Tag: photos

Over a month ago I had the good fortune to sit at a table surrounded by some highly motivated, young activists. We discussed many issues concerning protest in Hong Kong and one of the issues they kept coming back to were the operations that were starting up in Sheung Shui to confront the parallel traders, or smugglers. They were very keen to hear my views on it. The fact was that I didn’t really know much about what was going on in Sheung Shui and I answered, to my discredit now, that I thought it was a distraction from the main idea of political reform. I wrongly believed, at the time, that their focus would have been better served in Admiralty or 9wu. My only redemption was that I asked the pointed question;

Do the local people support you in your efforts against the smugglers? Their answer was a categorical, Yes. Then, it can’t be a bad thing, I replied.

A month is a long time in politics and the actions that have since taken place in the districts have shown that the Direct Action Groups that these young, activists belong to are very politically astute. While the more traditional methods of protest have temporarily stalled, they have created an entirely new frontline that is a realistic way to build horizontal support and increase vertical pressure.

This is not big politics, it is raw street politics. The northern towns of The New Territories are awash with smuggler dens that transport everything from baby milk, to iPhones to live lobsters across the border daily. They serve no public function for the local residents The locals aren’t getting rich from this thriving trade. Resentment is at breaking point in these districts. In responding to the alleged attempted fire-attack on one of the smuggler shops the other day, Apple Daily reported that one local said, “He wished they would burn all the shops.”

The Direct Action Groups reasoning is simple and raw, we are local people and we will prove that we can solve local issues.

Taking on the smugglers is not easy political capital. That’s why the government refuses to do it. Too many vested interests. On top of this, these smuggling rings are almost certainly linked in to other forms of organised crime or dark forces across the border. Despite this, at great personal risk to themselves many Direct Action Groups have been conducting anti-smuggler actions week in week out, largely going under the radar of traditional media. They have had great success given that the only resource they really have are their own bodies and time.

The linchpin to the preventing the thriving industry is the MTR. The smugglers are operating on very tight margins so the business model ideally involves carrying as much as possible in trolleys on the MTR. The MTR does have strict regulations on baggage size and weight, which it tries to enforce, but the smugglers overwhelm the staff on duty with both numbers and threats of violence. The MTR staff want the problem solved, The local police want the problem solved and have also assisted in helping the groups make the smugglers queue up to have bags weighed and measured. This has had an effect, but unfortunately the side-effect has been to push the smugglers to other areas and other means of transport, like the buses. The smugglers are a tenacious bunch. The appetite for their products across the border is voracious.

The small gains achieved have definitely endeared the locals with the activists, but the problem is huge and needs to be tackled in every district simultaneously.

This Sunday, Feb 8th the Direct Action Groups will launch their biggest operation yet in a combined action in Tuen Mun. Early reports are that the triads will be waiting to meet them. As a little side reference, during the skirmishes at the Mongkok Occupy, it was widely reported that the so-called triads who joined forces with the Blue Ribbons were not local but from Tuen Mun. Things could certainly get heated. The bravery of these Direct Action Groups is mind boggling. I will go to this operation, but I have no qualms in saying, I’m scared.

Sunday will be interesting, especially as there is one other principle actor that I haven’t really mentioned much yet, the police. Firstly, let’s get this clear, I’m not anti-police, but I’m certainly vehemently against bad-policing. If the police want me to stop writing about them then police fairly. It’s simple. It’s not rocket science!

If you’ve seen any of the post-Occupy police videos you will notice that there’s a key theme running through all of them; Law and Order. Any policeman interfacing with the public or media now needs to make sure we all know that this is the central business the police are in, keeping law and order.

Given this, this Sunday’s operation will be a huge test for the police, which has been specifically created by the Direct Action Groups. Everyone will be watching to see if the police can put their personal political prejudices to one side for the sake of law and order: Triad gangs, smugglers, civic groups all in the mix together. How are the police going to catorgorize the threats to law and order?

Batons out and pepper spray are standard procedure these days when facing off large groups of civic groups. Last Sunday’s Tai Po operation showed that the police feel it is operationally expedient to just pat away Blue Ribbons acting violently, yet engage in baton charges or resort to dangerous choke holds on Yellows until they faint. The police may understand this in their heads, but the general public does not. We look at that video of the policeman dragging the boy out by his neck, and think what is the rationale for this level of violence? What did that person do to receive such thuggery from the police? This is the bad policing that more and more people are growing to deplore.

The issue is easily fixed. The solution is not silencing the persistent criticism that arises on social media. The solution lies in fair and equal policing: something the police have lost sight of under the direction of Andy Tsang. Instead, the police are operationally biased from the moment they leave their briefing rooms and step foot on the street. Civic groups engaging in illegal assembly is now the most pressing threat the police perceive and they want to use force to address it. Hoisting banners informing people that they ‘may’ be in an illegal gathering and ‘may’ be subject to violence may make sense in Andy Tsang’s world of CCP cronies, but for people who still have their moral compasses in tact the police’s Route One to violence method is abhorrent and inhumane. Let’s not forget here, no one has been convicted of illegal assembly yet. No one has even been charged officially with illegal assembly yet. So why do the police think they are justified in beating people on suspicion of illegal assembly?

The HKPF is going to have to be a lot smarter and sharper this weekend if it’s going to avoid another free fall in its approval rating. Excuses that, it’s not us it’s them, are wearing very thin now from a force that is paid well to be professional and impartial. If people are gathering illegally, arrest them, charge them and send them to court, don’t beat them, that just makes you look like thugs and black hearts.

To conclude, The Direct the Action Groups are smart. They have created this explosive cocktail for a reason. Only vested interest groups feel threatened by it.

The smugglers are breaking laws and regulations day in, day out unchecked. This operation will highlight the detrimental effects it has on Hong Kong society.

On top of this, the police will be forced to demonstrate their commitment to law and order above their open political biases and personal vendettas.

We have all experienced that many police officers have more in common with rowdy Blue Ribbons and aggressive triads than they have with ‘snot-nosed students’ demanding democracy, but they need to rise above this and concentrate on their jobs, which they keep reminding us is law and order.

Law and order in New Territories’ towns is breaking down because they’re over run with smugglers, not because kids are gathering illegally to complain about them.

To understand what happened in Tai Po yesterday you have to first know what happened in Kwun Tong last weekend.

A lot of money is now being pumped into grassroots groups that support the Blue Ribbons, which are flush with cash but short on real, quality support. In comparison, local grass root Pro-Democracy groups are all but penniless, but have growing, committed support. The CCP wishes to turn these groups against one another. This is classic CCP tactic, or create enemies and contradictions between the people, so people fight people leaving the CCP to pillage unfettered and uncriticised. The CCP have being instigating this kind of class struggle since their inception and they have a lot of experience with it. However, what they don’t have experience with are genuinely civic minded groups that can’t just be locked up for a decade to remove the problem. Meaning, that in HK, their tried and tested methods don’t get the traction they’re used to on the Mainland.

Which brings us back to Kwun Tong. Last Sunday the Blue Ribbons had a stage set up. There are several videos of the speakers on stage and one can confidently say that what they were advocating wasn’t really resonating with the passers-by. What was interesting is that anyone who tried to film the stage was quickly surrounded by a number of people who blocked the camera and acted menacingly. Which beggars the question, why are they making a stage if they don’t want their message to be filmed and recorded? Maybe the person filming wanted to promote the message? The reality is these groups are very exclusive, not inclusive. They may be on the streets spreading their message, but their target audience is generally reserved for a small group of people who think exactly like them. Any challenging questions will be quickly met with intimidation, violence and gestures for you to leave.

A single person who supports democracy would be crazy to open up discussion in these areas, even a small group would? So, what would happen if a large group of pro-democracy advocates walked passed?

Well that’s exactly what happened last weekend in Kwun Tong. After a few incidents where Blue Ribbons violently intimidated Yellow supporters earlier in the day, a reasonably large group of Civic Passion supporters, with banners and flags walked by the Blue Ribbon stage and were immediately accosted by their guarding goons. A quasi-street battle ensued with the Civic Passion supporters getting the worst of it. All their banners were destroyed and they were left scurrying for safety. The police that were there stood by and watched the Blues rough up the Yellows.

As more police reinforcements arrived, the Civic Passion supporters complained to the police and were duly arrested for common assault. Six in total. No Blue Ribbons were arrested for instigating the violence. Instead some were sent away in ambulances while those complaining that they had been attacked were carted off to the police station. To show their indignation at the hypocrisy of the police, Civic Passion supporters then gathered outside the Kwun Tong police station for a vigil until their members were released. As far as I’m aware, the police are pressing on with their intent to charge those attacked with assault.

The implications for this event are far reaching for HK society. I wont even touch on the highly explosive idea of police openly supporting attackers and not those being attacked, but will save this for another day.

Instead, we will move on to yesterday’s incident in Tai Po.

There is a direct link to what happened in Kwun Tong and what took place in Tai Po. Civic Passion and Frontline Democracy(本土民主前線), decided that they would not be intimidated by the Blue Ribbon’s campaign of fear and intimidation on the streets. Leticia Lee, the face of the Blue Ribbons, was scheduled to have another street stand in Tai Po, so they would meet her there directly. They knew from the onset that they would experience incredible prejudice from the police if they turned up in numbers, which they did. But this would not stop them. The purpose of yesterday’s action was to highlight the clear hypocrisy and collusion of the police. In this respect, the operation in Tai Po was a complete success. Police hypocrisy was in abundant display yesterday in Tai Po.

It is an accepted part of HK society today that the police will let goons loiter around Blue Ribbon stands and not bat an eye-lid if they decide to rough up the odd Yellow Ribbon. In fact, police are often their as supporters. Supposed civilians who were manning the Blue Stage were later seen in police uniform at Tai Po police station. This is how hand-in-glove the Blue Ribbons are with the police. The violence that is ever-present around the Blues is an in disputable fact that can be field-tested by anyone brave enough to believe the contrary. Don’t take my word for it, go and test it for yourself.
In stark contrast to this, despite it being the Blue Ribbons that manifest violence on a regular basis it’s the Yellow Ribbons who are immediately mobbed by huge numbers of police should they begin to form up. This is exactly what happened in Tai Po. Once Civic Passion and Frontline Democracy began to move the police were all over them, pushing shoving and not letting them move freely.

Admittedly, the police argument is, if we let the Yellows near the Blues, there will be a danger of a disturbance, we’re only keeping the peace. And this is exactly the reason why everyone went to Tai Po yesterday. To highlight that there IS a danger of disturbance, and right on cue, the police let the Blue Ribbons repeatedly express their anger and violence, yet cracked down on the Yellows. The danger of violence is ever-present from the Blues, but the police always take the opportunity to antagonise the Yellows. Extreme elements of the Blues and the police are hand-in-glove. One of the same. The Blues are the political wing of the police and the police will not tolerate their message being closed down. Unlike the Yellows, which they’ll actively take part in.

Yesterday’s action was a clear show of force by the Yellows, A warning to the Blues, that they will not get away with their goon tactics in the districts, even with police support and the cost of them will significantly increase. The police are on notice too that if Leticia Lee wants to spread the message of hate and violence for them, then they will be met with a strong showing of power from the pro-democracy action groups. They will not be intimidated off the streets. The police will have to mobilise vast resources of men if they continue to let the Blue Ribbon Goons control the message in the districts. This is an important fight which Civic Passion and Democracy Frontline are leading.

Both HKFS and Scholarism have intentions to take the Pro-democracy message to the districts. The unspoken tactic from the government is that CCP United Front groups will prevent this through intimidation and violence and the police will look the other way. As a pro-dem supporter, you may think that Civic Passion and Frontline Democracy are too radical for you, but if they aren’t going to lead this fight, who will and the districts will become a place where no one other than the Blue Ribbons can speak their message freely.

The police were caught entirely on the hop with this action. Photos of the western commander turning up in his Sunday sweater shows that all their focus was on Central. On top of this, once again, the police proved that there really is no low for them and their political beliefs. Photos and videos of them providing bus services for the Blues, loading all their gear into police vans, letting blue Ribbons act disorderly yet swinging batons at Yellows who act similar all paint a picture of a police force in political and moral free fall.

For them it’s now personal, they are one in the same with the Blues and when they feel like they are threatened they will happily unleash the full powers invested in them as police officers to protect themselves. As a Yellow you can expect no such liberty anytime soon. The prejudice within the police no runs extremely deep. I have even felt this in my own personal life.

So, to conclude….The age of large demonstrations on HK Island is over.

The fight is now in the districts, please support!

One things for sure, we will see a lot more bad policing and goon behaviour before a victor emerges.