We Will Not Forget Prince Edward 831

Police with batons indiscriminately attacked passengers on the train last year

Tomorrow is a contentious anniversary, when on August 31 last year, police stormed the Prince Edward MTR station and beat people indiscriminately. The images of people cowering in the train carriages and pleading for their lives are indelible from our minds.

Meanwhile the police prevented voluntary paramedics from helping the wounded for several hours, while reporters were not allowed in either to see what was going on.

People in the station were terrified by police's excessive force

It started when a dispute started in the train between protesters and some passengers on board. It escalated to the point where a man wielding a hammer started attacking the protesters. They in turn used the fire extinguisher in the train carriage to defend themselves.

Then the police entered the train platform and began attacking people with batons and pepper spray.  The chaos that ensued resulted in what some protesters believe that some people died, while the emergency services say everyone was accounted for and miscounted at the time.

For months afterwards people would go to the MTR station entrance and leave flowers and burn incense, believing people died there; however no one has come forward to say their loved one died in the incident. The police said no one filed a missing persons report, but by this point the force's credibility had been shot.

For months there were rumours people died in the station

There have been calls for the MTR to release CCTV footage of that night to see what was going on, while an independent investigation would have helped set the record straight, but the police have not allowed this.

Instead many were injured and 52 were arrested. The police weren't punished for excessive violence.

So this afternoon there were calls to commemorate the anniversary by marching from Langham Place shopping mall to Prince Edward MTR station, but that did not materialize.

Instead people gathered at Moko mall and shouted protest slogans, like "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" and later at Langham Place. Police in riot gear stood by and fined more than a dozen people for breaching the two-person limit when gathering in the public place.

#HK protesters shout “Liberate #HK, Revolution of our time” in Moko mall to mark the 1 yr anniversary of #831 crackdown at Prince Edward #MTR station. Slogans echo thru the atrium as over 200 police patrol. Other chant “death to black police and their families” #HongKongProtests pic.twitter.com/A5Xbq5vB8q

— James Pomfret (@jamespomfret) August 30, 2020

 

People will not forget what happened last year. It was shocking, violent, outrageous and traumatizing.

And we will never know the truth of what happened either at this rate with the police and the MTR unwilling to cooperate.

So the protests will continue in one form or another.