On the National Day last year, crime officer “Little Tiger” was attacked by rioters with acid bombs when he was carrying out his duties in Tuen Mun. As a result, he suffered multiple injuries to his right arm and back. More than half a year has passed since the attack, and Little Tiger has undergone three major operations. Although he has not fully recovered yet, he possesses formidable stamina and the safety of his colleagues has always been on his mind.

“I saw my pale skin turning brown, blistering and oozing bloody discharge. The pain was excruciating.” Later on, Little Tiger received treatment in hospital, but since his body responded to anaesthetics rather slowly and that regular painkillers did not even have any effect on him, he decided to skip painkillers altogether. Instead, Little Tiger chose to grin and bear it, tolerating the pain during the treatment solely by his willpower. To him, the most hurtful thing was that when he insisted on going to the toilet by himself during the initial stage of recovery, it took him more than half an hour to get off the bed and inch his way to the toilet, a process that usually takes only a few minutes.

Little Tiger said, “The days spent in pain were no picnic, but I gradually got through those days. What’s even more painful is seeing my colleagues on duty outside but not being able to work with them on the front line because of my injuries. However, such pain has made me even stronger, and prompted me to face the reality. Since I cannot return to the front line yet, I have reflected on this experience to see if I could have done better, or even averted the danger in the first place.”

In fact, Little Tiger has become another communication channel between his colleagues and senior management, as he conveyed to the senior officers who visited him the various issues facing frontline officers as well as their need for certain gear. “Now that I think about the violent attacks again, I believe the rioters were not just assaulting police officers. They actually wanted to kill police officers. I hope my misfortune can alert everyone to the dangers, so there will never be another tragedy.”

“During my time in hospital, I was still following the Police’s handling of the protests against the extradition law amendment bill very closely. Whenever I saw my colleagues continuing to do their part bravely to ensure the safety and stability of Hong Kong, I thanked them from the bottom of my heart.” Little Tiger would also like to express his gratitude to the many people that had visited him or given him greeting cards, and he hopes he can say “thank you” to each of them in person one day.

Little Tiger is particularly indebted to Commissioner Tang Ping-keung. He said, “When I was staying in hospital, many senior officers visited me more than once to check on the progress of my recovery. Tang Sir even visited me as many as three times—once was even on the day he assumed the role of Commissioner in November last year. After his inauguration ceremony in the morning, Tang Sir still made it to the hospital at 11am and gave me many words of encouragement. I was deeply moved by that, and my desire to rejoin my teammates and resume my duties became even more fervent.”