Peaceful protests against the odds in Central and beyond

Lunchtime protest in Central earlier this week

The protest attracted a number of riot police,

some armed with submachine guns

Threats were issued but the crowds didn't disperse 

until it was time to head back to work!

The siege of PolyU (as the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is popularly known) in not yet over; with a number of holdouts still on campus -- including a cook adamant that the food situation, at least, is not as bad as some people have made out.  Still, the general sense appears to be that it's but a matter of time before this particular section of this protracted protest movement will conclude; this even while the ongoing pro-democracy protests still have quite a bit of life in them.

Every day thus far this week, there have been protests taking place at lunchtime in various parts of Hong Kong, with Central being at the, well, center, of it all.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, the riot police arrived at the scene soon after to try to shut down the protests.  I was there on Tuesday and while it's true enough that the riot police quickly got people off the roads, large crowds ended up occupying the surrounding sidewalks and were pretty vocal in expressing their disdain for the police as well as their seeking "Five demands, not one less".   

For the record: I had never heard "Diu lei lo mo" shouted by so many people (at the police) at the same time before -- and most definitely not by such a generally well-dressed crowd (We're talking three piece suits in some cases for the men and designer wear and heels for the women here) too!  Also, I have to admit to some of the asides I heard being made between friends tickling my funny bone!

First off were the disdainful remarks made about the thuggish riot police having too low an education to be able to understand as well as speak English -- which then prompted a suggestion to "Let's shout at them in English!"  Then there was the genuine astonishment of a wide-eyed woman who pointed to the riot police before theatrically proclaiming to all around her: "They really aren't wearing ID tags!"  (After one of the officers aimed a glare at her, her friend literally pulled her away and, fortunately, spirited her off to safety!)

And after of the riot police appearing to shut down their street protests on the two previous days, Central's lunchtime crowd changed tactics today and held a protest singalong inside the IFC Mall instead!  What with it being the four month anniversary of the Yuen Long Triad attacks, there also was a sit-in held in that northwestern New Territories town this evening, during which the "Five demands, not one less" chant also rang out.

Lest it not be obvious: the above-mentioned protests were peaceful ones (despite the police often seeming wanting to make them otherwise).  The reason why I want to emphasize this is that many people -- inside and outside of Hong Kong -- still don't seem to realize that there have been a whole lot of peaceful protests in Hong Kong over the past six months or so!

Returning to the people still holed up at PolyU: while the government is wont to deem everyone there to be rioters, there reportedly are a number of non-protesters -- never mind non-rioters -- there.  Call me biased but the general sense is that there are a heck of a lot wrongly accused as well as plain wronged civilians amidst all this business.  So please spare a thought for them, including those people who were arrested by the police during the siege of PolyU, then put on trains headed to who knows where: possibly across the border to Mainland China, to suffer a worse ordeal and fate than Simon Cheng (since their illegal -- if they were indeed sent to Mainland China -- abduction does not appear to have gotten much international attention as yet).