Tolerance of triads, police legitimacy, and self-help amidst the Umbrella Movement

AuthorT Wing Lo,Sharon Ingrid Kwok,Cora YT Hui,Gabriel KW Lee
Published date01 December 2019
DOI10.1177/0004865819845420
Date01 December 2019
Subject MatterArticles
Article
Tolerance of triads,
police legitimacy, and
self-help amidst the
Umbrella Movement
T Wing Lo
Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of
Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Cora YT Hui
Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of
Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Sharon Ingrid Kwok
Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
Gabriel KW Lee
Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of
Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Abstract
The 79-day Umbrella Movement in 2014 is the largest civil disobedience movement in Hong
Kong’shistor y. Based on a sample of 186 protesters and 503 students, the present paper aims
to examine the protesters’ tolerance of triad activities; their perceptions of the police, of triad
protection of occupiers, and of triad weiwen (maintenance of stability for the government); and
the relationship between police legitimacy and tolerance of triad activities. We found that
attitudes toward democracy, toward the importance of national identities, and toward triad
involvement, and negative perceptions of the police were all significant predictors of an indi-
vidual’s support for the Movement. We further found that the predictors we had identified
earlier were able to significantly differentiate protesters from student opponents. When com-
pared with students, protesters had lower ratings for police procedural justice and were more
Corresponding author:
T Wing Lo, Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue,
Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
Email: sstwl@cityu.edu.hk
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2019, Vol. 52(4) 516–533
!The Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0004865819845420
journals.sagepub.com/home/anj
tolerant of triad legal behavior and of protecting protesters, but less tolerant of triad illegal
behaviors and weiwen. Implications of Hong Kong’s self-help movement are discussed.
Keywords
Civil disobedience, police legitimacy, procedural justice, self-help, triad society,
Umbrella Movement
Date received: 31 January 2019; accepted: 1 April 2019
Introduction
The Occupy Central with Love and Peace or Umbrella Movement (UM) started with
people’s f‌ight for universal suffrage in Hong Kong in August 2014. A demonstration was
held in the government headquarters and the police use of 87 canisters of tear gas on
unarmed protesters drew even more people to the site armed with umbrellas and protec-
tive gear to support those already there. The protesters later occupied three sites in dif-
ferent parts of the city. The 79-day UM came into the spotlight for discretionary law
enforcement and suspicion of police-triad (Chinese maf‌ia) collusion to clear the occupied
sites. Mongkok, one of the occupied sites, has a high level of triad-protected activities,
such as mahjong parlors, entertainment clubs, and drug dealing. There were constant
conf‌licts between the police, occupiers, and government supporters who tried to reoccupy
the sites. Triads were allegedly involved in helping the police: “‘black cops’...‘police are
working with triads’” (Staff Reporters, 2014, October 3). On some occasions, groups of
suspected triads marched into the sites, and damaged the tents and supplies. Fistf‌ights
broke out between the triads and occupiers. Hui (2015) observed that triad involvement
inadvertently helped sustain the protesters’ determination after the initial adrenaline rush
died down. Every episode of violence against protesters, whether initiated by the police or
by triads, “backf‌ired” and drew more support from the public (p. 114). It was also
reported that individual triads were involved in helping the occupiers (Lo et al., 2015).
The police withdrew not long after f‌iring tear gas, and the government left the
protesters largely undisturbed. As predicted by self-help literature, the decline of state
control led to rise in self-help. Black and Baumgarner (1987: 35) were conf‌ident that
“informal social control exercised by citizens themselves virtually always maintains
order. Even a sudden breakdown of police control, then, may give rise to self-help
without large-scale disorder.” Black and Baumgarner’s idea of self-help is mostly
about taking justice into one’s own hands, but the self-help in UM took a very different
approach. Based on the principles of “love and peace,” protesters observed orderliness
and voluntariness at all sites. People from all walks of life looked out for one another
according to their ability: medical professionals organized f‌irst-aid teams, carpenters
constructed barricades and infrastructure (e.g., desks and chairs for the study corner),
teachers tutoring students, etc. People donated and volunteers distributed meals, fruits,
snacks, water, cooling packs, face masks, tents, and raincoats. They cleaned up the
streets, recycled garbage, and cleaned public toilets (Dissanayake, 2014). Protesters
formed human chains to protect students from harm during clashes with the police
Lo et al. 517

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