Police cancel recruitment talk amid student opposition

By Jennie Tang

A police recruitment talk planned to be held at Hong Kong Baptist University was cancelled after the Student Union voiced strong opposition.

The Student Union said it welcomes the cancellation and it would act against any police recruitment on campus until the police apologise for their violent acts during the Occupy Movement.

The student body issued a strongly-worded statement of disapproval last week after the university announced the police recruitment activity scheduled on November 4.

"Students refuse to become part of the state's stability-maintaining machinery," the statement reads.

Morris Chan Sze-ho, president of the Student Union of HKBU, said the police decided to cancel the event after the Student Union expressed their concerns through school officials. The police have not given any official explanation for the cancellation.

Mr Chan told the The Young Reporter that the statement was issued because most of its members did not want to see police recruitment on campus.

After the event was announced, a poster appeared on the school's Democracy Wall which reads, "There is no police, only public security". The latter is how the police are called on the mainland.

During last year's Occupy Movement, the police used pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the protesters, most of them university students.

However, some students do not agree with what the student body has done on their behalf.

Fong Wing-yee, a final year student at HKBU, said the recruitment should be allowed as some of her schoolmates might be interested in joining the police force.

She said the Student Union has been acting radically and the opposition fails to represent the views of all HKBU students.

"The talk is not compulsory," Ms Fong said. "It is only for those who are interested to attend. Students can choose not to go if they really don't like the police."

The police received over 2,200 applications during the Police Recruitment Day held in Wan Chai yesterday, a 5 per cent increase from a similar event in July.

(Edited by Viola Zhou. Copy-edited by Jackson Ho.)