[clip_my_wings]

there was a large police preasence in lai kwai fong lst night. anyone now why in particular? also saw one sniffer dog ...

perhaps it was a drugs bust/ bomb alert ??

or maybe the office party?

[KnowItAll]

I'd bet its Halloween related...

[shilo507]

Maybe following the suspicious death of two Americans last weekend at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in which drugs were allegedly involved.

I have to say that I am amazed that discos in Wan Chai are raided on a regular basis by police and all they do is check passports and Id cards of some of the girls. This gives the clear message they are looking for overstayers rather than drugs. They should send in the sniffer dogs. Excuse the pun but the Police are barking up the wrong tree.

[PDLM]

Just a warm-up/rehearsal for tonight when there will be the full-on heavy crowd control: only enter at the bottom of the hill and walk uphill; no entry from Wyndham Street. Expect it to be capacity controlled as well, particularly if it's raining again.

(For those who are new this stems form an incident several years ago on New Years Eve where there was a crush in wet weather, people slipped, and several died under foot.)

[KnowItAll]

I remember some vague conversations years ago with a cop who basically said that they can enter and do a ID card check .. but beyond that I suspect they need a warrant or cause (i.e. someone has complained about drugs etc...)

Been a while .. forget what the technicalities are...

[rkhl]

Police presents in LKF during halloween, and to a greater extend wherever large crowd turn-out expected, is historical: #$% happened before in HK.

Quoting The Standard: "Stricter measures have been in force during the Christmas holiday period since New Year's Day in 1993, when celebrations by 20,000 late night revelers in the narrow alleys of Lan Kwai Fong in Central turned into a stampede, crushing 21 people to death and injuring more than 100." CNN ran the piece as headline then and turned quite a few heads in the state.

[KnowItAll]

Following that stampede -- many many expats that I knew, stopped going to Lan Kwai Fong due to some bars refusing to provide help the injured.

I moved here a few months after the stampede.

[jayinhongkong]

A few years ago, me and a couple of my friends decided it would be a good idea to spray our bottles of Moet in the air at the stroke of midnight on New Year's. We were pretty intoxicated at the time. The police ran over immediately and told us to quit it. Except for one occasion when a cop gave me a hard time (and not my Chinese friends), I've always been surprised at the professionalism and politeness of the local police. In retrospect, what we did was stupid. I realized why they made such a big deal of it afterwards. I believe it was beer on the ground that contributed to the deaths in LKF in '93.

I don't do the LKF thing anymore (I barely drink now, since I'm trying to take better care of myself), but the local cops will definitely be out in force tomorrow.

[climber07]

Originally Posted by rkhl

New Year's Day in 1993, when celebrations by 20,000 late night revelers in the narrow alleys of Lan Kwai Fong in Central turned into a stampede, crushing 21 people to death and injuring more than 100."

Stampede in Hong Kong??? To be honest I'm surpirized this many people aren't killed daily just trying to get to an escalator exit at an MTR stop. I would rather run with the bulls in Pamplona than to be in LKF with 20,000+

[shilo507]

I concur with all the comments so far but the presence of a sniffer dog suggests that the police are not only concerned about a possible stampede.