The DW interview The government would like the protesters to be violent. The students did some damages and some violent acts but there are plenty evidence showing police dressed up like protesters and created many more damages.
And there are way more cases of pro-Beijing thugs beating up pro-democratic protesters than the other way round .
And she failed to explain clearly why many protesters resort to violence rather than seeking help from police or authority. Because police simply ignores pro-Beijing thugs beating up protesters and in some cases even arrest the victims rather than the assaulter. And not to mention all the suspicious suicide cases and many naked bodies found in the city and alleged rapes committed by the police.
Let’s look at what the protesters are demanding:
- Complete withdrawal of the extradition bill from the legislative process
- Retraction of the “riot” characterisation (regarding to 6/12): The government originally characterised the 12 June protest as “riots”. Later the description was amended to say there were “some” protesters who rioted. However, protesters contest the existence of acts of rioting during the 12 June protest.
- Release and exoneration of arrested protesters: Protesters consider the arrests to be politically motivated; they also question the legitimacy of police arresting protesters at hospitals through access to their confidential medical data in breach of patient privacy.
- Establishment of an independent commission of inquiry into police conduct and use of force during the protests
- Resignation of Carrie Lam and the implementation of universal suffrage for Legislative Council and Chief Executive elections
Among the five demands, the most often challenged is the third one—release and exoneration of arrested protesters. As Tim Sebastian argued, since the protesters broke the law and so they should accept the punishment. In particular, Joey Siu emphasized that the protesters are fighting for the rule of law. Indeed, it sound hypocritical to fight for the rule of law while breaking it themselves.
BUT it is important to realize that
- Police have been making arbitrary arrest since the start of the moment.
- Police and even the HK government is losing legitimacy after 5 months of inaction to people’s request. And how many of those arrests are actually legal?
Personally I don’t agree with violence struggle. Noam Chomsky argued that convincingly in this one.
But I think one has to understand why protesters appear to become more violent.
- It is a trap from the CCP and HK government. As mentioned at the beginning, they want the protesters to be violent. And they can crush them and sway the public opinion.
- HK government did intentionally stirred up unrest and hoped protesters to fall into that. A great example is 6/12. There were not police guarding outside the building. They basically let protesters break the door to go inside. It is not even clear whether it was broken by protesters then. The movement by then is very tamed.
- Police did dress up as protesters and created damages. They have tried to pass the blames to the protesters. Many example for this one.
- Over 2500 bodies found cases from June to September. Like swimmer champion found drown and naked. And bodies falling from high rise with little to no blood splash.
- Multiple protesters were allegedly tortured and raped after arrest. Including a case filed in court. And a police officer interviewed by Korea TV confirmed those allegation.
Under this background, what can protesters do? They can no longer rely on the police and when they are threaten by pro-Beijing mobs. They have to settle things on their own. Literally all violent cases conducted by the protesters were self-defense.