Three firefighter staff unions have urged members to donate money in support of police officers’ families affected by the 2014 pro-democracy occupy protests.
The notice circulated on social media said the donations will support “imprisoned colleagues.”
The company that will receive the sums, APO Relief Fund Limited, was first mentioned at a police rally supporting the families of the seven police officers who were jailed for assaulting a pro-democracy protester.
The three unions include the HKFS Officers Association, HK Fire Services Department Staffs General Association, and the Hong Kong Fire Services Control Staff’s Union.
“Facing serious social conflict and an ever-changing complex environment, we colleagues of the disciplinary forces should unite and help each other face challenges,” the notice read.
The APO Relief Fund was set up by Maria Tam Wai-chu, a pro-Beijing heavyweight and the founding head of the Junior Police Officers’ Association.
It has raised more than HK$11 million as of Tuesday. The fund also launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Fringebacker platform on Wednesday, set to last two months. 98 donors have given HK$88,812 as of Thursday evening.
Robert Ng Chee Siong, chairman of land developer Sino Group, donated HK$7 million.
The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong Federation of Women both donated HK$1 million each.
Peggy Lam Pei Yu-dja, president of Federation of Women, said that the public should consider why the incident involving the seven police officers occurred.
“We Chinese have a saying, that whoever provoked the fight should not complain about being beaten to death, right? So we need to see why this incident occurred, and we are sympathetic to the officers,” she said during a press conference.
Lam was referring to the victim, Ken Tsang Kin-chiu, who was also found to have poured liquid onto police officers before he was beaten.
Among the other donors was lawmaker Christopher Cheung Wah-fung, who is the vice chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Council, the police watchdog. He donated HK$50,000.
Former Police Commissioner Tang King-shing and former head of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Timothy Tong Hin-ming donated HK$20,000 and HK$10,000 respectively.
