Hong Kong making a boob of itself

Not sure what is more cringe worthy than seeing middle aged men wearing brightly coloured bras or the fact that a court has sentenced a woman to prison for “assaulting” a police officer with her breasts.

Ng Lai-ying aged 30 and her boyfriend were both arrested during an anti-parallel trading protest in Hong Kong at the start of March this year. As scuffles broke out during the protests, Ng Lai-ying is reportedly seen to be pushed around by Hong Kong police leaving her bloody nosed. However she was detained and charged with assaulting a police officer. In July the Tuen Mun deputy magistrate Michael Chan Pik-kiu convicted of using her chest to bump against the right arm of Chief Inspector Chan Ka-po. Chief Inspector Chan Ka-po claims to have suffered an injury to his chest as a result of the incident. This came as a 14 year old student was also found guilty of striking the senior police officer with his shoulder during the protests.

During the trial, Ng Lai-ying told the court that she shouted “indecent assault” immediately after chief inspector Chan’s failed to grab her bag strap instead coming into contact with her left breast. This was dismissed by the magistrate saying that Ng Lai-ying had “”used her female identity to trump up the allegation that the officer had molested” her, calling that a malicious act and harming the officer’s reputation”. Ng Lai Ying was sentenced to 3 and 1/2 months imprisonment for the incident sparking condemnation from many Hong Kongers which also attracted the attention of foreign media outlets.

Not only has Hong Kong’s socio-political psyche continually fragmenting, now it seems that even Hong Kong’s judicial system cannot escape the laughing stock to which the government has already become. For a woman to be convicted of assaulting a police officer with her breasts under what is arguably inconclusive evidence yet the 7 police officers whom were cleared recorded beating up and kicking pro-democracy protester Ken Tsang in the Dark Corner Incident continue to evade investigation is ridiculous and alarming.

As Conan O’Brien jokes about the breast assault, we are left wondering if an injury is even possible from such an encounter. The “assault” seems to be unrealistic and fabricated by police as an attempt to prosecute protesters using any reasons possible. If what is actually true than we must really feel sorry for the police officer in question as he also copped a shoulder from a 14 year old leading to “further” injuries. Come on! You’re a police officer attempting crowd control in a volatile protest situation, and yet you find it odd to come into physical contact with someone!?

This conviction and harsh prison sentence firstly does not fit the “crime” even if she did “intentionally” breast bump the officer. What is more alarming is that the allegations of sexual harassment that Ng Lai-ying alleged were dismissed in a manner that encourages silence instead of awareness of the issue. For the magistrate to accuse Ng Lai-ying of playing the ‘female gender card’ sets a dangerous precedence that seemingly sends the message that it’s easy especially for those with power to get away with such things. As Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities rightly states that “we are all baffled as to how a breast attack works“, we are also left wondering what next cringe worthy charges are going to leveled at participants of the ever growing number of protests

Sexual violence cannot be allowed to be used as police tactic to intimidate protesters. The Hong Kong judicial system has pretty much given an “insult to all women on this earth [as] breasts are the origins of human beings” as put in the words of pro-democracy lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung otherwise known as ‘Long Hair’. Hong Kong has once again made a boob of itself by such cringe worthy decisions that oppress women’s rights and serve no other purpose than for the establishment to cling onto its much squandered powers.