Victoria Park (a public park in Hong Kong) yesterday!
It's not yet June 4th but the authorities have already stepped up their efforts big time to make sure that the Tiananmen Square Massacre will not be publicly commemorated in Hong Kong this year (like it was for 30 years -- with a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park). Among other things, 5,000 police officers -- not in riot gear but, still, dressed in anti-stab vests, complete with some collared thing around their necks -- were deployed to patrol Hong Kong Island's largest urban park and the areas nearby yesterday (June 2nd).
It made this part of Hong Kong look like a terrorist target/police state. It also seems like other parts of Hong Kong were not being policed as much as usual. Hence some criminals might have seen yesterday and might see this weekend as an opportune time to commit actual, serious crimes. Like what happened in a busy shopping mall in Diamond Hill yesterday. As in: a man went and fatally stabbed two women. Right outside Plaza Hollywood's Sanrio Gift Gate outlet, to make things seem even more surreal than usual.
Something I want to stress to those of you reading this outside Hong Kong: Murders are rare in Hong Kong (which generally has a very low crime rate); never mind ones taking place during the day in a crowded public space. And really should be when one considers how many police there are in Hong Kong and how super well funded the police force is too!
The problem, of course, is that the police look to have the wrong priorities. I mean: In view of the Diamond Hill murders yesterday, you'd think that the police would decrease the number of officers deployed to discourage people from going to Victoria Park to mourn the victims of a massacre commited 34 years ago, right? Instead, the number of cops deployed there and nearby areas today (June 3rd) went up to 6,000!
And this evening, arrests look to have been made of artists (Chan Mei-tung and Sanmu Chan, separately), and a young couple carrying a bunch of white chrysanthemum flowers. Here's the thing though: It's (currently) unclear if they have been arrested or just taken away from the area (Causeway Bay) by the police. Because... well, what crime have they actually commited?
Is it a crime to mourn? Is it a crime to remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre? It is it a crime to carry flowers while walking around a popular shopping and dining area? Is it a crime to shout out, as Sanmu Chan did, "“Do not forget June 4! Do not forget June 4! HongKongers don’t be afraid of them! Do not forget tomorrow is June 4”?
A reminder: For 30 years, candlelight vigils were peacefully held in Victoria Park to commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4th. Then, in 2020, before China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, the candlelight vigil was not allowed to be held that year -- supposedly public assemblies were disallowed as an anti-pandemic measure; and that has become the "practice" since.
At the same time, the government keeps on trying to tell the world that "Hong Kong is back"! To what? Definitely not normal. Something I trust that the tourists in Causeway Bay this evening will see full well along with local Hong Kongers. And the world at large as the news of what's happening -- or, as the case may be, is not allowed to take place -- in Hong Kong spreads internationally.
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