Protesters refuse to disperse near the area around the liaison office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong on July 28 and continued provoking police officers, using various articles like laser pointers, batons and umbrellas. (Photo/Global Times )
Urgent need to end chaos, restore order: official
The ongoing massive violent protests across Hong Kong are causing public fear, and the root of that fear did not come from the already-suspended extradition bill or from understaffed police, but from violent black-clad protesters who attack the city from all angles.
Such radical protesters would attack a passerby simply because he or she questioned their method of expressing their opinions as unlawful and for disturbing people's lives.
The passerby would then be surrounded by the black-clad protesters in masks, being verbally and physically assaulted by those who claim to be peacefully fighting for the future of Hong Kong.
"This has become exactly black terror now," Ho Kai-ming, a lawmaker who works for the Kwun Tong district council, told the Global Times.
Almost every demonstration, in the name of protest and against the anti-extradition bill, has turned into violent clashes in the past two months.
Radical protesters stormed and vandalized Hong Kong's Legislative Council on July 1. During a July 14 clash with the police in Sha Tin, one protester even bit off the finger of a police officer.
Then they stormed the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong on July 21, desecrated the national emblem and confronted the police.
Dozens of big and small clashes have occurred in different districts of the city since June 12.
Anti-government protesters launched citywide strikes on Monday and groups of radical rioters attacked police stations and residential areas in districts such as Sha Tin, Tai Po, Wong Tai Sin and Tsuen Wan.
Some extreme protesters removed the Chinese national flag from its pole and threw it into Victoria Harbour, a move that tarnished the country's dignity.
Radical protesters, who distinguish themselves by wearing black shirts, suiting up in helmets and masks and are armed with metal rods, have kept attacking police officers.
They have exposed the private information of the family members of police officers and besieged police residential areas, shined lasers at their dormitory buildings and sprayed insults on the wall.
"By targeting ordinary inhabitants, they are destroying the city," a middle-aged woman living in Wong Tai Sin told the Global Times.
She harshly criticized the black-clad protesters as "cockroaches" who destroy social order by blocking transport, breaking public property and beating ordinary people who do not agree with them.
"They are lawless, aiming at leading Hong Kong society toward anarchy," said Lee Wai Lok, who lives in the same area.
The city is now "full of bullying and maltreatment," said Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor at a press conference on Monday.
Protesters who commit violence and vandalize residential properties are now seriously affecting the lives of ordinary Hong Kong people, Peng Junfa, who works in Kwun Tong, told the Global Times.
"They are now putting others in danger to suit their own purposes," he said, noting that on Monday when protesters came to the area where he works, they blocked the roads, causing trouble for many of his coworkers.
On normal days around 11 pm, many people pass by busy shopping districts. But now, even 24-hour convenience stores are closed, lawmaker Ho noted, worse than those days when the city was hit by a typhoon.
"When I saw them writing 'freedom without fear' on the streets, I was wondering who brought such fear to Hong Kong citizens?" he said.
