Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyB
This is a terrible situation. I feel some sympathy for the police in this as well. Although there have been incidents that crossed the line, they are also being hung out to dry. The police are not politicians. They only have so many tools to use, and the tools needed to calm the situation down aren't part of the police toolset. It should be the HK government to engage and use diplomacy and politics to bring the city to peace. Instead the government stays quiet, letting the situation continue to boil as police and protesters have more conflict.
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This is the thing, the HK government has no real autonomy, only the illusion of autonomy to placate the people. When push comes to shove and the Chinese government demands something, the HK government can do nothing except abide by the mainland directives. This is why you see the paralysis in the HK gov't.
As for the police, yes they are not politicians, but they are also not the Hong Kong police of old that for the most part served the people. Those for the most part were placed when the last set of protests happened in 2015. Now you have police who are willing to point shotguns at citizens like this guy
There have also been more and more cases where riot police are being replaced with mainland Chinese police. Like this one where "HK" riot police refer to each other as "comrade" in mandarin... totally from Hong Kong, who are they trying to fool.
Not sure they all deserve as much sympathy given the tactics being deployed.