Just some quick links… My basic traffic analysis of the stories, columns and reports rushing by suggests that the Hong Kong Police are not doing well in the struggle for hearts and minds.
Cops themselves despair at the dismal performance of the force’s spokesmen at press-conference time. Among the latest cringe-making claims: a police motorcyclist’s attempt to run over protesters is classified as a traffic accident, and a woman shoved to the floor was ‘unintended contact’. How difficult is it to do at least a half-baked spin job on these things? And they spokescops say kids and old folks who get tear-gassed shouldn’t be out in the first place. A rights expert offers some interesting thoughts.
The police are not just losing the PR specialists and the wimps who think kids should be allowed out. Doctors and environmentalists are starting to worry about chemical weapons as a public-health issue. And then there are the art fans: did you know tear gas is bad for paintings? The stuff might even resonate with the blue-ribbons.
Hong Kong’s mainstream media – mostly owned by pro-establishment tycoons – try hard to maintain breezy support for the boys in blue. But Now TV does a piece on lawyers battling with police to see arrestees.
For a mega-read on the whole mess: the Neutral Legal Observers Group’s First Periodic Report (on police and non-police issues). It’s depressing that feel a need to call it the ‘first’.
Considering the challenging circumstances they face, I think that the cops are doing a first-rate job.
Actually, all of the ongoing nonsense could have been avoided if (i) the Police had been give permission to shoot dead the first five people who forced their way into the inner parts of the Legco Building through that metal shutter, and then (ii) for Carrie Lam to have withdrawn the Extradition Bill within the next 12-24 hours.
Yes, there would have been an international moan fest for three or four days, but such things always blow over (note the coverage the Gilets Jaunes movement now receives outside of France where there has been at least ten direct and indirectly related deaths).
Critically, most people around the world see parliamentary buildings as sacrosanct, so the comeback would be minimal. If you don’t believe me, imagine what would happen if hoodlums tried to break into the Palace of Westminster or the US Capitol Building? Carnage would be inflicted by the law enforcers/military, but few would complain.
Anyway, that’s my view.
Every time I read another headline about China trade, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong protests, biometric data, invasion of privacy, Xinjiang internment camps… I sigh. And then I think it really must be true that all of the cadres, everywhere in China, really must have thought and believed that their true mission and true belief in Communism is what would make “this time different.” I think they truly believe that they have some moral superiority, but its only believable within their walls of power. As soon as it hits the light of day outside of China, the entire world looks at them and says, Not today, china! NOT. TODAY!
The fact-checkers over at Open Source Intelligence Hong Kong, are looking for a tear gas expert to opine on the subject, but their preliminary sense is that fears about dioxin contamination are overblown. There’s very little dioxin produced by a tear gas canister, and the shoddy Mainland stuff likely gives off even less because it burns at too hot a temperature. This does not change the fact that the cops are being absolute bastards, but they’re probably not giving us cancer.
https://twitter.com/OSINTHK
“Pan-democrats launch bid in legislature to remove Hong Kong’s leader” Pro-China Morning Post 5/12/19
Why ? Will they succeed ? No. On the minuscule chance they might succeed what will happen ? Beijing will install another puppet. Are the Pan-democrat Legislators capable of capitalising on their DC Election win ? Probably not.
Perhaps a reflection of my perspective, but I see each HK PoPo/PAP press conference as just another wet bag of fertilizer emblazoned with a hammer and sickle.
Referring to that lunatic police motorcyclist’s attempted murder as “a traffic accident” is just about as disrespectful as one can get. Even the Yuen Long triads choked on their Maxim’s lunchboxes when they heard that one!
Related to PoPo/PAP press conferences is the quote of the day:
“I think the strategy from the north side is to try to stop the mouth of everyone, try to forbid bad news.” — Law Ka-chung
https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1496080-20191205.htm?spTabChangeable=0
I’d like to hear Papercut’s opinion.
More re the police: forget arguments re “excessive” versus “minimum” force. Rather, in what universe is it considered usual for a police officer to sit on the head of an arrestee — like a policewoman did to a schoolgirl in To Kwa Wan yesterday morning?
One wonders if the same idea will be followed in HK
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-police-cannot-arrest-without-intending-to-charge-high-court-finds-20191204-p53gp4.html
A 65 y.o. man who suffered teargas inhalation in November and was hospitalized, died yesterday.
Ploughing through the HKNLOG report, which contains lots of useful clarifications on legal issues, I notice that 9 out of the 10 protests they attended were on HK Island (and the tenth was at the airport). I wonder if any of the lawyers involved have heard of places known as “Kowloon” and the “New Territories”? I guess that few of them ever venture there except to catch a plane.
Reactor not getting the signal through the noise? Five fatalities? That would’ve played right into their petrol-soaked little hands. A half-dozen Heaven’s Company and they go full Euromaidan. Like Roland, knee deep in gore.
Y’know, the other mice in Coconino County never caught on to the real reason Ignatz threw bricks. But Offissa Pup did.
Reactionary #4: Uh huh, okay. How about we ensure that your child is one of the five executed by the police?
Beyond your frankly fascistic perspective, you’re dumb as a DAB official, as you apparently have missed how the demands quickly moved well beyond the immediate issue of the extradition bill. Or do you think that, without the bill as a catalyst, other pressing concerns could be kept tamped down pretty much forever?
@ In the Name of the Father, nice Warren Zevon reference there.