Hong Kong (18/11). Pro-democracy protesters have again paralysed parts of Hong Kong, forcing schools to close and blocking highways as students built barricades and stockpiled makeshift weapons, setting the stage for campus showdowns, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
Police skirmishes with militant students at major university campuses around the Chinese-ruled city as authorities ordered schools and universities closed. Thousands of students hunkered down surrounded by piles of food, bricks, petrol bombs, arrows with heads wrapped in cladding, catapults and other homemade weapons.
Police said protesters shot several arrows at them near Hong Kong Polytechnic University. One of the officers was reportedly injured and six arrows were seized at the scene. A 70-year old bystander was killed by a brick on his forehead by Black bloc protesters.
Although most of the protesters already left the universities, claims of this is a leaderless movement are disproven. The Black Bloc protesters are structured led by a command structure in place. Field commanders, company commanders, squad commanders and cells are firmly structured. Canadian militant native Indian groups produced the Warrior manual circulated on Telegram.
Around August 2010 instructions were issued outlined the structure of the protesters. The media continues to claim this is a leaderless movement. It is not. This is deliberate false information. The functions are named as Warriors, Pikemen, Construction Workers, “Chain Alchemists”, Sentinels, Signal corps, Medicals soldiers, Long-range attackers, high-speed transport soldiers, common transport soldiers, “businessmen” and other functional positions.
The Affinity Groups of the warrior clan have fancy names like speed dragon, fire magician squad or other names borrowed from the games.
The movement calls itself the “real system” with the police referred to as “canal” and “dogs”. The manual written by Canadian militants spells the importance of intelligence collection.
Reports emerge on the protesters are using “sentinels” as it was suggested by protesters from Lebanon, images appear of the “Lennon flag” carried by Denise Ho surfaced in Bolivia and the use of laser pointers are in use against police in Chile. Foreign activists shows up with increasingly frequency to lend a hand to the protests.
Suggestions such as launch bags filled with human feces to hope sickness spread among police officers. Barbed wires, catapults and supplies are smuggled into the universities. Self-defense classes are taught to teach how to hit police officers “the right way”.
The spokesperson Joey Siu does not condemn the violence and is prepared to accept casualties. The same opinion also shared by activist Edward Yiu.
“We need international support… which probably can explain why in the past four days protesters in Hong Kong insist to have a stronger say and would like to have more severe actions to arouse international concern,” said Yiu.
Another hardcore protester even has more extreme confession by saying that the plan is to “paralyze the economy, stop everything, stop people going to school, stop people going to work, paralyze the society.” No wonder then, series of life-threatening Hong Kong mob violences for the last few months eventually followed by so many harsh criticism.
Starting from Brooklyn Nets owner, Joseph Tsai saying that Hong Kong protesters have lost their narrative and there’s waning support for their tactics. KJ Noh, a peace activist and scholar on the geopolitics of Asia argues that if these protests were happening in the US, the “fascist blackshirt tactics” of demonstrators would be labeled “hate crimes” and “terrorism.” And read here how Hong Kong violence can be bad example for the West.
Hong Kong is officially entering recession after five-month chaotic protest taking place. People need to speak out against violence instead of encourage, normalize and justify it. Because no matter how and when the protest end, Hong Kong citizen will bear the costs for long-time recovery process to build the stability back.
And therefore, what has caused security threats, businesses shut down, infrastructures damaged and destroyed, along with disrupted public service activities, must be immediately stopped.
