Police today urged youngsters to consider their actions before committing serious crimes which carry legal consequences. Police Public Relations Branch Chief Superintendent Tse Chun-chung made the appeal after reporting an upward trend in the number of students arrested for offences relating to protests against the Fugitive Offenders & Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019 since the start of the current school term. Briefing the media on the arrest figures, Mr Tse said that since September 1, Police have arrested 550 people, of which 207 are secondary school or university students. “That is about 38% of the total. Compared with the period before September 1, only around 25% of all arrested people were students.” Noting that the trend is alarming, Mr Tse advised students of the risk of ending up with a criminal record at such a young age. “They may act under peer pressure or maybe manipulated by others in committing such serious crimes. “We appeal to all youngsters to rethink their actions and hope the education sector and parents will help our young people to walk the straight and narrow path.” So far, Police have arrested 1,596 people for offences related to the fugitive bill protests.