Today's march in Hong Kong is a textbook example of why "violent" and "peaceful" protests are not categories you can meaningfully use here. Something like a hundred thousand people attempted to march. They got a letter of no objection, planned the route, all to no avail
Since August, we've seen the same tactic applied against all peaceful marches. The police step on their tail, either by unilaterally declaring them over hours before the allowed time, or by firing tear gas or pepper spray over some manufactured pretext. They try to draw a foul.
The police are obviously not scared for their safety. Thousands of people filed past small groups of cops today. But the police use the threat of tear gas, pepper spray, and arrest as punishment. I saw police threaten to raise the blue flag because they were being called names
The march funneled a very large crowd into a pair of elevated roads from which there was no way to escape except by merging back very slowly at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Police then tear gassed the tail end of the march. It's a wonder nobody was hurt in the panic.
The problem with calling for peaceful marches is that withot good faith by the police, people are sitting ducks. The police surround the route, use riot control weapons anyway, and elderly people and kids end up in the crossfire. The message cops want to send is "stay home"
By police logic, this makes sense. But the problem is that six months in, the government is still trying to solve a political problem with police violence. They had a window of opportunity to make a meaningful gesture during a peaceful interval after the election. Now that's over
Summary of today's events:
10:30 AM Hong Kong parents march on Government House in a sanctioned "Don't Tear Gas Our Kids" event on Hong Kong Island
5:00 PM Hong Kong police tear gases their kids at a sanctioned march in Tsim Sha Tsui
10:30 AM Hong Kong parents march on Government House in a sanctioned "Don't Tear Gas Our Kids" event on Hong Kong Island
5:00 PM Hong Kong police tear gases their kids at a sanctioned march in Tsim Sha Tsui
The last peaceful march I can think of with over 100K people that was allowed to go through start to finish without police harrasment was August 18. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The government wasted a window for reconciliation and concessions then, too.
All I ask is that you think about this dynamic before reading the inevitable "Hope For Peaceful Resultion Fades as Hong Kong Plunges Back Into Violence" headline tomorrow. People voted, they marched with their families. What more can you ask them to do?
(Here's an before-and-after image taken today capturing the hopelessness of peaceful protest in Hong Kong.)
I'll also point out how weird it is that hundreds of thousands of people march and the government just has no comment. It's like this is a normal thing that major world cities go through sometimes for six months; nothing more to say.
A day after this march we have estimates that it may have excedeed 300,000 people. Back in June (and Hong Kongers, please correct me) I feel like this would have forced the government to at least issue a statement. Today, they don't even consider it worthy of comment.
