While Hongkongers are protesting against the various abuses by #HongKongPolice, it seems that the courts are making it more difficult for the public to scrutinize the city's policing. https://twitter.com/ezracheungtoto/status/1245613527294828545

I recalled that back in January it was revealed that, Hong Kong Police had applied for 2 search warrants that were very unusual... https://www.facebook.com/icablenews/videos/2564797883642998/

Those search warrants allowed the police to search part of the police heqdquarters in Wanchai, including the electronic devices (i. e. mobile phones & others) therein. Info about who the suspects/culprits were & what crimes they had committed was not specified on the warrants...

And, because the warrants remained effective for 2 months, there had been speculations that police could actually transfer other people's phones to the search location **AFTER** the warrants were issued.

In other words, the judges could be unaware of the existence of such phones and the relevant crimes, if any, when they approved the warrants. So, one may wonder if the 2 search warrants should be issued in the first place.

A #Hongkonger has already applied for a judicial review regarding the issuing and execution of the said search warrants.

Now, back to the court ruling on Thursday. Because search warrants are no longer needed, the courts can now avoid the embarrassing situation (and subsequent public criticism) of having to issue search warrants like the ones mentioned earlier in this thread...

This is the reason why the courts made such a decision, in my view. If the discussion above is correct, the courts have really made Hongkongers disappointed. Instead of "saying no" to those unusual search warrants, the courts simply "waived" the requirement of search warrants.