Absolutely disgraceful by the HKPF to use force in the subways against people who were not armed. Notice they retreat and stop beating people immediately as soon as the cameras and press arrive. They also remove discarded cans of pepper spray, any anything identifying for the police.
It's been leaked that the HK government under Carrie Lam proposed to Beijing to open an independent investigation of police conduct and the withdraw the extradition bill, but both of these were rejected by Beijing with strong push back by the HKPF. Basically, Beijing's given the "Fix this or we will fix it for you" ultimatum and allowed the Hong Kong police force to use any means necessary.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKCN1VK0H6
Hong Kong police say they oppose any independent review of their conduct.
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/08/2...ked-recording/
The most recent escalation of protests is both against the arrest of members of the legislative council, who were supportive of the anti-extradition bill anti-police tactic protests, and prominent pro-democracy leaders while they were in their homes or just on the subway by HKPF. One was just leaving for vacation to Tokyo.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...says-demosisto
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...ding-demosisto
Police tactics have also been much more abusive, including intimidation tactics, firing live rounds, etc. There have been more than one case of apparent "protesters" throwing Molotov cocktails at police, but these "protesters" were carrying firearms that were extremely prohibited and almost non-existent in HK. This was caught by press. Given the HKPF extensive use of officers dressed as protesters over the past couple of months, and the overall sloppy tactics employed by the HKPF, these are probably agent provocateurs pushing this as an excuse to crack down.
