Thread by @KongTsungGan

A 4mo memorial for Chow Tsz-lok is scheduled in the Sheung Tak car park where he fell, but a half hour before it's to begin, there's a massive police presence both within & around the car park (which is privately owned). They're carrying out random stop&searches of citizens.

While Tseung Kwan O is under police lockdown, another 4-month memorial for Chow Tsz-lok (& Chan Yin-lam, who died in September) is going on at Kwun Tong promenade.

In spite of blanket police presence in Tseung Kwan O, hundreds of brave citizens are still managing to gather outside of Sheung Tak car park where on Nov 4 Chow Tsz-lok fell. Police aren't allowing mourners to enter car park where previous shrines were b4 police tore them down.

This shot gives a sense of how police have penned several hundred citizens into an enclosed area where they have constructed a new shrine to Chow Tsz-lok outside Sheung Tak car park in TKO. Police continue to carry out random stop&searches in the vicinity & intimidate citizens.

This policing is far more oppressive than 4mo ago. On Nov 8, 10k citizens freely made a shrine to Chow Tsz-lok at the spot where he fell inside Sheung Tak car park. Tonight just to get to car park one must run the gauntlet of hundreds of police & get stop&searched. #HKPoliceState

There have been at least 10 arrests in Tseung Kwan O so far this evening, as documented by Arrested Persons Concern Group (被捕人士關注組), presumably arbitrarily for 'unlawful assembly' as it would be difficult to imagine what else, given the gathering's been peaceful.

Police have kettled & are searching many dozens of people in Tseung Kwan O. This has been on-going for more than 2hrs now. For a long time, police appeared to be doing nothing but detaining them. Now they're 'processing' them in small batches. Half a dozen just released.

I should've mentioned that the person being searched in the photo above is the well-known singer Tommy Yuen Man-on, who is among the dozens who've been kettled by police for upwards of two and a half hours now.

After being searched, Tommy Yuen was released by police. In an interview, he says that like everyone else, he'd just come to lay flowers for Chow Tsz-lok & ended up kettled by police. Police continue to periodically release those kettled in small batches.

Meanwhile, the number of those arrested in Tai Po today has increased. This arrest by a plainclothes officer occurred just before 10pm & was at least the 20th recorded there today. In all, between Tai Po & Tseung Kwan O, at least 30 arrests so far today. For peaceful protest.

Have now counted 61 people released from the group that police kettled earlier this evening. All have been searched. This is the latest group to be released. Extremely oppressive policing: label everything an 'unlawful assembly' & kettle everyone in vicinity for hours.

Even after those 61 have been released, there's still a long queue of others waiting to be searched within the police kettle. There's no entity in #HK that can hold the police accountable for these abusive practices, not the IPCC or courts, certainly not the govt. #HKPoliceState

I'd counted 186 people who exited the police kettle after having been searched when police suddenly charged. There are still several dozen waiting to be searched, so overall, way over 200 kettled for hours. Police have now detained at least 16 more after their charge.

There are probably more than 16 detained in the police charge but the situation's chaotic & it's hard to get an overview. These people were simply monitoring the police kettling of the others when police declared their 'assembly' 'unlawful' & charged them. Disgraceful policing.

Now at least 22 arrested in Tseung Kwan O tonight. The count will probably increase. In all, together with 20 in Tai Po, that makes at least 42 arrests today at 2 peaceful protests. The right to freedom of peaceful assembly is pretty close to zero in #HK at the moment.

Among the arrested in Tai Po are 3 pro-democracy District Councillors, Herman Yiu (姚鈞豪), Man Nim-chi (文念志) & Lin Kok-cheung (連桷璋) & 3 assistants, by plainclothes police tonight. Charges unknown. Several other DCs are at police station to assist.
thestandnews.com/politics/%E5%A…

Police have roped off an area in Kwong Ming Court in Tseung Kwan O where they have detained about a dozen people, presumably arrested as their wrists are bound beyond their backs.

Sorry: correction: not all of those detained in an area cordoned-off by police in Kwong Ming Court have their wrists bound behind their backs.

#HK Mar 8 arrest counts as of Mar 9, 3:06am:
Tai Po: 32 arrested (last at 22.33)
Tseung Kwan O: 62 arrested (last at 00.29)
41 were arrested in Kwong Ming Court after police charge. Police had to rent coach (shown here) to transport them to jail.

Even for #HK police, these are extraordinarily high arrest counts for peaceful protests involving relatively few protesters- about 100 in Tai Po & 1,000 in Tseung Kwan O. Police are using arbitrary mass arrests to persecute protesters & scare them from the streets. #HKPoliceState

Police put Tseung Kwan O under lockdown. In addition to a large number of arrests, police carried out widespread stop&searches & kettled upwards of 300 people for several hours. Together, these practices constitute unreasonable restrictions on the right to freedom of assembly.

#HK CRACKDOWN WATCH UPDATE: At least 92 arrested yesterday (62 in Tseung Kwan O, 32 in Tai Po), bringing total arrested since June 9 to about 7,792.

Police haven't released precise arrest count since Jan 24. Commissioner said on Mar 2 'around 7,700 arrested'.

Since 1st coronavirus protest in #HK on Jan 23, about 627 have been arrested, at least 391 in large-scale arrests ranging from 12 to 115. Many of the other arrests are unaccounted for: Police Commissioner said Mar 2 'about 7,700 arrested' overall; unclear how he got that number.

The arrests of 17 on explosives charges, Jimmy Lai & Lee Cheuk-yan, all at home; the pro-CCP crackdown on RTHK for a satire on police; the mass arrests at small protests- all show regime gaining in confidence & a gradually building crackdown. Only large protests will prevent it.

#HK people always said, The moment we begin to let up is when the real crackdown will begin. I'm sensing that now. 2 q's: Will confidence continue to grow that coronavirus epidemic in HK has been contained? Once it has, will people come back out to the streets in large numbers?

Someone whose opinion I respect has accused me of almost not mentioning important context in this thread: namely, that 17 were arrested Sat night on explosives charges & police say they found large amounts of chemicals, suggesting this may explain police tactics against protests.

But 1st, the tactics we saw last night- massive police presence, widespread stop&searches, kettling, mass arrests- have been employed now for months, essentially going back to Christmas. They can't be explained by police suspicion of explosives at protests.

2nd,police have frequently conducted raids for explosives.A good many #HK people are skeptical of what they say. There's some truth: some people-very very few-are resorting to making bombs. But no one's been found w such bombs at protests & it's no justification for rights abuses

Some believe police are trying to smear the protests w these explosives arrests & to justify oppressive policing. Next will be propaganda about 'terrorism'. Others think police & bombmakers are engaged in a dance that drives both to extremes & protesters suffer the fallout.

Whatever the case, we shouldn't become so accustomed to oppressive policing that we don't call it what it is & forget that it's the police's job to facilitate public gatherings, not prevent them. I believe police are engaged in a political mission, not legitimate law enforcement.