"Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon?"
  • Walter's Blog.
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  • Introduction
  • About Walter
  • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street
    • Arrival and First Impressions
    • First Week
    • Training
    • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Tempo of the City
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
    • 1984 - 1986 >
      • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
      • Having a go: SDU
      • Starting a Chernobyl family
      • EOD - Don't touch anything
      • Semen Stains and the rules
    • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go? >
      • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
      • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
      • 600 Happy Meals Please!
      • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
      • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Triads
    • The Saga That Rocked Hong Kong's Legal Fraternity
    • Yip Kai-foon - No Hero
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • Blogs Greatest Hits
    • Vennells - In the Faustian Realm Page
    • A Bond Is Broken
    • The English Eccentric Lives On
    • How is democracy working for you?
    • Occupy Central - A creature void of form
    • Brave New World
    • Bob Dylan and Me.
    • Sweet Caroline - Never Seemed So Good!
    • Postmodernism - Spiraling down the sink hole.
    • Why Dad is so important.
    • Man Overboard
    • Suffer the Children
    • Tony Blair, the turd that won't flush
    • Algorithms and Robots - the changing face of work
    • Campus Warfare
    • Are We Alone?
    • There is no motive.
    • The State of Play
    • Crisis, What Crisis?
    • Milk Powder - A Test of public sentiment.
    • Hello Baldy - Free Speech.
    • THe Other Side of the Story
    • The Merry House of Windsor
    • The Utility of the Windsors
    • Civil War?
    • Big Lily - The Headscarf Hero
    • RTHK - Spinning.
    • Occupy Leaders Convicted - What Next?
    • Hypocrites
    • Hong Kong's Lady Macbeth
    • Beijing Says Enough Is Enough
    • The Gardens of Fuyang
    • Beating the Devil - under a flyover
    • Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
    • Gweilo 鬼 佬​
    • What goes around, comes around!
    • The Cobra
    • Liz Truss - A Cosplay Thatcher
    • Liz Truss trashes and crashes.
    • Hong Kong Judicary - has something gone wrong
    • Hubris, arrogance and failure.
    • Carry On Up the Khyber
    • The Unseen Hand
    • The Laptop that won't shut down
    • Legacy Media - the end is near
    • Malcolm Tucker Tribute Act
    • Journalism - Something has gone wrong?
    • Decline of the West? Maybe?
    • Canada's Killing Machine
    • English Uprising
    • South Yorkshire Police Madness
    • Deceitful BBC
    • Fair Dee Well
    • British Policing Needs A Reality Check.
    • Being a man is not a crime yet!
    • Putting Old Oak Common on the map.
    • When the winds stops blowing
    • The Long Read >
      • The Big Game
      • The Hidden Leader
      • British Policing - What's to be done?
      • How The Walls Come Down
      • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
      • New World Order - Something is going on!
      • The Post Office; Lie, Deny, Cheat, Hide & Steal
      • To Scare the Monkeys
  • Email Form Page
  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
  • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street
    • Arrival and First Impressions
    • First Week
    • Training
    • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Tempo of the City
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
    • 1984 - 1986 >
      • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
      • Having a go: SDU
      • Starting a Chernobyl family
      • EOD - Don't touch anything
      • Semen Stains and the rules
    • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go? >
      • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
      • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
      • 600 Happy Meals Please!
      • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
      • Riding the Iron Horse
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Triads
    • The Saga That Rocked Hong Kong's Legal Fraternity
    • Yip Kai-foon - No Hero
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
    • Godber - The one who nearly got away.
    • Uncle Ho
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
  • Blogs Greatest Hits
    • Vennells - In the Faustian Realm Page
    • A Bond Is Broken
    • The English Eccentric Lives On
    • How is democracy working for you?
    • Occupy Central - A creature void of form
    • Brave New World
    • Bob Dylan and Me.
    • Sweet Caroline - Never Seemed So Good!
    • Postmodernism - Spiraling down the sink hole.
    • Why Dad is so important.
    • Man Overboard
    • Suffer the Children
    • Tony Blair, the turd that won't flush
    • Algorithms and Robots - the changing face of work
    • Campus Warfare
    • Are We Alone?
    • There is no motive.
    • The State of Play
    • Crisis, What Crisis?
    • Milk Powder - A Test of public sentiment.
    • Hello Baldy - Free Speech.
    • THe Other Side of the Story
    • The Merry House of Windsor
    • The Utility of the Windsors
    • Civil War?
    • Big Lily - The Headscarf Hero
    • RTHK - Spinning.
    • Occupy Leaders Convicted - What Next?
    • Hypocrites
    • Hong Kong's Lady Macbeth
    • Beijing Says Enough Is Enough
    • The Gardens of Fuyang
    • Beating the Devil - under a flyover
    • Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
    • Gweilo 鬼 佬​
    • What goes around, comes around!
    • The Cobra
    • Liz Truss - A Cosplay Thatcher
    • Liz Truss trashes and crashes.
    • Hong Kong Judicary - has something gone wrong
    • Hubris, arrogance and failure.
    • Carry On Up the Khyber
    • The Unseen Hand
    • The Laptop that won't shut down
    • Legacy Media - the end is near
    • Malcolm Tucker Tribute Act
    • Journalism - Something has gone wrong?
    • Decline of the West? Maybe?
    • Canada's Killing Machine
    • English Uprising
    • South Yorkshire Police Madness
    • Deceitful BBC
    • Fair Dee Well
    • British Policing Needs A Reality Check.
    • Being a man is not a crime yet!
    • Putting Old Oak Common on the map.
    • When the winds stops blowing
    • The Long Read >
      • The Big Game
      • The Hidden Leader
      • British Policing - What's to be done?
      • How The Walls Come Down
      • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
      • New World Order - Something is going on!
      • The Post Office; Lie, Deny, Cheat, Hide & Steal
      • To Scare the Monkeys
  • Email Form Page
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Picture

Walter De Havilland

Some history, a few opinions, the odd rant and other noises from one of the last of the colonial coppers.

The moment comes compressed in time and distance. The absurdity. The sudden interruption of events, with flashes of memory. A different place, a different tempo, a different world. 

There is pandemonium around me. I'm holding a bandage on the chest wound of a stabbing victim as his rasping breath is failing through a blood spittled mouth.

The usual gawking Hong Kong crowd presses in around me. Sweat trickles off my forehead with the oppressive heat of a July evening. 

​A constable arrives beside me with a first aid kit. I reach for another bandage, rip open the package, and then hold the wound dressing in place over the wound with my elbow.

As the wrapping fell away, I caught sight of 'Smith and Nephews'. In an instant, I was back home in the UK, riding to work on my bike as the night shift girls huddled together at the factory gates against the morning chill. In a sudden displacement, the world around me is alien and disconnected. I was out of place.

​Then, I'm back in Hong Kong. All business-like, I hand the dying man into the care of an ambulance crew, pushing back the crowds, clearing the road, and securing the scene for the nicotine-stained CID officers. 

This is the life. ​Another call comes in, "Robbery in progress." So it's blue lights and sirens down Nathan Road, lighting up the faces of startled onlookers as we barrel our way through the heavy traffic. Jesus Christ, this is fun!

​I'd pay them to let me do this job.
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