From Asia’s Finest to Hong Kong’s Most Hated
HONG KONG—Moments after a gasoline bomb arced over a police-station wall, officers began shooting rounds of rubber bullets at protesters here. One struck a young woman in the eye, leaving her with a bloody orb. Elsewhere, police stormed a subway station, blocked its exits, and launched tear gas inside as demonstrators fled onto trains. At another metro stop, officers in gas masks fired at close range toward the backs of young people, appearing to hit at least one.
This was Hong Kong on just one day during this relentless and stunning summer of dissent. The latest salvo was a renewed attack on pro-democracy leaders, including Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, both among several people arrested the day before violent weekend clashes entangled demonstrators and the authorities. The fight for democratic rights has become distracted by the actions of the government’s most potent and toxic symbol of dysfunction: its police.
“Some of us are quite tired. I’m tired,” Harry, a 20-year-old undergraduate, told me. Sitting on a subway platform after yet another standoff with police, he offered a wistful smile. “They keep arresting us. But they are the ones who are against the law.”
It is hard to say who Hong Kongers despise more right now: their chief executive or their police force. The former, Carrie Lam, has spent months pushing for legislation that would allow the city to hand over criminal suspects to
