Police and Hong Kong protesters in violent clash on eighth weekend of marches

Hong Kong citizens have clashed violently with police in the territory’s eighth consecutive weekend of shocking protests.

If you thought Hong Kong pulling the plug on its controversial extradition bill would quell the territory’s massive protests, you were dead wrong.

The latest round of demonstrations in the city mark the eighth consecutive weekend in a row protesters have taken over the busy streets and clashed violently with police.

Hong Kongers are locked in a fight against embattled Chief Executive Carrie Lam and her supporters in the Chinese government, in a bid to maintain its individual freedoms.

In a rare move, Beijing is set to address the unrest in a press conference this evening.

Photos show tens of thousands of people on the streets, holding umbrellas and battling police batons and tear gas:

A protester covers up a tear gas canister during a demonstration against a controversial extradition bill in Hong Kong.

Police detain protesters after charging at them near the China Liaison Office after a protest against what activists say is police violence in Hong Kong.

Protesters hold umbrellas as they are enveloped by tear gas on a street during a demonstration against the bill.

A sea of black-shirted protesters, some with bright yellow helmets and masks but many with just backpacks, marched down a major street in central Hong Kong yesterday.

WHY HONG KONG IS STILL PROTESTING

This weekend’s rally marked the eighth mass demonstration in Hong Kong since a controversial bill that would allow criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China was put forward.
The legislation is seen as a threat to Hong Kong’s freedoms that were guaranteed for 50 years when China took back control of the former British colony in 1997.

Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” agreement that promised wide-ranging freedoms denied to citizens in mainland China, but many fear Beijing is increasingly chipping away at those freedoms.

The bill was eventually suspended, but the protesters then called for the resignation of the city’s leader and an investigation into whether police have used excessive force in quelling the protests.

Police repeatedly fired tear gas and rubber bullets to drive back protesters blocking Hong Kong streets with road signs and umbrellas in another night of pitched battles as protests for democracy in the Chinese territory escalate.

Special Tactical Squad officers use batons to attack protesters who refused to disperse from a train station in Yuen Long district in Hong Kong on Saturday.

Sunday marked the second night in a row that tear gas was used against protesters. On the western end of Hong Kong Island, one group blocked areas near the Chinese government’s liaison office and began to move forward as night fell. Police issued warnings, and protesters threw eggs at them. Officers fired tear gas to halt the advance.

Police then embarked on an hours-long effort to push the protesters eastwards and get them to disperse.

In repeated stand-offs, spontaneous but highly organised protesters set up behind scaffolding that they built across a street.

Police lined up behind clear shields about 30 metres down the road. Dozens of journalists in bright yellow vests stood on the sidelines between the groups.

The police would advance gradually, firing bursts of tear gas. Protesters in hard hats scurried about, rearranging makeshift barriers of pilfered road signs and other items.

Local media reported some protesters were detained.

A protester throws back a round of tear gas fired at protesters by the police during a demonstration in the district of Yuen Long.

Underlying the movement is a push for full democracy in the city, whose leader is chosen by a committee dominated by a pro-Beijing establishment, rather than by direct elections.

Earlier on Sunday, protesters rallied at a park in Hong Kong’s financial district before marching out in several directions despite not winning police approval for a public procession. It was the second straight day that protesters took to the streets without official permission.

A sea of black-shirted protesters, some with bright yellow helmets and masks but many with just backpacks, streamed out of Chater Garden park chanting: “Add oil,” a phrase that roughly means: “Keep up the fight,” as a huge crowd marched east down a wide thoroughfare.

They stopped near the Sogo department store and set up barricades to block off the area and defend it against police.

The rally in Chater Garden was called to protest the police use of tear gas, rubber bullets and other force to break up a protest the previous Sunday. “We need to have a protest to show that we are strongly against this kind of brutality and we need them to respond to our demands,” rally organiser Ventus Lau said.

Police had denied Lau’s request to march west to the Sheung Wan district, where the tear gas was used the previous weekend, citing escalating violence in clashes with protesters that have broken out after past marches and rallies.

“The police must prevent aggressive protesters from exploiting a peaceful procession to cause troubles and violent clashes,” said Superintendent Louis Lau of the police public relations branch.

A protester is detained by police during a demonstration.

On Saturday, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as demonstrators threw bricks and other objects and ducked behind makeshift shields at a march in an outlying district toward the border with mainland China.

Police had also denied permission for that protest in Yuen Long, where a mob apparently targeting demonstrators had beaten people brutally in a train station the previous weekend.

Police wearing helmets charged into the same train station, where a few hundred protesters had taken refuge from the tear gas.

Some officers swung their batons at demonstrators, while others appeared to be urging their colleagues to hang back. For the second week in a row, blood was splattered on the station floor.

Police arrested 13 people, including march organiser Max Chung, for offences including unlawful assembly, possession of offensive weapon and assault, according to police and Hong Kong media. At least four officers were injured.

The Hospital Authority said 24 people were taken to five hospitals. As of Sunday morning, eight remained hospitalised, two in serious condition. Amnesty International, the human rights group, called the police response heavy-handed and unacceptable.

“While police must be able to defend themselves, there were repeated instances today where police officers were the aggressors,” Man-kei Tam, the director of Amnesty International Hong Kong, said in a statement.

Police said they had to use what they termed “appropriate force” because of the bricks and other objects thrown at them, including glass bottles with a suspected corrosive fluid inside.