RE: Some recent footage from Hong Kong
It's true, the protesters have become more violent compared to a few months ago but their 'brutality' is no where near the police. Its kindergarten vs university level. The brutality by the police you see in this post is just a small snapshot of what's happening.
As to the poor guy who was killed by a brick, yes thats true. The protesters set up bricks blockage on the road for the police. A group of pro China came out and hurled the bricks at the protestors. The protestors retaliated by throwing bricks back at them and a 70 year old pro China guy was killed. If caught, the protesters are willing to accept the punishment according to a fair trial.
The issue is
1/ if caught, the police carry out their own punishment first. That is not the police responsibility. They have no right carry out any form of punishment
2/ the police are arresting people who have not committed any crime. You can be arrested for being a young male wearing black, and you can be arrested if you're going to work in Central. Anyone can be arrested if the police feel like it.
3/ looting is not from the protesters. They vandalise selected shops, those who are pro China, including a chain of store called 360 that sells snacks food stuff. Once done they move on. The people who loot are other passer bys, middle age women were caught on camera talking advantage of the situation helping themselves to freebies.
4/ there are many pro China gangs taking things in their own hands. The police turn a blind eye to their action and even escort them away. The 721 incident is a classic example.
Arrest and charge the protestors and give them a fair trial for the crimes they've committed. No one has an issue with that. At the same time, the same needs to apply to the police for the excessive brutality. Do you think that's going to happen under the current lame duck government?
I mostly agree here. My only issue is that we can't possibly know the balance, even with freedom of the press, because we can only be exposed to what we are more or less already follow and surround ourselves with. I've done my best by joining some telegram accounts and such and I see a LOT of brutality from police, but I also see totally unnecessary actions from protestors that work hard to legitimize the presence of the police.
Vandalizing stores that happen to disagree with you politically is not something you can excuse, even if it's a big, cold corporation such as Starbucks. I shouldn't have to fear for my life or my wellbeing if I happen to disagree with you, because what if I agree with you instead? What's stopping the others who disagree on the other side vandalising my home or store or family?
But yeah aside from that, I'm in agreement here