3 Hong Kong men charged over soaking police, TVB reporters with water guns during Songkran festival
Hong Kong Free Press
Three Hong Kong men who allegedly squirted police officers and reporters from local outlet TVB with water guns during a traditional Thai water festival have been charged with common assault and attacking a police officer.
Cheng Wai-shing, 26, Yip Ka-kin, 26, and Yuen Chi-kin, 31 appeared at Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
All three of them face three charges of assaulting a police officer and two charges of common assault. Tsang and Yuen face an additional charge of common assault, according to a charge sheet from the Judiciary.
The charges relate to an incident in April this year, when Thai new year – or Songkran – celebrations took place in Kowloon City. The district is known as “little Thailand” due to its Thai community.
The celebration typically sees revellers splash and squirt water on each other as a way of washing away sins and bad luck. The April event was the first since Covid-19 broke out in 2020.
Two of the men, Cheng and Yip, were arrested days after.
Video of the incident was posted on a YouTube channel called “Bravedogdog,” which is reportedly run by Cheng. One clip showed a group of men blasting water guns at two police officers who were on standing on a pedestrian path. Others then joined in as the officers walked away to escape the water.
In another clip, a group of men and some kids are seen firing water guns at two reporters wearing yellow raincoats with a TVB logo and the word “press” on them.
One of Hong Kong’s largest broadcasters, TVB is perceived by pro-democracy supporters to have a pro-government stance.
Phrases such as “Vs HK Po[lice]” and “Diu7Tvb [fuck TVB]” were also displayed in the video.
‘Ulterior motives’
During an April press conference announcing the arrests, police said they had “intended and had attempted to breach public peace” and their acts had lasted for three minutes in total. The group then posted a video of the incident online with “seditious wordings.”
“These celebration events are not an opportunity for those with ulterior motives to vent their frustrations and disrupt order,” he said.
Hours before the police announced the arrests, state-backed newspaper Ta Kung Pao published an op-ed by pro-Beijing columnist Chris Wat mentioning the YouTube channel.
The author said the men in the video had “maliciously targeted” police and TVB reporters, adding that they “pretended to splash water but were actually stirring up trouble.”
Magistrate Don So adjourned the case to December 1 and granted them bail on a cash bond of HK$20,000 each. The three must abide by conditions including not travelling out of Hong Kong Kong, living at their stated residential address and reporting to the police station every day.
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