Pretending that an authoritarian oligarchy is somehow superior to one of the most peaceful democratic protest movements in history.
Cool story, bro.
Shameful Display
Fresh clashes have erupted
Protestors tried to reoccupy some of their their former sites. The police responded with pepper spray. They have claimed that 15 officers were injured,though it was not mentioned to what extent,not to mention that the most deadly weapon I have heard of the protestors using were their now synonymous umbrellas.
Okay, maybe not the most peaceful, but the point still stands.
Shameful Display
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I haven't heard of many movements that more peaceful than this,I guarantee you someone in Gandhi's crowd beat the crap out of some British cops at one point.
HGW XX/7
Direct action =/= violence.
Schild und Schwert der Partei
'Twas kind of a joke.
HGW XX/7
Fair enough. Flew over my head. 
@ Culminus: Here's my response to those who are against the idea of the protests.
Because people who are supposedly in power are always fewer than those they have power over. If those who have no power one day decides they don't want their leader, there's very little the leader can do about it. There is no way that one or a few people can fight against millions. That's the way it is. It has repeated itself time and time again through out the Chinese history. Push the people too hard and they revolt. Even one of the Chinese emperors, back when emperors have the power over life and death itself, knew this, and was particularly careful in using his power.
Those who see are against the Hong Kong protest, do you know what the solution is? A democratic process. Because what that does is that it recognizes the above fact and turn it into a formalized process where people no longer need to rise up in arms to overthrow their government. Don't like your leader? Vote them out in the next election. This is the reason why even now in Australia when the government is at the least popular there's no similar protests here. The worse thing to happen is that we have to wait for the next election: as bad as that is there's an election to look forward to. The people in Hong Kong? When CY Leung mismanages there's no legitimate way for them to take him down. So what happens? What is happening right now. Because they cannot vote him out. People don't like to protest. They don't like to sleep in the streets. When they do that there must be a good reason.
A proper democratic system exists so that this kind of mass protests is less likely to happen. And when protests do happen, often something went wrong with that democratic system or that the leader is so bad that people cannot wait to vote them out.
The camp in Admiralty swelled up since it's the weekend today.
わからない
Quite weird that Culminus still doesn't realize that the Great Firewall of China was actually established not against "subversive elements" and those "against the Chinese Communist Party" but rather to restrict "gathering people together without the say-so of the government; i.e. the initiative was from the people themselves".
Hence why you could never have a flash mob organized on the Internet, even if the flash mob is in celebration of the greatness of Mao, or how great the Communist Party is.
I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.
Another Force statement released about what happened in Mongkok:
A large number of people who are currently (October 17) illegally occupying a section of southbound lanes of Nathan Road near Arygle Street in Mongkok attempted to further occupy the northbound lanes of Nathan Road and charged Police cordon lines. Police strongly condemned those illegal acts and warn them to stop charging Police immediately.
The acts of these people have seriously undermined public order and public safety. They wilfully blocked the major thoroughfares, charged the Police cordon lines and shoved police officers onto the ground. Although Police have given repeated advice and warnings, including displaying warning banners, and used OC Foam to stop those acts that totally disregarded public safety and public order, the occupiers refused to comply. Police strongly condemned such acts which endangered the safety of themselves and the safety of other people. According to preliminary information, three Police officers were injured who have sustained head injury, dislocation of right shoulder and hand injury respectively. Police appeal to the people at scene to stay calm and restraint, and leave the scene as soon as possible. Other members of the public should also take heed of their personal safety and refrain from going to that area.
Police reiterate that any acts endangering public order and public safety will not be tolerated. The Hong Kong community regard that we should express our views in a rational and peaceful manner. Police will take resolute enforcement action against any illegal acts.
Which is why I think the CCP is shooting themselves in the foot.
Considering that the fascist China (ie the KMT, Taiwan) manages to become a democracy and eventually even took power back legitimately through an election, why shouldn't the CCP do the same thing? They are in charge because most people let them be in charge, after all.
The Republican party is also shooting themselves in the face by alienating women and non-whites but individual Republican candidates are still pandering to the Tea Party to get elected. Chinese politicians are the same way, each pursuing his own selfish agenda to the detriment of the whole. Even if the government democratize and the party regain power down the road, it wouldn't be THEM who would be voted in.
edited 18th Oct '14 6:21:17 AM by nightwyrm_zero
Two things.
TVB is getting in trouble with how they handled the coverage of the news since they didn't detail about what the officers did to Ken Tsang. It was changed to allegations that police brutality took place.
Operation Solarpeak is the name of the operation to remove barricades throughout the island. It includes officers from the Airport Security Department and the Counter Terrorism Response Unit. The latter was created a few years after Mumbai as a first response unit to any attacks by heavily armed criminals and terrorists before the Special Duties Unit would be deployed. It would be better if the Emergency Unit was integrated to the CTRU, but that's another story.
HGW XX/7
Foreign Policy continues to analyze the crisis, with some great reporting:
"If we lose this, we lose everything".
A statement released by the force on the situation in Mongkok as part of Operation Solarpeak:
Following are the opening remarks by the Chief Superintendent of Police Public Relations Branch, Mr Hui Chun-tak, at the press conference today (October 19).
First of all, I will talk about the confrontations that took place in Mong Kok earlier this morning. At about mid-night, people illegally occupying Nathan Road near Argyle Street suddenly pulled away the mill barriers there and charged the Police cordon, trying to occupy the road junction. Repeated warnings were issued to the radical protesters to stop charging the Police cordon. However, they were all ignored.
To prevent worsening of the situation and harm to members of the public, onlookers and Police officers, Police took decisive actions to push back the protesters with pepper spray and baton. After resetting the mill barriers, Police retreated to the cordon line without taking any clearance action.
The occupied area in Mong Kok remains a very high-risk area. Activists from radical organisations as well as trouble-makers are mingling with other protesters. From time to time they plan, organise ad direct various actions to provoke our officers and create chaos. As you can see from the media coverage, their acts in the past two consecutive nights were completely illegal and had jeopardised public order. These acts were totally contrary to their self-proclaimed principle of 'peaceful and non-violent' movement and were entirely unconnected with their demands. Here the Police strongly condemn their violent acts.
From yesterday evening until this morning, Police arrested four men, aged from 25 to 37, for the offences of "common assault", "assault occasioning actual bodily harm", "disorderly conduct in public place" and "possession of offensive weapon" in Mong Kok. I wish to highlight the case of "possession of offensive weapon" where two sharp knives, one was a 45 cm long serrated foldable knife and the other was a 18 cm long sickle, were found in the rucksack of a 25-year-old man who had charged the Police cordon. I stress that these knives are highly dangerous weapons posing a severe threat to public safety.
In the confrontations in Mong Kok this morning, five police officers sustained various degrees of injuries ranging from serious bruises on limbs, twisted fingers and arms, and dislocation of shoulder joint.
I also note some parents have brought young kids to the unlawful assembly in Mong Kok. Because of the high risk situation there, I urge the general public, especially youngsters and students, not to go to the occupied area in Mong Kok. You should take great care of your personal safety to avoid any harm.
In addition, some people have tried to incite others, through the internet, to re-occupy Mong Kok and to paralyse the traffic in West Kowloon. Under the current volatile circumstances in Mong Kok, such incitement is trampling the interests of the general public. Were these protests 'peaceful and non-violent', or were they just a reckless means to vent their frustration? I stress, inciting others to commit criminal acts on the internet is illegal. Police will investigate, gather evidence, and take arrest action.
The Hong Kong society accept rational and peaceful ways to express views and aspirations. And the rule of law is the cornerstone upon which Hong Kong succeed. It is unquestionable that all Hong Kong citizens must obey the law.
Police note that on the internet, some persons have incited other people to take part in the unlawfully assemblies in Mong Kok and Admiralty.
Yesterday evening, Police arrested a 23-year-old man in Tin Shui Wai area for the offences of "access to computer with criminal or dishonest intent" and "unlawful assembly". Our initial enquiries revealed that the arrested person incited others on an online forum to join the unlawful assembly in Mong Kok, to charge at Police and to paralyse the railways. He is also suspected of taking part in the unlawful assembly in Mong Kok on October 17. This man has been released on Police bail pending further investigation.
The unlawful assembly in Mong Kok has made the vicinity a high risk area. Inciting others to take part in unlawful assembly in that area and charging Police cordon will escalate the risk, and is a very serious criminal offence.
Police remind the public that the Internet environment is not a lawless world. According to the laws of Hong Kong, the majority of the laws in the real world are also applicable to the cyber world.
As a final note, Police will continue to closely monitor the situation in various occupied areas. I emphasise again Police will continue to carry out our duties impartially and will not tolerate any acts of violence.
Never Trust
This is ridiculous considering the amount of police making fb post about how they want to rape and kill the protesters/protesters' supporters.
わからない
Just to let you know that I got back from Hong Kong Sunday evening. Only inconvenience was that the traffic was a bit longer going into Hong Kong.
Because SCMP has an article limit, here is CY Leung's comments from another source:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/hong-kong-s-cy-leung/1426416.html?cid=twtcna
"HONG KONG: The city's leader has said open elections would result in Hong Kong's many poor dominating politics, as his government headed into talks with activists who have staged three weeks of rallies. In an interview with foreign media, carried in the Wall Street Journal and International New York Times just hours before the talks were due on Tuesday (Oct 21), embattled Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying reiterated his position that free elections were impossible.
Leung said that if candidates were nominated by the public then the largest sector of society would likely dominate the electoral process. "If it's entirely a numbers game and numeric representation, then obviously you'd be talking to the half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than US$1,800 a month," he said in the interview.
...
His quotes also echo that of Wang Zhenmin, a well-connected scholar and regular advisor to Beijing. Wang said recently that greater democratic freedom in the semi-autonomous city must be balanced against the city's powerful business elite who would have to share their "slice of the pie" with voters. "The business community is in reality a very small group of elites in Hong Kong who control the destiny of the economy in Hong Kong. If we ignore their interests, Hong Kong capitalism will stop (working)," he said in August."
This is spectacularly bad. He is effectively admitting that he was put in power to serve Beijing and the elites. Not news of course, but imagine such comments coming from a truly democratically elected leader.
And of course, the context behind why mainlanders are buying milk powder in HK is that certain businessmen in the mainland are so greedy and immoral that they will sell toxic fake milk powder, and the mainland government and policing apparatus is so corrupt and/or ineffectual that they are unable to guarantee the safety of the food supply to many of their citizens.
As much as anything, the HK protestors are also protesting against the rampant crony capitalism that is leading HK towards the same path of corruption that permeates the mainland.