I take crossing streets in Hong Kong almost as serious as the locals are with hitting the >close door< buttons in elevators. Seriously! I have to remember cars go in opposite directions than in the states, bus lanes have their own rules (or lack of), some streets have trolleys (which require tracks that can cause tripping), speeding cars (by drivers that aren’t great because they only drive on the weekends), speeding taxis and delivery trucks, little people pushing little metal wagons full of cardboard (???) or Styrofoam (???), all while making sure the sidewalk you are going toward has room for you!
A few weeks ago while
crossing the street to my office, I noticed two police officers. They
waved me over- only me, not the other 2 dozen people that were crossing with
me. Then again, I may have been the only person tall enough to see over
the crowd. I actually didn’t know what they wanted, but was informed
I had crossed with a red light. To be honest I wasn’t upset, but
rather excited because the officers asked for my
identification. I haven’t mentioned this before, but getting
my residential status approved was quite the process and this was only the
second time I had been asked to show my HK ID (the first time the situation was
totally in my favor and not with the little old man that jumped into MY taxi
and wouldn’t get out until I yelled for police backup). None the
less, I was once again happy to present my HK ID.
As one of the officers
started writing in his little black book, I watched the other officer go out
and stand in the middle of the street. As he stood there a little
old man walked across the street with red lights. I thought poor
guy- today’s not his day either. Then I watched the officer
basically pat the old man on his back and let him go about his
way. I immediately said to my officer this was
discrimination. Well, that comment definitely got the attention of
my officer, the same officer that when asked for my address couldn’t spell my
building or street name. (I kept saying
"Really?!? Are you serious?!? You don’t know how to
spell that??") Anyway, when I explained to my officer what I had
just seen, he quickly ran out to talk with the other officer and then they both
ran to get the little old man down the street. I thought for a
second I should make a run for it, but one of the offices still had my sacred HK
ID card!!
The two officers brought
the little old man back toward me. While one officer focused on the
little old man, the other returned to me. As I was spelling out
every word of my address, I tried to explain my intentions were
not to ticket the little old man. But he was so focused on trying to
spell HONG KONG, I gave up. Turns out the little old man didn’t get
a ticket after all, because within seconds he was freed again! Only
this time he came up to me and started pushing my arm and yelling at me.
And since the little old man had no teeth, there was nothing
shielding me from the massive amounts of spit spewing out of his mouth
into my face, chest, arm and shoes (BTW- spitting is against the law in
Hong Kong). As a crowd formed, I stood there looking at the officers
saying, "Really!, you don’t think this is discrimination?!?!"
Yesterday, to my
surprise I received not a ticket, but a court hearing date in the
mail. I don’t know what was more surprising, the fact that I got a
court date and not just a ticket or the fact that the officer actually wrote my
address down correctly! Despite how I felt about the unfair
treatment I received that morning, I did break the law. I just
wanted to pay my fine and go on. However, in Hong Kong you don’t get
tickets. Every offense is presented before a magistrate for sentencing. Because
I don’t have time to go to court for jay walking, I had to mail in my guilty
plea. Now I have to wait for someone to present my plea to the
assigned magistrate on my court date and wait to hear my punishment.
Have I learned my
lesson? Well, the other day while waiting for a green light before crossing the street (thinking I have
never felt so HOT in my life- literally sweat was POPPING out of my skin!), I
just stood there while the other outlaws pushed and bumped into me, causing my
shirt to become once again a second skin. YES, I learned my lesson...
don't look for green lights, look for police officers before crossing the
street!
