2014-10-17
Pro-democracy protesters and bystanders gather at an intersection in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong on Oct. 18, 2014.
AFP
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong surged back onto the city’s streets early Saturday local time, rebuilding barricades torn down by police in a raid a day earlier, while police in riot gear used batons and pepper spray in a bid to control a growing crowd.
Thousands gathered, wielding the now-familiar umbrellas as a defense against pepper spray, on Argyle Street in the busy Kowloon shopping district of Mong Kok, a live video feed streamed online by the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper showed.
In a campaign that has lasted nearly three weeks, the protesters led mostly by students are pushing for free elections in Hong Kong and the resignation of the city’s leader Leung Chun-ying after Beijing offered what they called “fake” universal suffrage.
The renewed protests came even as Leung’s administration agreed to meet students for a dialogue over their demands for public nomination of candidates in 2017 elections for Leung’s successor.
Tuesday Talks
Alex Chow of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) on Friday confirmed that his group and the government have agreed to meet next Tuesday in a debate that will be aired live by government broadcaster RTHK.
“Make way! Make way!” the crowd chanted in the densely populated area of Mong Kok as volunteers clad in face-masks and black T-shirts ran back and forth with iron traffic barriers, fastening them together with plastic ties to build fresh barriers across the street.
Rows of police in riot helmets, carrying batons and shields, some with dogs, faced off with protesters, but were forced to retreat further down the street, before dozens of reinforcements arrived at the scene.
Local television showed footage of police beating protesters who tried to build barricades with batons, and holding up banners saying “Stop Charging or we Use Force.”
But the crowd, part of the Occupy Central pro-democracy civil disobedience movement, eventually forced the police to retreat two blocks down Kowloon’s busy shopping street, Nathan Road. Several males were detained by police during the clashes, Cable TV reported.
Inverted umbrellas
Protesters passed inverted umbrellas over the heads to those nearest the barricades as protection against pepper spray, before breaking into a chant of “Real universal suffrage!” and “Triads!” in a reference to Hong Kong’s criminal gangs accused by protesters of mounting attacks on Occupy supporters.
“The police were trying to push the protesters back onto the sidewalk, and raised the red flag warning of pepper spray,” a student surnamed Chow who was at the scene told RFA.
