How do people protest when the police are clamping down
hard on those they perceive are trying to do so?
The message from the police was clear enough: Don't go out protesting this October 1st. It's not just that they refused to issue a letter of no objection for the Civil Human Rights Front's proposed march to draw attention to the plight of the 12 Hong Kongers detained in Shenzhen since August 23rd. Rather, they also telegraphed in advance their plan to have 6,000 cops on the street out today (more even than the 3-4,000 officers deployed on July 1st).
I guess it's understandable that the authorities didn't want a repeat of last October 1st, when what happened in Hong Kong proved to be quite the international embarassment for the Chinese government. But the way they went at things, it was clear that they wouldn't even tolerate any peaceful protests of the kind that used to take place in Hong Kong not so long ago -- like even just two or three years ago.
Denied the opportunity to (legally) walk on the streets of Causeway Bay and Wan Chai this year, I decided to walk in those areas this afternoon anyway -- just on the pavement, where one still legally is allowed to be on. In less than a couple of hours of strolling, I came across nine police cordons. Happily, I was allowed to pass through all of them without much incident. But I witnessed a number of people -- most of them young adults, not all of them dressed in black -- getting stopped and searched at all of those nine cordons; occurrences that I find disturbing even when it doesn't happen to me.
Over the course of my walk, I occasionally heard people shouting protest slogans such as "Five demands; not one less", "Fight for freedom; stand with Hong Kong" and even "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" (the last of which has been declared illegal under China's security law for Hong Kong). I also heard curses hurled at the police when they were within shouting distance. And I also saw other signs of resistance such as protest stickers and, pretty amusingly to my mind, people reading copies of Apple Daily while strolling leisurely about the place as well as while standing around!
It's been reported that online calls for a mass protest this October 1st were unsuccessful. In view of the police having been out in force for much of the day though, I must say though that I'm surprised I saw as many protestors and signs of protest out in Causeway Bay and Wan Chai today as I did. And, as it was, I missed encountering such as the silver-haired man walking around with a wooden giraffe (which he called a "handsome horse" to parody those who won't call things as they are), the young man playing protest music on his recorder in Causeway Bay and now ex-Legislative Councillor Ray Chan handing out free masks to passersby in the popular shopping district this afternoon.
Another online call that does appear to have gotten pretty good participation today was that involving hiking up Lion Rock this evening, producing visuals reminiscent of when we had the Hong Kong Way on August 23rd last year and Lion Rock was lit up by protestor torchlights! The fact that a good number of people managed to make it up a quite formidable peak not only in darkness (unless they got up there earlier than I thought) but also only after braving police attention and intimidation says so much about the Hong Kong protest spirit -- which is not only alive but also strong!
2 comments:
I don't if it happen there. But I don't know if it our media. Police can came cross as bullies.
Hi peppylady --
Yes, the police can come across as bullies -- in Hong Kong as well as the U.S.A.!
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