Red-faced Hong Kong policewoman apologises for wearing colonial era badge on hat
A senior police officer was left red-faced yesterday after she wore a police hat with a colonial-era crown insignia at a media briefing following the removal of protester barricades in Mong Kok.
A senior police officer was left red-faced yesterday after she wore a police hat with a colonial-era crown insignia at a media briefing following the removal of protester barricades in Mong Kok.
Some 4-1/2 hours later, however, at a second press conference in police headquarters in Wan Chai, Senior Superintendent Catherine Kwan Chui-ching was wearing a hat bearing the city's post-handover bauhinia symbol.
After 1997, the city discarded old symbols of colonial rule. Police badges with the bauhinia replaced those with the crown. But many veteran officers kept the old badges as souvenirs.
At the second press conference at about 9.45am, Kwan was asked why she had been wearing a hat with the crown insignia. "I'm very impressed with how perceptive you all are. I did indeed wear the wrong hat this morning, and that has now been rectified," she said.
She smiled and looked embarrassed as she apologised. "Sorry about that," she said. When asked whether she thought the mistake affected the image of the police force, she said: "I think this is a slip-up on my part and has nothing to do with the image of the police force."
Kwan kept the hat with the crown badge as a souvenir and stored it with her uniforms in her office locker.
The force has bigger image problems than a stray hat. After officers moved protesters from Lung Wo Road and Tamar Park in Admiralty early on Wednesday, protesters complained that they were beaten after being detained. A television crew captured images appearing to show seven plain-clothes officers kicking a protester while his hands were secured with plastic ties. The officers have been suspended pending an investigation.
Kwan, a mother of three, is the head of the force unit that assesses officers' performance. Her husband is Superintendent Yeung Chi-choi, an assistant Kowloon City district commander.
