Riot cops have just arrived to Central in front of IFC. #HongKongProtest 
Riot cops are on the pedestrian bridge over Connaught
Standoff on Pedder
Riot police arriving from the west as well
Blue flag
Arrests made after raptors and riot police charged. There are people in business attire on their knees with their hands behind their head against the Swarovski shop
One wire photojournalist pepper sprayed.
Crowd is chanting “dirty cops” — many in suits
Another blue flag
Just saw a blonde woman in heels carrying a Gucci bag take a picture of the dozens of riot cops in the heart of Central. Reminder: it is 2pm on a Wednesday.
And now a blonde woman with an LV bag also standing there, putting on lip gloss, staring at the police and probably wondering WTF.
In front of a luxury watch and jewelry store, men in suits stand watching arrested protesters get taken away from behind a line of riot cops.
Riot police have left. Handful of protesters trying to block Connaught Rd. A man in a Maserati just sped through the debris placed on the road.
Roadblock on Connaught Rd Central in front of Bank of China. Cars have turned around one by one and all are gone now.
Road block Connaught Rd C
Should be rush hour but instead Central is a quiet ghost town. People are walking and cycling on the streets, reminding me of the Umbrella Movement days.
I was standing near a few first-aiders when we all caught a whiff of what smelled like teargas. Not having heard anything or seen anyone react, one half-joked: “Maybe it wafted over from CUHK.” (It’s a harbor and 16km away, and teargas was last fired there last night.)
Earlier, I saw a young protester unwrap a package a random elderly man gave her. They were a stack of carefully handcrafted stencils, complete with little handles taped on each end to hold as you spraypaint. They tested them out together, with him holding one end of the stencil.
(It says: “Avenge Hong Kong people”)
Central was calm w/ numerous road blocks and protesters and bystanders milling around when the police just performed an INSANE maneuver and had the armored vehicle SPEED without warning through a roadblock made of bricks and bamboo, w/ raptors shooting pepper bullets out the top.
Raptors and riot cops then sprinted and made arrests, SHOOTING PEPPER BULLETS down the Louis Vuitton MTR entrance. People are coughing, I was retching so hard I was brought to my knees. I saw one raptor jump and land knees-first on top of a tackled protester.
The armored vehicle had sped through the road block on Des Voeux Rd C and fired bullets at protesters running towards Armani
Not the same angle but this is what the barricade looked like. Now completely gone. Incredibly reckless for the police to speed the armored car through the heart of Central at 7:40pm w/out warning when ppl & protesters have been treating this area like a pedestrian zone for hours
I’m glad @waphle got a brief clip because I am not sure many journos were able to. Not many were around. It happened so quickly and was so unexpected. And everyone’s first instinct to a speeding armored vehicle with police shooting pepper guns out the top is to run.
Police were bringing out arrested people on Queen’s Rd and D’Aguilar. A small crowd of bystanders and journalists were watching and documenting. The police pepper sprayed the crowd, hitting several bystanders.
I had been talking to one moments before — she & her coworker had just come off work. Both were in suits. Ironically, I am pretty sure she had thanked the police just before. I heard her ask them if they were tired. This guy got sprayed too:
A woman was declaring that she was filming the driver of the bus taking the arrested people away. An officer started shining a light at her, asking if she were a journo & why she was filming the driver. Lawmaker Ted Hui stepped in, saying it wasn’t illegal. The cop backed off.
