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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose SK Lee, at a media session at the lobby of the West Wing of the Central Government Offices after the Fight Crime Committee meeting this afternoon (September 28):
Secretary for Security: The Fight Crime Committee has reviewed the crime situation of the first eight months of this year. The overall crime figures rose by 0.4%. As for violent crime, we have recorded an increase of 2.4%. Those crimes which have recorded an increase include criminal intimidation, criminal damage, indecent assault and serious drug offences. And there are also a number of crimes which have recorded a downward trend. These include burglary, robbery and car theft. Overall, the crime situation in Hong Kong is rather stable. As far as young people committing crime is concerned, we have recorded an increase of 2.8%. So overall, Hong Kong is still a very safe place.
Reporter: Regarding the chopping case in Tseung Kwan O yesterday, do you see it as a sign that triad activities or gang activities are up? And the second question is that there has been an increase in drug-related offences and those committed by juveniles. How do you describe the trend and was it related to the summer holidays?
Secretary for Security: For that wounding case yesterday, it is true that for the first eight months of this year, the number of criminal intimidation cases has increased. But our analysis is that most of these cases concerned individual dispute and not too many involved triad activities. We will investigate that case you mentioned to see whether it involved other factors like blackmail or triad intimidation. And for juveniles indulging in drugs, we recognise this is a trend. Although the number of overall drug offenders has decreased in the past few years, the number of young people taking drugs is increasing. For the first eight months of this year, we have arrested 550 young people involved in serious drug offences. This is an 90% increase as compared with figures last year. Now there are many factors leading to this phenomenon. We all know, Hong Kong is a very liberal and open community, and like any open community in the western world, young people have a trend to try new things and they like excitement. So apart from enforcing the law like stopping drug syndicates from importing drugs into Hong Kong, we have to step up our education and promotion programmes to educate the public, especially the young generation to distance themselves from any kind of drugs.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, September 28, 2007
Issued at HKT 19:23
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