"Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon?"
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  • The Long Read
    • How The Walls Come Down
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
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  • 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
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • 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
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • 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
  • The Long Read
    • How The Walls Come Down
    • War in Ukraine - the narrative and other stuff.
    • The Hidden Leader
    • The Big Game
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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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