Friday, January 02, 2015

People in power behaving badly

A 14-year old girl drew two flowers with chalk on the wall outside government headquarters.  She was arrested for "criminal damage" (刑事毀壞罪行) and held at a police station for 17 hours.  Later she was sent for detention at a children’s home.    Is making a drawing with chalk a serious crime?  Who is she hurting with a chalk picture?  Why is the police allowed to abuse its power like this with impunity?


A high ranking police officer, a certain Mr. T, claimed that the police protected the Occupiers like a loving mother (慈母).  It is nauseating to hear such inane proclamations after witnessing so many incidents of heavy-handed tactics by the police.  Yes, the police could have behaved worse and we probably should be glad that it did not.  But the claim is simply outrageous.  It reminds people of "DoubleSpeak" in George Orwell's 1984. 


A pro-establishment politician, a certain Ms. Y, demanded that a university punish a professor for advocating the Occupy Central Movement  This came after the university decided that the professor did nothing wrong. She is obviously desperately trying to show Beijing that she is against the Occupy Movement. 

These are just some of the more obvious signs that many of the people in power are behaving very badly.  It is not a sin to be opposed to Occupy Central.  There are many who oppose for honourable reasons.  The majority of our police are professional and honourable.  But being small-minded, vindictive, and abusing political power is not honourable. 








No comments: