in the eye, nearly killing her.
And we also know that the Cops are still too dim and too used to being able to cover up all their crimes to think about the Streisand effect. They still think they live in an age where when life gives you yellow objects you can take them down a dark alley and beat them to death and get away with it…
Slightly OT but has anyone seen or heard of the Secretary for so-called Justice recently
A draft article 23 law was prepared in 2003 in line with Regina Ip’s lies that the bill had widespread public support. It is in the Department of Justice waiting to be dusted off and ready for use.
Plus how did the police become aware of the reposting made that day? Who, how and what are the police monitoring? Why?
” Who, how and what are the police monitoring? Why?”
State secret dontcha know. It would be interesting to hear how the Police Pinnochio Revived Bureau spin the answer.