Protest and tear gas on the first day of 2020

Knitted First Aider and journalist dolls at today's protest

 Pepe the Frog advocating "Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our time" 

View from within of the mammoth crowd that had gathered in 

Victoria Park's Central Lawn, the starting point for today's protest march

Hong Kong has long been a city of protest.  In recent months, it's also been a city of tear gas.  So it shouldn't be all that surprising that just one day into 2020, the new year has already seen both tear gas and march action galore.  

Just minutes into this January 1st, the police fired tear gas and unleashed a water cannon at protestors in Mongkok.  And more tear gas was unleashed this afternoon in Wan Chai (minus any advance warning) and evening in Causeway Bay while tens of thousands of -- if not over one million -- pro-democracy protestors were attempting to make their way from Victoria Park to Chater Garden on a pro-democracy protest march granted a Letter of No Objection by the police, only to be prematurely halted just a few hours into the event. 

Four of my friends and I were among the people who made my way to Victoria Park a little after 1.30pm today, mistakenly believing that the march would begin at 2pm.  Instead, we spent over an hour standing and listening to speeches being made before we saw any sign that the march had commenced (even though an RTHK had it that the march actually got going at 2.40pm).  And even after we saw some movement on the edges of the park's Central Lawn, where we had assembled and started to get going ourselves, it took my group close to one and half hours to get out of the Central Lawn and it was well after 5pm before we actually got out of the park and actually onto the street!  

The problem didn't appear to be the police per se but, rather, that there really were that many people in Victoria Park and trying to make their way out of it along the same route, at the same time!  (In addition, as we made our way out of the park, still others were on their way in!)  As I noted to a friend early on in the afternoon, it definitely looked like there were way more people out protesting today than on December 8th (whose march had been estimated to have had 800,000 participants)!      

With plenty of time to look around and survey the scene around me, here's going ahead and emphasizing that today's crowd looked to be full of peaceful protestors.  It's not just that there were lots of families with small children and gray-haired individuals but there also were a good number of people -- and yes, they were adults -- who had brought favored Pepe plushies and other dolls to the protest!  

In addition, because they genuinely expected that today's march would be an entirely peaceful one, the vast majority of people did not appear to have brought any "gear", protective and otherwise.  So you can imagine the consternation when word came of the unleashing of tear gas in Wan Chai and frustration when it was then reported that the march had been stopped before my group and thousands of others had even made it past the SOGO department store in Causeway Bay and hundreds, if not thousands, of protestors were still in Victoria Park!     

Adding to the lunacy of it all was that all the protestors enroute to the march endpoint at Central were given just 30 minutes advance notice to disperse or be declared participants in an illegal assembly.  In all honesty, even if everyone had wanted to, I think it would have been physically impossible for people to leave the areas where the march had been earmarked to pass through since the roads were choc-a-bloc with people and various buses and other public transport had been diverted away from them!  

While my friends and I were mulling what to do, we heard the sounds of tear gas being fired -- though we fortunately were far away enough that we weren't negatively affected by that noxious substance.  Deciding to take advantage of being in area full of restaurants, we finally decided to have dinner together in a nearby eatery -- only to discover that more tear gas was fired nearby while we were having our meal!  

As the restaurant staff checked out what was going on outside from the restaurant windows and via live TV coverage of what was taking place, they obviously got spooked enough to decide to close the restaurant early and we ended up being ushered out via a back exit that ensured that we didn't end up walking straight into the hands of the riot police who, as I found out after arriving safely home (on foot), have been going about making mass arrests as well as doing such impeding journalists from properly doing their job, and pepper spraying various people, including a Legislative Councillor and a young girl.     

Something I also learnt after getting home and going online this evening is that there are strong suspicions that the incident in Wan Chai that led to the march being prematurely halted was caused by undercover police officers rather than protestors.  More specifically, two masked individuals vandalized a bank.  When confronted by protestors, they fled in the direction of the police -- who, instead of apprehending them, let them through their lines! 

When my friends and I heard about the bank vandalization earlier today, we immediately suspected foul play on the part of the much distrusted local constabulary.  At least one person also suggested that something like this was effected because the authorities didn't want such a large march to take place -- especially after having tried to paint a picture of the protests waning in recent months.  

But if they think that what happened today (also) is going to put people off protesting, I reckon it will be a case of their being not only wrong once more but mistakenly underestimating the stubborn spirit and will of Hong Kong pro-democracy protestors who, as it is, are already filled with a strong sense that so much injustice has been perpetuated against them already and are burning to see wrongs righted, come hell or high water.