Hardcore rioters defy Hong Kong police

A hardcore group of about 100 protesters armed with petrol bombs on Tuesday defied pleas to leave Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Protesters use ropes from a bridge down to a highway to escape from Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus and from police. Picture: AFP

A hardcore group of about 100 radical protesters armed with petrol­ bombs and highly flammable chemicals spent Tuesday defying pleas from authorities to leave the strife-torn Hong Kong Polytechnic University as a key step to peace after waves of ­violent attacks on police and widespread vandalism.

The protesters are demanding an amnesty to avoid being prosecuted for rioting, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ jail. They want existing charges dropped and all current prosecutions permanently shelved.

Most of the protesters who had barricaded themselves inside the Polytechnic in Kowloon were vowing to stay indefinitely but have now left, citing fatigue, a lack of water and rising anxiety over the building being surrounded by police. Several escaped by sliding down ropes from an overpass to a road, then being whisked away on motorbikes.

Police, who along with their families have been attacked by petrol bomb-wielding protesters, are determined to see those directl­y responsible for arson, violen­ce and vandalism treated like other alleged criminals.

But the protesters see themselves as democracy freedom-fighters, who deserve to be exon­erated for violence in a “noble cause”. They want police subjected to a royal commission-style inquiry into allegations of brutality.

Police sources revealed a bomb production line at the Chin­ese Uni­versity of Hong Kong had pro­d­uced thousands of petrol bombs.

There were about 1000 arrest­s on Monday, taking the total to more than 4000. Protesters also tried to firebomb the married quarters of police in the district of Chai Wan on Monday night.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam again rejected demand­s for an amnesty for protesters. But in a bid to break the deadlock, those younger than 18 and still in the Polytechnic University were promised preferential treatment, with identification details taken by police before being released without arrest.

“I have asked that treatment to these minors should be in a very humanitarian way,” Ms Lam said.

On his first day as police chief after his predecessor, Stephen Lo Wai-chung, lost the confidence of some frontline police, Commissioner Chris Tang Ping-keung said in the South China Morning Post: “Enough is enough.

“Whatever your beliefs, do not glorify and put up with the violence­. Do not let the mob further­ motivate themselves and become­ more radicalised. If everyone had come out earlier to condemn the violence, society would not have turned into this state in five months. We can only end the unrest with society’s condemnation, reflection by the rioters, plus our appropriate tactics.”

Police oppose an independent inquiry into allegations of ­brutality, saying that a judge-led probe would not ease the unrest and viol­ence.