
HK police fires rubber bullet at protesters and civilians at point blank range - isaaafc
https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/coycrb/zero_regard_for_human_life_anymore_close_range/
======
isaaafc
This is just one of the many incidents of police brutality that happened in
the latest protest in Hong Kong. All the cases quoted below (and many more)
happened just yesterday. Baton beating, framing protesters, firing tear gases
in residential areas have been a "norm" to HK police and have happened every
time there was a protest, so 2-3 times a week on average in almost every
district in HK. They are not quoted. Numerous similar brutalities have
happened throughout the protests in the past 2 months.

Some other cases are: 1\. Police ground a protester's face on the ground,
breaking his teeth and injuring his face:
[https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/08/12/video-hong-kong-
police...](https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/08/12/video-hong-kong-police-make-
bloody-arrest-assisted-officers-suspected-undercover-protesters/)

2\. Police shot "bean bag bullets" at a protester's eye, rupturing her right
eye and caused permanent blindness:
[https://news.now.com/home/hot/player?newsId=358763&hot=1](https://news.now.com/home/hot/player?newsId=358763&hot=1)

3\. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into MTR (subway) station at
normal operating hours: [https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-
kong/politics/article/3022348...](https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-
kong/politics/article/3022348/hong-kong-police-ramp-force-firing-tear-gas-
inside-kwai)

4\. Police disguised as protesters to incite to riot and capture real
protesters: (Same link as (1))

5\. While they were insistent and brutal in arresting protesters, HK police
assisted and protected triads AGAIN as they attack civilians:
[https://www.facebook.com/standnewshk/videos/1256615241186946...](https://www.facebook.com/standnewshk/videos/1256615241186946/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARAY1pwPhe_gM2S0RLC-
UMSGqJDcrQetDaLfmfNsy9eopJA4pVddGtGCm0u1ry6r1zlRm4wgXKNz3EvB&hc_ref=ARQhTDQMyOzoz8hEduHczIrRd2ajfmQK30DW02bZSmaqOrOPBcvmsIzhtIzJIxfT-
Lc&fref=nf&__xts__\[0\]=68.ARACexgXzVp47BKwH44hJv3m1L0Y7QT-
kSAJwq9MwqHbnnVKQThKLnR25e_D8mhpcBsB3XTw15wOCaiXyDx2cey4sf4rj5DnVJoHUjgmxyW4qiLSCEsbzZQNrylB7KGAFHqe89PB7bcdlvUW_JatnpyulUW53Ex4udzVPfRfY_e3CAXB2_j9VMkmC5t7RmemwCAduegsyZi-
ku6kjtTQYYoNfmkJSK_vqbjVnCzgDO9W-r2o4KQxfoOf1nurA_M-
lu35jBht9BTzvV_0nKkVgvAFK0GDQ5NzFMVLBxVcmfgqfXod3rC6DVHYADrEyUP9J59LQmULbHsd5_SSGd9EJ6i-3g)

~~~
ninedays
Same thing happens in France where police are filmed gazing and beating some
people out (even old people)[1]

Someone already lost an eye few months ago.[2]

President guard is disguised as a policeman and beat some people on the
streets. [3]

And on and on. The issue is that people are starting to lose trust in how the
police and the gouvernment operate and are seeing that some actions don't seem
fair to them.

[1] :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDom3fi67ew](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDom3fi67ew)
[2] :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMXeosboyjg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMXeosboyjg)
[3] :
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benalla_affair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benalla_affair)

~~~
wtdata
Are we seriously trying to compare what is happening in Honk Kong (and rest of
China, that doesn't appear on TV), with the almost infinite patience that the
french police shows, with the permanent protests in France about anything they
feel like protesting violently against that particular week?

I still remember French setting fire to dozens of cars in several different
protests, while the police was too afraid to intervene, or be accused of
curtailing those "peaceful" citizens rights to express themselves as they see
fit.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChFHvi3ldec](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChFHvi3ldec)

[https://www.dw.com/en/protesters-burn-cars-in-north-paris-
su...](https://www.dw.com/en/protesters-burn-cars-in-north-paris-suburb-on-
third-night-of-unrest/a-19422227)

[https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/french-rioters-set-fire-to-
cars...](https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/french-rioters-set-fire-to-cars-during-
gaza-protest-in-paris-1.1922772)

~~~
kakwa_
> the almost infinite patience

Well, not that much, the protests in question could probably be far more
peaceful if the CRS had a a lighter hand on the tear gas grenades, the flash
ball guns, the sticks and everything.

Just to illustrate, the last year protests saw the reappearance of the
"Voltigeurs" (cops on motorcycles with sticks and flash ball guns), these
units were disbanded in the 80ies after the death of a student.

And the casualties list is pretty significant, 2 deaths, several hundreds
injured (including a few lost eyes and hands).

Are these protests borderline riots? yes. But the Police response is also
quite bad. I'm personally wondering if it's a conscientious political decision
to have an heavy hand to breed violence in order to then 1) discourage other
people from protesting 2) discredit a movement.

Granted, France is not yet at the level of China, we don't see opponents to
Macron being jailed or disappearing (even if some developments are quite
worrisome).

The State has a legitimacy for violence through its police and military forces
that individual citizen don't have, and that's a good thing. But it also mean
that the State must be extremely cautious about its use of violence to keep a
moral high ground, specially in the context of a Democracy.

Lastly, History is generally not very kind on violent repression of protests
and riots, even when at the time, the vast majority agreed with said
repression.

------
factfindingisfn
The title is incorrect, they were not firing rubber bullets but rather they
were using compressed gas pepperball markers.

~~~
prawn
This reminds me of my young son recently. He was standing beside his friend
who was playing a tennis game with the Apple TV remote. The remote had come
flying out of her hand on a full swing, and cracked the TV screen.

    
    
      "Did you throw it?"
      "No! Tilly did!"
      "Did you bump her when she was swinging?"
      "No!"
      "Did you touch her at all?"
      "No!" (he's holding a tiny 80s troll figurine in his hand)
      "Did the troll toy touch her while you were holding it?"
      "Yes..."

~~~
Waterluvian
My kids are letter of the law literal too. It's hard not to smile at the wrong
time.

This reminds me of mobile robots I do cartography and "city planning" for. You
can draw all kinds of complicated road networks of one-ways and no-gos and
speed limits but the robot will still find that little sliver between two
polys and barrel down it at full speed going the wrong way.

------
ackbar03
Maybe if the protestors werent so intent on disrupting everyday life and kept
things peaceful in the first place the police wouldn't have to clear them out
using such means. These protests are a serious nuisance and everyone is paying
the consequences for the protestors actions

~~~
beatgammit
Are you seriously defending the police here? This is way beyond the reaction
you'd see in pretty much any western democratic country.

Protests (again, in western democratic countries) can be peaceful, and
typically _are_ peaceful provided the police don't escalate things.

~~~
ackbar03
No I don't agree with the police beating the protestors here but neither do I
agree with protestors throwing bricks at police and setting off petrol bombs
or breaking off a policeman finger. You can't exactly expect them to be
sitting ducks, it's a natural reaction so stop complaining and making a fuss,
it's what your gonna get right or wrong. I for one would like to be able to
spend my weeknights outside without the fear of getting hurt. And also for
Hong Kong not to be some sort of safe harbour for criminals but that's
probably going to just set off more fireworks so I'll just be happy with peace
on the streets again

~~~
EliRivers
On the other hand, the HK police had their chance to be competent and
impartial, and demonstrated themselves not to be a professional constabulary,
but the tools of the state.

"Natural reaction" it may well be, but they're meant to be a professional
police force; not a street gang.

