Opinion: 3 cheers for Hong Kong police during Fire Dragon dance – no Darth Vaders here

The Mid-Autumn Festival has come and gone again for another year, but enduringly pleasant memories remain; colourful lantern displays, the surfeit of mooncakes and Tai Hang’s fabulous Fire Dragon procession are all reminders of Hong Kong life at its absolute finest.

After a four-year hiatus, this shimmering, smoking, supernatural neighbourhood protector was back doing what he does best – delighting the assembled throng with sheer kinetic spectacle.

Temporarily tangible, this evanescent representation of local “intangible cultural heritage” does not disappoint.

The Fire Dragon festival parade provides a welcome opportunity to give the Hong Kong Police a resounding three cheers for a job superbly done, instead of another of the sour raspberry blasts so richly merited in recent times.

Orderly but massive crowds directed by well-visible police were a welcome feature.

All around the procession route, road crossings and crowd movements were managed efficiently and – just as important – pleasantly and courteously, by well-trained police officers. Proof positive that when left in peace to do what they are actually meant to do – serve the public – quiet admiration for jobs well done is the only reasonable response.

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Everything was just as it should be; without exception – as far as this observer could tell – police uniforms were immaculate, berets at the correct angle, individual officers’ identity patches visible, and – best of all – none of the bantam-cock-strutting-about manner, which alienated many erstwhile well-wishers in recent years, was in evidence anywhere.

No one was channelling their inner Darth Vader – quite the contrary. Helpful, efficient but not officious – only the most negative-minded would find cause to cavil.

And most were still in their 20s. In recent years, numerous young friends have disparaged erstwhile schoolmates who joined the police from school.

With allowance made for confirmation bias, aggregated remarks strongly suggested that many classroom failures and thugs sought secure employment with otherwise unattainable pay scales.

Entrance standards have been relaxed in recent times to offset flagging recruitment levels, and while these revisions might prompt certain ill-wishers to mutter grimly that “any old iron” is taken on these days, abundant contrary evidence was on display around Tai Hang.

An hour after the dragon had gone back whence he came, the streets were both near-empty and free of litter.

Few other cities enjoy this level of police efficiency, public safety and general orderliness. In most other places, pavements would have been ankle-deep in rubbish, dangerous with broken empties and roiling with rowdy drunks and other human detritus – but mercifully not here.

The Fire Dragon parade represents a resoundingly positive “good Hong Kong story” to tell the world, one generated by ground-level observation and experience. Yet more contrived propaganda phoniness is unnecessary when these realities exist right before our delighted eyes.