Continued resistance on Guy Fawkes Night partly fueled by dramatic events that took place two nights ago

Passing by a Lennon Wall at Tai Koo this past September

Remember, remember the Fifth of November, and resist!

In my previous blog post, written on Sunday night, I wrote of protests and riot police invasions in a number of shopping malls around Hong Kong having taken place that evening and expressed my hope that the local constabulary wouldn't fire tear gas into those enclosed spaces.  While that mercifully did not happen, that doesn't mean that there was no tear gas shot at all that evening -- with the police having filled the air of Tai Koo (as a departing "present" to the area whose resident had  made it patently clear that they were not welcome) and Tseung Kwan O that evening with what appears to be their favorite "non-lethal" weapon of choice.   

And that's not the worst thing that happened on a drama-filled night that, come daybreak, saw 17 people admitted to hospital, two of whom were in critical condition.  Of the two people whose conditions were adjudged to be critical, one was among the five people attacked by a knife-wielding Putonghua speaker in Tai Koo's City Plaza -- one of whom, District Councilor Andrew Chiu, had part of his ear bitten off by the attacker. The other is a Hong Kong University of Science and Technology student who was seriously injured after falling from the third to the second floor of a car park in Tseung Kwan O, reportedly while trying to escape tear gas fired by riot police.

I've seen photos of the attack in Tai Koo and its aftermath, and they are seriously terrible.  Sadly, they are not the most horrifying visuals I've seen from that night -- with that "prize" going to those showing a young man under police arrest in Tseung Kwan O who was hit with batons until his whole head was covered in blood and who, it has emerged, had been attacked by police officers after he had sought to aid the critically injured student who the police appear to have delayed ambulance access to for 30 minutes.

According to at least one report, the prognosis for the critically injured student is really not good.  There is speculation that he is currently being kept alive only by way of machines, and for fear that his death will inflame protesters still further.  On the one month anniversary of the implementaition of the Face Covering Regulation, which also happens to be Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night, it's not like anti-government/police Hong Kongers need a further reason to protest -- but what happened to him on Sunday night has indeed been cited as to why at least some of the people have gone out onto the streets once more tonight.

With the Hong Kong police intent on denying people their freedom of assembly, one just knew that there would be a police reaction to tonight's protest actions.  In Tsim Sha Tsui, a water cannon was deployed and further arrests made.  (The number of protest-related arrests have increased exponentially by the month; with October having seen almost double the number of September's, and more on the first three days of November than in the entire month of July.)  And, all too predictably, still more tear gas has been fired in Tseung Kwan O, the part of Hong Kong where a young man reportedly seeking to flee from tear gas sustained injuries so serious that there is genuine fear that he is not going to last the night.