https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2018/Lany-Music-ZoneEmax-3-April-2018/i-m6cshpx
American three piece Lany returned to Hong Kong for their second show in 8 months. An enthusiastic crowd enjoyed the 18 song gig at Music Zone@Emax on 3 April, 2018.
Click on any photo for the full gallery of images
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The Hong Kong Police really are showing that they come from the Tibet/Xinjiang school of policing now rather than any sensible rational approach. The top brass at HKPF have met and are now sending out what they think is a ‘scary’ message that groups of just three people could be arrested for public disorder offences. Plus, if that doesn’t scare people enough, they’ll bring out the big-bad, anti-terrorist PTU teams again.
YAWN!
This new draconian approach will change nothing in Hong Kong politically other than to highlight more of the contradictions and fractures within society.
The police neither have the ability or the judgement to discern fairly who represents a public order nuisance and who doesn’t. Gangs of violent, Blue Ribbons, will still roam free while the police target people based on the assumption that they oppose the government politically. This will be their only mandate for implementing these new measures or,
Are you a young person, that sympathises with the new wave of political protest in Hong Kong? If yes, proceed to intimidation, arrest and physical violence if required.
This is political persecution at its finest. Young HongKongers are now on the same par as Tibetans or Uighurs within the Great, Chinese Motherland; unable to raise their voice without facing overwhelming intimidation from the security forces.
After all, the police don’t need this new law to stop people from kicking over carts or acting violently. They can arrest people for this type of action whenever they see it. We do have extensive criminal laws and fairly impartial Courts in Hong Kong! But alas, these really don’t function too well when you’re in the business of political persecution.
Instead, just like during Occupy, Andy Tsang is formulating police strategy based on quelling a popular, political message that is in opposition to a malign government. It never works Andy, stop masturbating over all the weapons and gear you think you need and read some real history for once. What kind of path are you walking on when you now choose the same style of policing as Lhasa or Urumqi?
The sad fact is that these types of measures are only ever enacted by the most embattled of illegitimate governments protected by deranged and out of touch police forces in order to scare people off the streets. Or, screw the lid down tighter, allow no form of dissent and let’s carry on as though everything is ok. More popular outrage can only be met with more oppression.
The reality is that Hong Kong has a goon police force that has doubled down on a goon government and the people are not scared any more. The more force the goon government orders, the more powerful Hong Kong people get.
So, bring your draconian laws and your elite PTU, it only makes the people stronger and the government weaker!
As Albert Camus said, “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
Obfuscation and non-answers cast doubt on honesty and truthfulness. So why the secrecy? If the opinion poll is accurate and CY Leung is happy enough with it to quote the results and use it to justify his policies… Why won’t the government publish details of poll it says shows majority of public back its universal suffrage proposal?
In Legco Frederick Fung wanted to know why and asked the following questions. He received a written non-reply by the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Raymond Tam, in the Legislative Council on March 18:
Question:
It has been reported that on February 28 this year, the Chief Executive (CE) told reporters that the results of a public opinion survey recently commissioned by the Government showed that more than half of Hong Kong people were agreeable to the selection of CE by universal suffrage in 2017 to be implemented in accordance with the Decision made by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on August 31 last year on issues such as the selection of CE of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region by universal suffrage. Yet, he did not provide any details of the public opinion survey. Some members of the public have complained to me that the Government has recently disseminated results of public opinion surveys to the media in a selective or incomprehensive manner from time to time, making it difficult for them to judge the credibility of such survey results. They also query that the employment of such a practice by the Government was an attempt to manipulate public opinion. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the details of the aforesaid public opinion survey regarding (i) the organisation commissioned to conduct the survey, (ii) the content of the questionnaire, (iii) the method and form of the survey, (iv) the number of respondents and the response rate, (v) the distribution of age, gender and political attitude of the respondents, (vi) the raw data, and (vii) the analytical results of the survey data;
(2) whether it has assessed the consequences of CE selectively disseminating a particular result of the aforesaid public opinion survey, including whether it has resulted in the credibility of the survey results being questioned and the Government being accused of manipulating public opinion; if it has not assessed, of the reasons for that; and
(3) whether it will consider disclosing concomitantly the relevant details when it disseminates the results of Government-commissioned public opinion surveys in future; if it will not, of the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
In consultation with the Chief Executive’s Office and the Central Policy Unit (CPU), our reply to the questions raised by Hon Fung is as follows.
The opinion poll which the Chief Executive referred to on February 28 was conducted by a professional agency commissioned by the CPU. The CPU commissions professional research agencies to conduct opinion polls on major social, economic and political issues from time to time. Such polls are for Government’s internal reference only, and relevant details are generally not made public.
link to the official Lego release http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201503/18/P201503170712.htm
Hong Kong’s Finest – Not!!! – These three Hong Kong policemen framed innocent people
The 3 cops tried to frame ‘the protesters’ in Mongkok. Said they were assaulted by the protesters but in fact they just picked on innocent people. The defending lawyer pointed out that the evidences given are controversial. One of the cops even admitted he has given false statements 14 times before and had been disciplined for falsifying reports.
The days of being hailed as Asia’s finest as sadly long gone.
And it is sad!
We Will Be Back – When?
Definitions:
Peaceful – not involving violence or force
Radical – favouring drastic political, economic, or social reforms
Fanatical – filled with excessive and single-minded zeal.
The big question is, have Hong Kong’s protests become more radical? The simple answer, by looking at a photograph of September 28th is categorically NO.
We can see there is a significant proportion of people who are engaging in what some would describe as radical actions, or, putting pressure on the police to remove the political line they are holding and let the masses assemble outside their government to protest.
Behind them we can see a throng of so called peaceful protesters, or those, that wouldn’t dream of confronting the police, but wish to register their political discontent in a way that is absent of violence or force.
Here, the police line is described as fanatical, or overly excessive and single minded. This is an inarguable description of them. It was overly excessive of them to fire 87 rounds of tear gas and walk upon the streets of Hong Kong with automatic weapons. Their single mindedness to pursue a plan of intimidation without giving much thought to other possible outcomes, shows without doubt their fanaticism.
To this day, nothing much has really changed in the make-up of the groups. some radical protesters have behaved badly, mainly due to lack of leadership. Some police have behaved badly, mainly due to lack of leadership.
The only significant thing that has changed is that the peaceful protesters packed up and went home after the 79day Occupy and have not come back out again on a regular basis.
Why is this?
Maybe it’s for fear of being accused of being a radical or being scared of being abused by the fanaticals. Who can say?
But when the Occupy ended, everyone revelled in the new motto, “We’ll be back.”
Well, when is that?
If you truly want to create change you need to do it regularly, every week. Not every third Tuesday in a month when the moon is blue.
There isn’t going to be another Occupy, the fanaticals are now too violent to let you settle in anyone place ever again. But this doesn’t mean that every weekend you can’t peacefully show your discontent in huge numbers. Being too scared to protest for fear of being accused of being radical didn’t bother anyone on 28th September, so why should it now?
If the police are to be believed, they fired the first canisters of tear gas because of the radical actions on the frontline, the Umbrella Movement, is born from radical action and made powerful by peaceful protests.
The radicals are still out there!
The fanatics are still out there!
Where are peaceful protesters?
So, the inevitable finally happened on Sunday:
The protests quickly and effectively switched locations and completely wronged stepped the police and any blue ribbon surprises that were set for them in Sheung Shui.
Protesting in Hong Kong will never be the same again.
Tens of thousands of marchers carrying out meaningless walkathons along Hong Kong Island have yielded no results since the Article 23 March. The government is immune to the people’s voice, it only cares what directives it receives from Beijing. But in the space of two months about 500 people have managed to shake up HK politics right up to the very top. Not only have they yanked our aloof ruler’s balls, they are well on their way to achieving real results. For sure the protests can get a little ugly around the edges, but protests are supposed to shake society out of its stupor. Protests are not about showing your face and hoping some other faceless person might then be motivated to sort out the problem some other day. If leaders don’t pay attention to your protests, then they’re not to blame, it means your way of protesting is not effective and needs to be reassessed.
I have watched these protests for hours and have pointed out many times, when the police aren’t there in force, the protests carry on relatively peacefully. Of course, there are minor skirmishes on the peripheries, but this is symptom of the fractured nature of society, it’s certainly not indicative of the violent nature of the groups.
With this in mind, the protesters have flaunted with trying to lose the police, because without doubt, large amounts of police quickly lead to batons out and indiscriminate pepper spraying.
In the first Tuen Mun protest the crowd experimented with being highly mobile and ‘like water.’ On this occasion, protesters visited many smuggler shops where the police presence was minimal and nothing happened. It was only when the police finally caught up with the protesters that they caused a shit-show.
Again, in both Shatin and Yuen Long, the police had ample time to prepare and set their boundaries, which the protesters would inevitably cross, causing more needless violence.
By the time of the Sheung Shui protest, it was already on the cards that a switch could happen from the very get-go. The problem was,
a) There was no leader of the protest. Both Civic Passion and HK Indigenous were not attending the protests in any official capacity
b) It had never been tried before, so would people change?
There was no official command to switch to Tuen Mun, it was all via word of mouth and through small social media networks. As we jumped into a taxi to head to Tuen Mun, we had no clue whether we would find any protesters at all. When we arrived at the Tuen Mun MTR exit there were about 25 protesters milling about. This slowly grew to about 50. After being in Tuen Mun for about 30minutes a lone police car drove up to the station, obviously to check out if the rumours were true. They didn’t get out. By the time we left the MTR the protest was about 150 strong and growing quickly. As we made our way into the first of three shopping centres, the protest was well over 200 people and trailed by about seven highly stressed police. Other than a few shouting matches and the odd box knocked over the protests paraded all the way through Tuen Mun town unfettered by the police.
Tuen Mun belonged to the protesters, there were no police in any number to control them. What did they choose to do with this freedom? They roamed around and shouted a bit, getting lots of attention but there was no out right violence.
Of, course, then the police arrived. We can only guess that they had been transported from Sheung Shui. This seems a reasonable guess, because when they piled out of the vans they all ran pell-mell into Trend Plaza, the scene of the confrontation during the first Tuen Mun protests. The problem was, there were no protesters in Trend Plaza, they were all in VCity. The police then realising that there was no one to contain filed out of the mall and congregated on the street. They had no clue where the protesters were. I can guess this, because neither did we. There were now about 100 police officers outside Trend Plaza. They looked pissed off and I tweeted that they would want to take out their frustration on the protesters if given the chance. They’d been effectively humiliated. So much for police intelligence!
We went off to find the protesters and left the police on the street. By the time we found them they were making their away along the footbridge to Trend Plaza from VCity. This would mark the first time the bulk of the protesters would come up against the bulk of the police. By this time, the protesters had already adopted a fairly new tactic, where wherever the police showed force, they moved away and kept moving. This meant that the police were always playing catch-up and were never able to formulate some kind of containment plan which invariably leads to a hyping up of tensions.
This went on for an hour or so, and I truly believe that the protesters were getting bored and were actually considering finishing as they were just 100m from the MTR station when they were abused multiple times by several blue ribbons. This gave the police enough reason to attack the crowd and you can see from the video I posted on my timeline, the police literally had to run after the protesters to make their presence felt and make some random arrests. This gave the media enough footage to make the protests look dangerous and out of control.
At this stage in the day, I think, if those needless arrests hadn’t happened, people may have been willing to call it a night and go home. But suddenly everyone was motivated again not to be intimidated and the call out to relocate to TST suddenly seemed like a good idea. So, the long journey from Tuen Mun to TST began.
Just like in Tuen Mun, when we arrived, we had no clue if people there were tourists or protesters. The police by this point had picked up on the switch to TST. Not because their intelligence is particularly good, but because it was plastered all over Facebook. The police had had time to make a plan of sorts, which failed at almost every turn and their ultimate goal of not letting the protesters leave the Star Ferry area collapsed quickly.
As the people found a gap in the police net and streamed through, there were about 200 protesters free roaming around TST with the 60 or so officers left at Star Ferry quickly having to come up with something better. We walked all around TST before the officers caught us up and true to form, they created a kettle that congested up the one side of Nathan Road. About 30 random people were caught in the kettle including passersby. Once again the police had succeeded in creating tension where none was needed. A key factor that was happening though was the crowd that surrounded the kettle was now made up by about 20% people from Chung King Mansions. I commented to those around me, if the police increase the tension in this crowd they’ll get more than they bargained for. Unlike regular HK protesters, those in the crowd now would stand their ground and fight and would not be pushed around by highly strung, ill-trained coppers. I think the senior police realised this too, as they began to let everyone in the kettle go, they didn’t even ID them. So what was the point of the kettle?
As people got released from the kettle, the protesters fell back to right outside Chung King Mansions’ door. We were now a mix of protesters and international refugees, and all the police who had created the kettle just five minutes earlier just disappeared. Only a couple of black coats remained on the outer periphery of the group. What was the reason for their disappearance? I can’t say for sure, but I bet it’s because they knew if a jumpy officer sparked an incident it would spiral well out of their control very quickly. Certainly, the HKPF know a good thing when they see one and hog-tying young kids is easy sport compared to dealing with the growing crowd of people the who hang outside Chung King Mansions.
So, that was the day.
The take out is, the days of big police plans are out the window, the police are going to have to think up other ways to stifle protests outside of big containment plans utilising lots of angry officers.
For the protesters, they know first hand the benefits of mobility and as the protest numbers grow their Wild Cat nature will increase too. All of Hong Kong is now a protest site and why have one protest when you can have three or four!
It’s a curious sight to see the police parade the confiscated homemade ‘weapons’ from Sunday’s Yuen Long protests. One could certainly start to worry that Hong Kong society is heading down a dark, violent path, but like everything concerning these protests they have to be taken into context.
It’s no secret that making home made weapons has been discussed on portals like HKGolden, but today the police gave everyone a How To Lesson on what they would look like. Or, if you hadn’t thought of it before, then here’s how to do it and what you could use. I find this rather odd. I don’t pretend to understand what goes on in the mind’s of the police, they are alien to me, but for me, if your principle motivation was to keep society’s peace, why are you demonstrating to all of Hong Kong how to make weapons from your cupboards? I don’t have an answer to this? I’m merely raising the question which seems very odd.
So, given that HKGolden has discussed making weapons, and the police have now confiscated what looks like home made weapons and broadcast it to the City. What kind of reaction can we expect from public?
I can only imagine that it’s the police’s motivation for showing these weapons is to turn off the general public to these protest groups. But like all the recent police attempts at PR it will fail. Why? Because Hong Kong people aren’t stupid. They understand that in the democracy spectrum there are moderates all the way down to radicals, and even within the radical group, there is a wide spectrum of views. With only a tiny fraction of a fraction being either brave enough or stupid enough to want to carry weapons to a hot protest. The police probably want to paint thousands of people as being of the same ilk as these individuals now but this kind of thinking is also out of whack as guilt is not transferable across individuals and especially not across groups. If someone is caught stealing the office stationary, it doesn’t mean the whole office are thieves. Likewise, if some protesters start carrying weapons, it doesn’t mean all will. Again I can hear the police retort, but this type of protest is heading in that way, well if you truly believe that’s the case, why the fuck are the police facilitating in the learning process in a way that far surpasses what the protesters could ever do?
Having said this, it has to be said, there is talk of using more violence at protests, but I don’t think the chatter will materialise into actual real combat with weapons anytime soon and here’s why. The HK Police are now a para military wing of the HK government. The HK government doesn’t negotiate with the people, so confronting the police is now one of the only ways the people can provoke a response from an aloof and remote government. The police have embraced this new political, para military role and resolutely defend the government under the guise of maintaining social stability. From day one the police have shown that they are prepared to use maximum violence to quell protests if ordered to do so. At the start of the Occupy Movement I wrongly believed that if the PLA came into HK, the HKPF would defend their own kin from being massacred in the streets. That’s when I still believed in Asia’s Finest, which we all now know collapsed many years ago. The reality is that the PLA will NEVER come on the streets of HK, the HK Police are more than willing to shoot and kill HK people if the time comes. They don’t need Mainlanders to do their dirty work, they will take up the job with relish and gusto.
It’s because of this fact that the chatter of violence wont degenerate quickly into actual street combat, because the police are already waiting and fully prepared for this escalation. If people bring batons, then they’ll bring rubber bullets, if the people bring petrol bombs then they’ll bring their AR-15s. The public can’t beat them in an escalation of violence. Each new weapon introduced by the protesters will be justification for the police to up-grade to their next weapon. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got in your cupboards, it will never match the police’s billion dollar budget and CY’s cheque book.
So, am I saying the police can’t or shouldn’t be confronted via direct protest methods? No, not at all. Becasue the public can beat the system in an escalation of CONFRONTATION. Standing your ground and letting the police expend their violence and unprofessionalism is a winning strategy because the public has something that is much more powerful than weapons, they have numbers. We can all see from the protests that despite the police having nearly 30,000 personnel, not that many are frontline operators. Even with just the relatively small anti-smuggler protests the police are stretched. So invariably, they over-stress and quickly degenerate into a uniformed mob, who are quick to beat unarmed protesters at the slightest provocation.
This is the nuclear weapon of the protesters that the police can never match. As the police escalate in violence and bad practice, the protests escalate in confrontation and power. There are now so many videos of police behaving badly from Yuen Long that the next protest will double in numbers. The two factors are not inseparable.
Just like on September 28th, the people took to the streets because they saw the extreme violence of the police and wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow HongKongers. However, many pro-democracy activists have temporarily lost sight of this cause and effect and balk at the confrontational attitudes of the direct action groups.
During the 79day Occupy, it was almost like the Occupy itself took on a life of its own that out grew the original aims and was something that needed to be protected. But no matter how much fuzzy feelings or cool vibes the Occupy created, it was always after nights of police violence that the crowds would grow again. This was the lesson the direct action groups took from Occupy. Of the power of confrontation. This shouldn’t be confused with the power of violence. They’re two separate things, with different results. The people will always win a confrontation, the police will always win on violence, but confrontation backed by people power always trumps escalating violence in the end.
The direct action groups are now on a role with their use of direct confrontation, whether it be with Blue Ribbons, Smugglers, Triads, corrupt village societies or the police. They have no fear of these dark pillars and have called their bluff every time. For they know, the only strategy these groups have is escalating violence and more violence makes the protesters stronger. The strength of the direct action groups is growing and I predict a future merging, with those who hold more moderate views starting to attend the protests too, because these people are results orientated and they see the real results the protests are having and they understand the difference between violence and confrontation.
We’re now not far away from having regular, singular events where tens and eventually even a hundred thousand people turn up to protest, then go home to reconvene the following week. Some analysts during Occupy advised that the Occupation should retreat and a Leipzig style campaign be enacted instead. Or, for those not familiar with what happened. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, a regular Monday night candle light vigil eventually snowballed into epic protests of over 70,000 people every Monday night. It was a demonstration of the power of the people and after weeks of persistent protests the East German State had only one card left to play, more violence. On the last night before the Wall fell, the security apparatus geared up for a full, violent assault on the protesters, but those in power knew that would only bring even more people onto the streets the following week.
Back in the days of Occupy, people were NOT ready for this type of protest. Despite Beijing trying to portray Occupy as well planned foreign intervention, we all know Occupy was a chaotic affair that never had any coherent plan, ever!
But now the direct action groups have given Hong Kong people a blue print for change that everyone can see works. Or, pick a hot topic, pick a location, make a protest then leave. Come back later in another place with more numbers and more strength, erstwhile enjoying the media frenzy it creates, especially around the violence of the State. These groups are not stopping at smugglers, other entrenched, rotten parts of society are now in their sites and will feel the wrath of the people’s anger soon. The topics will be meaningful and engaging to all people of Hong Kong. Just like hawkers and smugglers the protests will set off huge ripples that shake society.
I foresee a time when 50,000+ people turn up for shopping in designated shopping centres once a week to protest say, tycoon monopolies. We are truly on the path now to temporary Occupies like those that happened in Leipzig. Certainly, a tiny minority, like those creating home made pepper sprays may misunderstand the difference between confrontation and violence, but this wont stop the momentum. These people are just a consequence of statistics rather than any moral collapse of the protesters.
What is coming will be more powerful than Occupy ever was and will shake Hong Kong to its core.
“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery.” Mao Zedong
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I really don’t like what the meat industry does to animals: But I do enjoy eating steak.
I like the results of slaughtering animals, but I hate the method that gives me the results I desire.
Life is full of contradictions, especially in a revolution.
The police justify their brutal enforcement actions in order to maintain their version of peace, likewise, protestors, justify their actions in order to force change from what they see as a malign and unjust government.
The protests in the districts aren’t pretty, it is raw and gritty human against human conflict. At this moment in time it may grind on your sensibilities of what is right and what is wrong, but it can’t be denied that these types of protest are producing results that you might just welcome.
The common retort from most democracy protesters still wondering what to do after the failure of 79 days of Occupy is, “I’m all for dealing with the smuggler problem, or managing hawkers, but I don’t support the methods of the direct action groups.”
But the fact is, if the direct action groups hadn’t created these operations, smugglers or hawkers wouldn’t even be news stories. It’s an undeniable fact that because of these protests the whole of Hong Kong, even the World is talking about how to deal with these problems and that has a far reaching effect on how Hong Kong is governed as a whole.
The direct action groups don’t claim to have all the answers, their goal was to explode these issues in the media and get everyone talking. These are proxy wars on how the HK Government and police think Hong Kong should be ruled under the CCP.
Now everyone wants to offer their opinion on how these problems should be fixed and pretty much every respectable person in Hong Kong believes that something should be done to fix them to make HK better.
So, there’s your fresh, tasty steak, cooked rare! But how it got on the table was pretty shitty!
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Just like it would be wrong to enjoy eating meat yet criticise the butcher for having no morals, likewise, you should think twice before criticising these type of protests. In an atmosphere where the government can ignore huge crowds of people on the streets for months, how else can you grab its attention.
photo: 白影
