Hong Kong police have removed several posters from the “Lennon Wall” message board in Tai Po after they were found to include the personal details of a frontline officer.
A pedestrian tunnel outside Tai Po Market MTR station has been filled with pro-democracy messages of support for the anti-extradition law movement. Sticky notes, drawings, photos, and even interactive items such as slippers to hit officials’ faces have been hung on the subway walls.
At around 12:30am on Wednesday, dozens of police tactical unit and plainclothes officers arrived at the tunnel to take photos of posters featuring the face, name, and police identity number of a fellow officer.
The police team, wearing protective gear and shields, then removed the posters. There was no resistance and the action took around half an hour.
2019-07-1000：42大批警察於大埔連儂牆疑似拆去特定標貼記者:Lion
Posted by SocREC 社會記錄頻道 on Tuesday, 9 July 2019
The face of the officer named in the poster was shared online virally after he participated in the clearance action of protesters from Mong Kok on Sunday night. When demanding that protesters leave, footage showed the officer saying: “fucking remember me… fight me one-on-one.”
People Power lawmaker Ray Chan has written to Police Commissioner Stephen Lo saying that the officer’s remarks were unprofessional and shocked the public.
“Many residents questioned why the officer had violated the Public Order Ordinance and the Police General Orders… the officer should be suspended immediately,” he wrote.
Chan joked that if the police chief believed the officer was right in making the remarks, he would be happy to “fight one-on-one” with the officer in a legal arena.
It is yet to be seen if Tai Po residents or others will replace the messages featuring the officer’s personal data.
On Monday, a woman ripped up the notes stuck to the wall in Tai Po and argued with passersby, saying that she had a right to remove them.
Spoof film posters mocking police removal of signs & post-it notes from Tai Po’s Lennon Tunnel
拉人 means to arrest someone and is pronounced “Lai Yan”, hence Lai Yan King
The Canto for Lion King, pronounced “sze tze wong”, sounds same as “rip paper king” pic.twitter.com/POd23Kt1Lm— Yuen Chan (@xinwenxiaojie) July 9, 2019
But afterwards, more and more sticky notes were put up by people on Tuesday. Some mentioned the woman by name in their messages.
Last week, police said eight people had been arrested on suspicion of releasing officers’ personal information online.
