Central Hong Kong is filling with protesters, many fresh from workpic.twitter.com/F337YsbJOy
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Arriving in Kowloon, Nathan Rd was a ghost road with neither protesters not police in sight. Nearly every store was shuttered. This is... not how Nathan Rd usually looks on a Friday nightpic.twitter.com/DPiFpo4v91
It was not a good night to be a mainland Chinese bank. This is the first time I've seen systematic destruction like thispic.twitter.com/uoOyT1ONsS
Also the closest I've seen to looting in Hong Kong, from what I presume is also a chain with ties to Chinapic.twitter.com/Zx7tfojUah
Here's a sense of how targeted the property damage is in Hong Kong. This stall vendor kept his stall open while frontliners in full gear bashed through the glass into a Bank of China branch behind him. Then a few patiently queued and bought drinks from his stallpic.twitter.com/zo8PLQIzZK
For the first time in the protests (and locals can tell me if it's the first time ever), the ENTIRE subway system was shut down, stranding tens of thousands of people. No buses, no subway, no taxis. Some cars that got through stopped to pick up people needing a ride.pic.twitter.com/1J0uC74i3L
People waited in lines stretching around the block for minibuses that were still running. Others walked for many kilometers on footpic.twitter.com/AqlJlCxRVX
The police tonight kept a very low profile. I walked past one large group of police vans on Nathan Rd., but they didn't engage, and rode off. Mong Kok police station, a usual flash point, was also fairly quiet. Police did nothing to defend the Legislative Council building either
So what does that mean? It could be that police were scared of confrontation given the level of public anger tonight after the emergency decree. Or it could mean that they wanted the maximum mayhem in the city, as justification. I don't know what to think. But it has escalated
In particular, I don't know what to make of shutting down the MTR like this. Is the goal to cause the maximum disruption to ordinary people, so they will blame the protesters? It is a heartless and cruel gambit, whatever it is. The MTR has been turned into a political weapon
Headlines in the South China Morning Post (the government mouthpiece) certainly suggest that causing maximum drama was the desired effect. Note how they blame protesters for the completely unjustified decision to shut down the subway systempic.twitter.com/Me1gTOKmYU
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