No to White Terror and the police in Hong Kong!

At the Anti White Terror rally at Chater Garden last night

Posters like this in the area explain why people

want the police to be held accountable for their misbehavior

Carrie Lam may have announced the withdrawal of the hated extradition bill but the protests continue since other key demands remain unmet  Yesterday evening, there were a number of protests events and venues to choose to go to, including the first protest event staged this summer in the Southern District and the much sadder protest staged at Prince Edward MTR station by people who believed that the police actions there on the night of August 31st resulted in a number of fatalities. 

For my part, I went to the "No White Terror" (especially by the Hong Kong police) rally organised by the Social and Political Organization Workers Union over in Chater Garden.  And as I trust you can see from my photos at the top of this blog post, sentiments about this matter definitely are strong and protest attendance remains on the high side too.

Upon making my way to Chater Garden, I was startled to see a noticeble police presence in the area.  But while people opted to generally ignore the police officers milling about on the sidewalk on the southern side of Chater Garden and across the road in front of the Cheung Kong Centre, the police team stationed over on the northwestern side of the public space attracted a good bit more attention and even quite a bit of verbal abuse from the section of the crowd that they were closest to.

In view of the police over-reaction that has been rampant over the past few months, I thought it unwise to effectively provoke them and did worry that the situation would deteriorate into violence at some point.  Fortunately, the police officers concerned were more disciplined and restrained than many of their fellows.  (As a general rule, I do reckon that those in regular uniform are less inclined to abuse their powers and go wild than the riot police and "raptors" who have become all to familiar sights to Hong Kongers this summer.).

At last night's Chater Garden protest rally, Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) convenor Jimmy Sham announced that his organization plans to hold another protest march on September 15th.  I hope that this time around, it will get a Letter of No Objection from the police (like was the case for last night's rally and the June 9th and 16th mega marches organized by the CHRF).  I also hope that the police will make themselves scarce that day, particularly like with the June 16th protest march.  Because, these days, it really does appear to be the case that the best case for a peaceful protest is the absence of members of the police force (be they in uniform or undercover, masquerading as protesters) in the area. 

Actually, the general consensus among Hong Kongers these days is that the appearance of the police pretty much anywhere is a sure fire sign that trouble will ensue; this not least because they appear to increasingly be unable -- or, worse unwilling -- to distinguish between violent and peaceful protesters, and also between actual protesters and bystanders!  Consequently, it's become a regular thing for local residents to actually demand that police officers go away and leave people to effectively police themselves and their own area -- and given how law-abiding the vast majority of Hong Kongers actually are, I actually reckon this arrangement would indeed work fine!