Hong Kong police today said 148 people were arrested during running battles with protesters yesterday, the largest daily toll since huge pro-democracy protests kicked off two months ago.
On Monday Hong Kong buckled under a general strike followed by the most widespread and sustained clashes so far, with tear gas fired at more than a dozen locations against increasingly violent hardcore protesters.
“During the operation yesterday, the police arrested 148 people consisting of 95 males and 53 females, aged between 13 and 63 years old,” superintendent John Tse told reporters.
Over the last two weeks both police and protesters have resorted to increasingly confrontational tactics, plunging the city into a crisis.
At today’s press conference, police revealed that they fired some 800 tear gas rounds on Monday — almost as many as the 1,000 rounds they said they had fired throughout the whole of the last two months. Riot police also discharged 140 rubber bullets and 20 so-called sponge rounds.
Yesterday’s arrests also bring the total number of people brought in over their involvement in recent protests to 568.
The press conference revealed details of how widespread Monday’s battles were against the police — who have become a lightning rod for public anger and are derided by protesters as Beijing’s enforcers.
Members of the press have also expressed dissatisfaction with police, who have been filmed hurling abuse at journalists, attempting to prevent them from filming, and even at times attacking them. One journalist was reportedly struck in the head last night by a police projectile believed to be a tear gas round.
The injured man in Sham Shui Po – a journalist – is bleeding from his head, after he had been hit by a cannister of tear gas fired by police, according to InMedia.
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— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) August 5, 2019
Another reporter was briefly detained during a clearance operation in Sham Shui Po and accused of pushing police while helping another injured journalist, HKFP reports. He was released a short time later, saying the arrest had been a “misunderstanding.”
In protest of the treatment, reporters disrupted the start of today’s police press conference, drumming their pens on hard hats as one read out a statement from the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
https://twitter.com/timmysung/status/1158651064305852417
“During the past few weeks, as frontline reporters fulfilled their duties, the police had shone strong lights in their eyes and cameras, hit them with shields, insulted them with vulgar words, and even arrested them,” the statement said. “We strongly condemn the police’s abuse of force and interference with press reporting. We demand the police uphold their professional integrity, protect press freedom and respect reporters’ rights.”
The mini-protest was reminiscent of a press conference that followed a chaotic rally on June 12 where reporters showed up in full protective gear after several were assaulted during police’s heavy-handed efforts to clear a crowd of protesters.
Throughout Monday, police stations came under attack from protesters setting fires and hurling stones, eggs, bottles, and using large slingshots that fired bricks. An apartment complex that houses police officers and their families also came under attack.
Tse said a total of 21 police stations were “affected” by Monday’s protests, although it was unclear if all of them were besieged.
Media documented tear gas being fired in at least a dozen districts on Monday.
“Within two short months, the rioters have recklessly destroyed the rule of law. Their acts have seriously hampered public safety,” Tse said.
Protesters have countered that police have long been using excessive violence against their movement, accusations the force denies. They also say they were forced to adopt more confrontational tactics after peaceful rallies failed to win any concessions.
Police today did not condemn attacks on protesters by pro-Beijing thugs that took place last night in North Point and Tsuen Wan, but defended their delayed response to the attacks, saying resources were stretched thin.
Police did get some positive attention today, however, as pro-Beijing politicians and supporters of the DAB party rallied outside of police headquarters in Wan Chai to condemn protesters and thank officers for “maintain[ing] social order,” RTHK reports.
Following the DAB’s gathering, members of the Hong Kong Fujian Women Association also presented officers with a fruit basket.
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