Daytime view from a rally in Chater Garden
View after dark from another rally at the same Central District locale
Slightly less than a month ago, I attended a rally organized by mothers concerned about police violence at Chater Garden. If truth be told, I found it all a bit surreal because, well, protest organizers don't usually identify themselves as mothers before anything else. The fact of the matter though is that the past two months in the summer of Hong Kong discontent have seen quite a number of events take place that, as recently as three months ago, I would have found really hard to imagine doing so in Hong Kong.
On the negative side: there has been tear gas and rubber bullets shot at people in central Hong Kong, riot police storming a high end shopping mall and, most shocking of all to many Hong Kongers, the attacking of train passengers -- some returning from taking part in that day's protests; others "just" returning home from work and such -- by thugs with sticks (with -- it is strongly suspected, not least there's video evidence backing this allegation -- the collusion of the Hong Kong police force). On a more positive note: there have been peaceful protests aplenty, with at least one involving an estimated two million people marching through the streets.
And since the T8 signal for Tropical Storm Whipa was lowered yesterday afternoon, there have been at least five sets of extradition bill-related protests taking place in various parts of Hong Kong! For example, yesterday saw a rally at New Town Plaza to -- among other things -- encourage people to go on strike next Monday, and a protest rally involving bankers -- yes, really! -- at Chater Garden, during which these unlikely protesters were shouting slogans, including ones calling out for "The revolution of our time"!
Chater Garden was the site this evening of an extraditon bill protest rally by another unlikely group of protesters: civil servants. And today also saw another protest in Central: with that which took place in nearby Edinburgh Place involving some 10,000 medical workers; a number of whom said they were compelled to go out to make their voices heard after one of their own was arrested and charged with rioting earlier this week.
With a poll released today showing that 73% of the 1,000 people surveyed supporting the complete withdrawal of the extradition bill, 80% wanting the government to set up an independent commission of inquiry into the extradition bill saga (that has included numerous accusations of police brutality), 60% dissatisfied with the police conduct during this time and 50% wanting Carrie Lam to step down, it's easy to believe that most of Hong Kong have been out protesting these past couple of months or so. And it might well be the case, as journalist Keith Richburg noted in a Tweet that got a snort of laughter out of me: "Maybe it's easier to keep a list of which groups are NOT pissed of at this government"!
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