In a First, Carrie Lam Apologizes

Carrie Lam inside Kowloon Mosque with members of the Muslim community

In a first, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and the police force apologized to the Muslim community today about spraying blue dye on the steps of Kowloon Mosque.

Before noon she and an entourage of people walked along Nathan Road then up the steps to the mosque. She wore a suit with a long scarf around her neck, but she did not use it to cover her head as is customary for Muslim women.

Lam and Stephen Lo apologized for the water at the mosque

In any event, Lam and police chief Stephen Lo Wai-chung met with members of the Islamic Trust, a local community group, where both insisted the coloured water hitting the mosque was an accident. They were inside the mosque for 25 minutes and then Lam and Lo left without taking questions from reporters.

Later the government said the chief executive and police commissioner had "explained [the incident] again to the Muslim representatives", and Lam had apologized "for the inadvertent spraying of the mosque's main entrance and gate with coloured water".

Then in the afternoon the police force issued a statement, saying it apologized for the incident, saying the aim of the dispersal operation was to protect the mosque.

"Police respect religious freedom... and will spare no effort in protecting all religious premises," it said.

During the daily press conference today, the police trotted out Swalikh Mohammed, superintendent at the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau, himself a Muslim, to explain the dispersal operation to the media.

Moments after the water cannon sprayed the mosque yesterday

Mohammed has nothing to do with what happened yesterday, but the police wants to show it is diverse in its ethnicities.

He said the police were in touch with the community and tried to recruit volunteers to help clean up the mosque soon after the incident. The police also apologized to bystanders who were caught up in the incident.

Does that mean they apologized to the witnesses and reporters who were just standing there at the time?

Representatives from the Muslim community at the meeting with Lam and Lo accepted their apologies, but Mohan Chugani, former president of the Indian Association of Hong Kong does not; he said the water cannon clearly took aim at bystanders including himself, even though there were no protesters around.

He said Lam personally called him to apologize, and while he accepts it in principle, he still plans to make a formal complaint to the police.

St Andrew's Church also got blue dye

"I told her [Lam] that police should not do that to innocent bystanders, no one should be subjected to that," Chugani said. "The police should exercise their common sense."

What's interesting is that previously Chugani was seen on stage at pro-police rallies, but now he has changed his mind about the force.

"I feel there is no more law and order in Hong Kong," he said.

Meanwhile, there was another religious building that was inadvertently sprayed yesterday -- St Andrew's Church, which is near the mosque.

At first the police didn't apologize to the church, but have since said sorry to vicar Alex McRoy.

"We understand that the use of the cannon... can be indiscriminate," he said.

When asked his thoughts about the ongoing unrest in the city, McRoy said there had been a lot of grief in society and there would not be an easy solution for this "complex issue", and urged Hongkongers to listen to each other with empathy.

Hongkongers expect more empathy from Lam to resolve crisis

Wonder if he has given the same advice to Lam, who might want to apologize to those Hongkongers who were inadvertently attacked with tear gas and pepper spray, for arresting innocent bystanders, for mistreating those they have arrested, in particular children, for creating unnecessary anxiety when the anti-mask ban was instituted, for the police mistreating reporters, and perhaps most importantly, for not withdrawing the extradition bill earlier.

If she had we would not be still in the 20th week of protests with no end in sight...

The Violence and Confrontations Continue

A big turnout for an illegal gathering at Tsim Sha Tsui this afternoon

Today has been another day of protests that started off peacefully in Tsim Sha Tsui with an estimated 350,000 people that soon escalated with tear gas and water cannons.

There was lots of criticism aimed at the police after they fired water mixed with blue dye and pepper spray at the steps of Kowloon Mosque in Tsim Sha Tsui when there were only a few people, none of them protesters on the sidewalk.

A water cannon fired blue dye at Kowloon Mosque

Earlier protesters were at pains to tell people not to attack the mosque, as a few days earlier Civil Human Rights Front convenor Jimmy Sham Tze-kit had been ambushed by South Asian men who are still at large.

But this time it was the police who created a mess, and some protesters along with some Muslims quickly went to work to clean off as much of the blue dye as possible, while others had to be treated for the effects of pepper spray on their faces and bodies.

There was a torrent of criticism against the police on social media, and several hours later, a group of police representatives, led by Yam Tsim District Commander Ho Yun-sing, went to Kowloon Mosque and had a 45-minute meeting with several Muslim community leaders.

Afterwards, the police group, that included Senior Superintendent Yolanda Yu Hoi-kwan from the Police Public Relations Branch, does not answer any questions from reporters on whether they had apologized for the incident.

Soon after protesters cleaned up the entrance to the mosque

One would hope that they did...

In the meantime tonight more shops have been vandalized or set on fire, including China Merchant's Bank, Tong Ren Tang, Xiaomi, Uniso, Best Mart 360, BEA, and Yoshinoya, and some MTR stations. The vandalism is hardly productive, and even attacking places like BEA that have no mainland Chinese links is ridiculous, while Best Mart 360 has strenuously denied any relationship with China but the protesters have ignored the company's statements.

Vandalizing these businesses is not doing anyone any good and is negatively affecting the anti-government movement. If anything shops and restaurants have to shut down because they are broken into, leading to people losing jobs in this already precarious economic environment we are in now.

A Xiaomi store was set on fire in Kowloon

Chefs who are also restaurateurs have told me how their business has plunged because of the protests. People have lost interest in going out for a nice meal (and spending the money to go with it), and would rather just eat in a neighbourhood restaurant to fill their stomachs. Others have to shut down their restaurants because they are located in shopping malls that close early.

One chef told us the restaurant staff have to leave early to be able to have enough time to get home on the MTR. For example, if they are riding the MTR just before it closes at 10pm, that does not mean they can arrive home in Yuen Long within an hour -- the station shuts down all the exits at 10pm and the passengers have to find another way home, which is bizarre.

Last night I managed to catch the MTR home from Wan Chai at 12 minutes to 10pm. We got out of the MTR train at 10.01pm and only one exit was open and all passengers had to get out this way, while the other ones had rolling shutters down. One lone person was manning the open exit to make sure no one tried to come in.

A Best Mart 360 was vandalized... but not looted

In this way the MTR is not being very helpful or flexible for people catching the last trains back home. Some people finish work late and they live far from their work place. This is just another way to put further pressure on Hong Kong's already fragile economy.

This is not the Lion Rock spirit. Or is this the government's way of killing Hong Kong?

We sincerely hope not. None of us want to see the city like this!