HK police glorious example of humanitarianism

On Thursday evening, a man stabbed a policeman from behind in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. When cornered by the police, he stabbed himself and was rushed to hospital where he died later.

The whole incident was captured by a camera nearby, and some details are rather moving: When the attacker fell after stabbing himself, the police officers surrounding him did not hesitate in rushing to him and carrying him to the hospital.

That's an act of humanism, something the Hong Kong police have long been proud of. For them, both the wounded colleague and the attacker are lives and lives must be saved.

Their humanism was especially visible during the riots that victimized Hong Kong in 2019. On Thursday, the Hong Kong SAR government announced its annual list of honors and awards recipients. Four policemen got the Medal for Bravery, which, according to the official website of HKSAR government, was awarded for their "act of tremendous courage, selflessness, commitment of duty, professionalism and gallantry of an extremely high order".

Of the four recipients, two suffered from direct attack, including stabbing, by rioters in 2019, while the other two removed homemade explosives from houses to prevent them from harming the public.

During the riots that went on for almost one year, the Hong Kong police did not fire a single shot at any rioter; Even firing in the air was limited. Although though there were reports of rioters attacking the police with sticks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, none of the rioters died or was seriously wounded by the police.

For Hong Kong police, honor means protecting life of all even if it threatens their own lives.

It's something Western countries could learn from. We do not blame US police and we know they are performing the duty of protecting public security in the US. Yet incidents such as kneeling an African American to death show there is space for improvement in their job and they could adopt a more humanitarian approach in doing that.

Maybe Hong Kong police are a good example to learn from.