Protests Return, Police Attack

Protesters raise their hand representing the "five demands" in Tsim Sha Tsui

Mother's Day 2020 will be hard to forget in Hong Kong.

Now that the coronavirus pandemic has slowed down considerably here, the protests have returned as expected.

Hundreds of protesters gathering in shopping malls in Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok and Taikoo Shing demonstrates a lot of people are still very angry at the government.

A child pinned down by a police officer

At the same time the police are handling the situation like they always have -- with excessive force and shouting at people who just want to express themselves in a peaceful manner.

This afternoon before 2pm at the Star Ferry Pier in Tsim Sha Tsui, the police seemed itching for a fight, shoving people around and lots of screaming and shouting could be heard in video clips posted in Twitter.
Around this time protesters gathered in nearby Harbour City and began singing the anthem Glory to Hong Kong and shouted slogans with their hand raised to signify the five demands.

Police didn't storm into the shopping mall right away, but when they did, they tried to force people to leave on the regulation that groups could only be as big as eight people for social-distancing measures because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It seems the protesters went deep into the mall, as they went as far down as City Super, a high-end supermarket which is at the furthest end of Harbour City on Canton Road. There the police terrorized customers who were grocery shopping.

One scene in particular was shocking. Among the press corps covering the protest was a 13-year-old boy who was a volunteer student journalist for Student Depth Media.

The police singled him out and demanded to see his credentials and he calmly showed them his ID.

Police harass & threaten 13 yo journalist from Student Depth Media to "go back home & die!"

1700 |Tsim Sha Tsui Harbour City

Riot police also mocked his height by gesturing how short he is.

He was arrested & taken into a police van pic.twitter.com/PDGxihcoMQ

— Hong Kong - Be Water (@BeWaterHKG) May 10, 2020

 

"How old are you?" they shouted at him.

"Thirteen years old."

"How old?" the police asked again. He repeated.

The boy's mother saying she supported her son in reporting

One officer told him to "drop dead", another accused him of being "a child labourer", mocked him about his height, and then they walked away, but not long after they arrested the kid!

What had he done wrong?

After interrogating him for a while they finally released him, his mother by his side.

She said her son was scared after the police threatened to fine her if they saw him again.

When the media asked the young teen what he had to say to his mom, he thought for a moment, choked up and said, "Happy Mother's Day... I"m sorry."

Apparently the boy respected what journalists were doing and wanted to do some reporting himself, which his mother supported, saying it was a good learning experience for him.

A police officer aims to shoot a pepper ball into the mall

Meanwhile at Moko Mall in Mongkok East, police fired two pepper balls in the shopping mall, causing everyone from adults to young children complain of itchy eyes.

Another child was pinned down on the floor of a restaurant by a police officer who put his knee on the child's neck. What had these people done wrong? Many of them were there celebrating Mother's Day with a bite to eat.

The police are obviously trying to intimidate people, protesters or not -- but it's not working. Their presence only makes people angrier and less willing to cooperate.

As for the 13-year-old, he was grace under pressure in dealing with aggressive cops. Does someone need an intern this summer?