Celebrating July 1st Special Program - How to Build a Police Society｜Police State｜A Brief History of Police Development｜Let's Talk About Mary

Today we continue to talk about the Hong Kong police. According to reports, in order to welcome the return of July 1st, the three "anti-terrorist tactical units" of the Hong Kong Police Force, the Airport Special Police Unit (ASU), the Counter-Terrorism Special Unit (CTRU) and the Railway Response Unit (RRT), will be replaced on July 1. Uniforms on duty to welcome the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland with a new image, and this news has also appeared on the homepage of many mainland portals including the World Wide Web. The three anti-terrorist troops will wear new uniforms for daily patrols after July 1. Some netizens said that this set of equipment is too hot to wear in summer. The Hong Kong police said that the suppliers of the new uniforms are mainland manufacturers, regardless of style and handsomeness The main reason is that the security and convenience have been greatly improved, and the counter-terrorism efficiency has been improved. Another main reason is that, except for the airport SWAT team, the daily clothes of the other two teams are no different from ordinary police. The Hong Kong police said that the new uniform is to allow the public to more intuitively and clearly identify these Asirs, which can be recognized as anti-terrorist troops at a glance. When you hear this, do you feel a little stunned, is Hong Kong going to normalize counter-terrorism?

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To be honest, if it weren't for this news, my knowledge of Hong Kong's special police force would only be at the level of the Flying Tigers. After careful investigation, it turns out that Hong Kong's police force with a special police nature, in addition to the above three plus the Flying Tigers, also has a special tactical team (speed dragon team), an operational support team, a correctional emergency response team, and a correctional area. There are a total of 11 troops, large and small, of the emergency response team, the boat division, the witness protection team, and the VIP protection team. I don't know if I have listed them all. Anyway, according to the information I verified, the above SWAT units or groups belong to different units of the Hong Kong Police Force. In addition to the old-fashioned special police teams such as the Flying Tigers, the Airport Special Police Team, and the Small Boat Division, which are related teams established during the Hong Kong-British period. At least half of them are new SWAT teams established after 1997. As for how their job responsibilities are divided, and what functions overlap we are not very clear. In other words, in a city of 7.5 million people, in addition to ordinary police, there are about 10 paramilitary special forces to jointly maintain law and order. (Of course, this is not counted as the PLA Hong Kong Garrison) After 25 years of reunification, is Hong Kong safer? Or is it more dangerous?

There is a common fallacy among ordinary people that the police are established by the state to maintain social order, but historically, the original purpose of establishing the police is to consolidate power. I once did an analysis of why the "police is easy to use violence" program mentioned that the concept of modern police is actually much shorter than most people think. It emerged in France in the middle of the seventeenth century. The word police It comes from French. It is a root with politics, which indicates the attribution of the police. By the nineteenth century in Europe, the profession of the police had largely taken shape along the borders and identities of countries. Until now, in countries that use the French police system, such as Belgium and Italy, the role and function of the police are still similar to semi-military "gendarmerie". The modern word "police" in Chinese was also introduced from Japanese. During the Meiji period, Japan introduced the western police system and created the management model of "police", which means "warning" and "picketing". (By the way, in fact, the words "public security" and "police station" were also introduced from Japan)

Therefore, from the perspective of the birth of the modern police and its functions, the police is the second tool of state violence after the army. With the development of society and the progress of democracy, the army of most countries has already been nationalized and national defense, but the police Departments are basically subordinate to the ruling or management class, or their main purpose is to serve the ruling class. Let's not talk about those countries that claim to be the people's police. Let's take the Taipei police, which is known as the most dignified, as an example. The full name of the police station is "Taipei City Government Police Bureau". From this name, we can clearly see the relationship between the police and the government. Relationship, this organizational structure is similar all over the world, but the functions and powers are different.

At the beginning, we said that France pioneered the modern police system in the era of Louis XIV, and it penetrated into all aspects of national operations, gradually affecting the whole of Europe. In the 18th century, in the face of a powerful France, the scattered German princes were eager to manage France. Beginning with William I, Duke of Prussia, a discipline based on the theory of professional training of police state governance (Polizei Wissenschaft) was systematically established. , which can be literally translated as police science, which is almost equivalent to today's public administration. After Prussia unified Germany, it learned the French model more quickly, abolished the ruling privileges of the nobility, and let trained officials run the country. This kind of "police science" is very similar to China's "Legalist Thought", which emphasizes that the state is governed by administrative means, and this set of theories was undoubtedly proved to be efficient and useful at the time. Starting with Prussia, Germany jumped from a second-rate country to a world hegemon in one fell swoop.

In the process of "governing the country by law" in Germany, the police are undoubtedly an important weapon to embody the spirit of "rule of law", and a word called "Polizeistaat" was gradually born, which means "police state". "Or the opposite of the "constitutional state," whose main function is to allow the judiciary to intervene in the conflict between the executive and the people. But on the whole, it is not intended to replace the legal system, but as a model that can coexist with legal management. In the era of the Great Depression, emerging totalitarian states represented by Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan rose. They expanded their military power externally and the police’s power internally. They gradually rose from maintaining daily security to ideological and political correctness. It is written into the legal provisions, and the police play the role of corresponding supervisors. Therefore, since the 1930s, the term "police state" has mostly been derogatory in English, referring to a totalitarian state like Nazi Germany, where executive power is not checked and balanced, and secret police are rampant.

Let’s go back to the example of the Hong Kong police. According to the official website of the Hong Kong Police Force, as of the same period last year, the total number of Hong Kong police was 27,648. Considering that there are nearly 3,000 auxiliary police officers, we estimate it to be 28,000. The current population of Hong Kong is Around 750W, the ratio of police to citizens is 380 police officers per 10W people. According to statistics from the United Nations cited by Bloomberg in 2013, comparing the proportion of police and civilians in more than 50 countries and regions around the world, Hong Kong had about 450 police officers per 100,000 people, ranking fifth in the world, higher than many Western countries, and the first in Asia. First, Singapore, which has a population density and size similar to Hong Kong, has only about 170 police officers per 100,000 population. Not only do we have to ask, how come there are so many police in this tiny land of Hong Kong, is it a crime center in Asia?

Let's look at another set of data. According to the 2021 global safe city ranking released by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Hong Kong ranks 8th with a score of 78.6, ranking third in Asia after Singapore and Tokyo. Since there is no data that can be effectively compared, it is basically estimated that the ratio of police to citizens in Hong Kong is currently the highest among all the top ten countries, while the top-ranked countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand have the lowest ratio of police to citizens in the world. countries. That is to say, a safe and livable place does not need so many police officers. So can we draw a preliminary conclusion that good law and order in Hong Kong is built on the basis of the police's maintenance of stability? Of course, this conclusion is not very accurate. But the Hong Kong police, which was once the most sophisticated force in Asia, is so sophisticated because of its integrity, restraint and discipline, as well as the output of its training and management model (it once trained the Singaporean police force). Since the birth of the Hong Kong police for more than 100 years, the large-scale public security incidents can be counted on ten fingers and toes. Even during the darkest "June 7 riot" in Hong Kong's contemporary history, there was no police society. governance mode. The Hong Kong police after 1997, especially after the return to China 5 years ago, have not seen any output of management experience or gained international acclaim, except for the increase of special forces. Their scope of work is to protect the city. According to a telephone poll conducted by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute in 2020, the satisfaction of ordinary citizens with the Hong Kong Police Force reached a four-year low of 36.8, and 40% of the citizens rated it as 0, which is the lowest among the nine disciplined services.

Since the anti-revision bill turmoil, the image of the Hong Kong police has increasingly appeared in the public eye, especially in mainland China, it has been displayed in the style of a positive warrior, which has made countless wolves climax one after another, and even recruited. Advertisements for mainland students. The public security of the Hong Kong police and the topic of Hong Kong becoming a police society have gradually become the focus of public opinion. In our previous program, we said that due to the special nature of the police profession, it is easy for this group to develop a sense of social isolation and persecution paranoia. In a period of good security, they can only manage their emotions by suppressing themselves. Once privileged, it can easily become a weapon of violence, even exceeding the expectations of those in power. Not only the Hong Kong police, but also the world due to the impact of the epidemic and the international situation in recent years, the conflicts and contradictions between the police and the people have become more and more obvious all over the world. . Therefore, the scope of police enforcement and the abuse of police force have once again become a global topic. Speaking of which, I believe that many patriotic young people will move out of the United States to slap me in the face, so I might as well slap myself first. right! The American Empire is a police state that does not compromise enough. The variety and complexity of the American police are outrageous. The quality and law enforcement level of the American police are basically the best in the world. The crime rate is high, so you look at the cities in the United States. Few make it to the livability rankings. Therefore, US imperialism has never been a beacon, nor a white lotus. Don't compare everything with the US. Does the US police have anything to do with the Hong Kong police? Are you okay because everyone sucks? Compared with you, compare with the Japanese police, with the Taiwan police, with China (forget the public security). . .

Let’s go back to the issue of public security in Hong Kong again. If Hong Kong’s livability has risen from 20th in 2019 to 8th, and the Hong Kong police have contributed, why have 30W Hong Kongers left their homes in less than three years? Hometown? Let’s put aside things like data and concepts first. If you were to live in a city where you could see SWAT police patrolling with live ammunition at all times, would you feel safe in this city?

As for whether Hong Kong has become a police society, there is no precise definition. On May 8, 2022, the former Chief Secretary for Administration, Li Jia Chaoyi, was elected as the sixth Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region by almost unanimous votes. The first thing this police veteran with more than 30 years of experience took office was to announce in a high-profile manner that he would be fully armed. The image of the anti-terrorist policeman can be described as not forgetting the original intention. Is that deterring terrorists? Or to deter ordinary people? What kind of five years will Hong Kong usher in? I'm sure you are as terrified as I am.