What the Heck?! Thread (Closed)

[PanAsian]

do you think the teenager Joshua Wong Chi-fung got involved again with this violence? ... how is he anyway? has he finished his Uni yet?

Neither Joshua Wong nor his affiliated groups have anything to do with these riots. The fringe activist group involved here is Hong Kong Indigenous which wants independence for Hong Kong (as in becoming its own country) and wants to preserve its unique characteristics (as in a romanticized and whitewashed version of what it was under British rule in the late 1900's).

A related note is that illegal street vendors tend to have to pay protection money to organized crime, so removing illegal street vendors would be a direct hit on organized crime income. The area where this happened is an extremely densely populated, low income neighborhood which is a longtime hotbed for organized crime rackets. The police is investigating whether the riots may have been pre-meditated.

My personal view is that this may have been a mini perfect storm. The Hong Kong police ultimately kept it under control despite initially being caught by surprise then maintaining maximal restraint throughout. As most of the population and most of the city's political spectrum have condemned the riots this incident should not take too much of a toll on the police force's morale. I think it would help morale as well as be prudent for the police brass to make sure they have the capability and willingness to deploy large enough numbers of riot police on very short notice, and let it be known throughout its ranks.

 

[Brumby]

Neither Joshua Wong nor his affiliated groups have anything to do with these riots. The fringe activist group involved here is Hong Kong Indigenous which wants independence for Hong Kong (as in becoming its own country) and wants to preserve its unique characteristics (as in a romanticized and whitewashed version of what it was under British rule in the late 1900's).

A related note is that illegal street vendors tend to have to pay protection money to organized crime, so removing illegal street vendors would be a direct hit on organized crime income. The area where this happened is an extremely densely populated, low income neighborhood which is a longtime hotbed for organized crime rackets. The police is investigating whether the riots may have been pre-meditated.

My personal view is that this may have been a mini perfect storm. The Hong Kong police ultimately kept it under control despite initially being caught by surprise then maintaining maximal restraint throughout. As most of the population and most of the city's political spectrum have condemned the riots this incident should not take too much of a toll on the police force's morale. I think it would help morale as well as be prudent for the police brass to make sure they have the capability and willingness to deploy large enough numbers of riot police on very short notice, and let it be known throughout its ranks.

I think it was spontaneous. Mongkok is heavy in organised crime. I wouldn't shop there when I was living in HK. It was CNY eve and so police resourcing was probably light. I think people are making too much out of it as some kind of political motivation. If there is I would like to see evidence being offered. I just see it as illegal vendors getting mad with enforcement and things got out of hand for awhile. Eventually the HK police managed to get things back under control.

All this talk of PAP getting involved (not you) is just rubbish. PAP has no jurisdiction in this.

 

[antiterror13]

Sounds like the HK police are ill-prepared for the kind of civil unrest that is being fomented.

yeapp, was being complacent, like Singaporean police in Dec 2013 in Little India

But I can see ...HK police will be much more prepared

Is the organised crime in Mong Kok TRIAD ? ... they won't like it under PRC

 

[Hytenxic]

I think it was spontaneous. Mongkok is heavy in organised crime. I wouldn't shop there when I was living in HK. It was CNY eve and so police resourcing was probably light. I think people are making too much out of it as some kind of political motivation. If there is I would like to see evidence being offered. I just see it as illegal vendors getting mad with enforcement and things got out of hand for awhile. Eventually the HK police managed to get things back under control.

All this talk of PAP getting involved (not you) is just rubbish. PAP has no jurisdiction in this.

Mong Kok is probably where most crimes happen in Hong Kong yet it is still safer than the majority of cities around the world . The days of triads are long gone. The only organized crime going on is the illegal type of prostitution or drug dealing, never any violent crimes; well until the Hong Kong Indigenous goons showed up.

No one seriously believes the riot happened over a few fish ball stores. While it may have sparked the incident, the riot happened because of the high tensions running between the protesters and the police ever since the whole occupy fiasco. The hawkers themselves don't want any more fuss with the localists.

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This is definitely politically motivated.
As for Hong Kong indigenous see for yourself

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[kickars]

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Just read this report on BBC News website. They made this story like it's people's right to operate illegal business on street, and police is at the wrong for correct the illegal practice, and been violently assorted by their so called protesters. Two people they interviewed are all from one side of the story. In fact they weren't even in the situation during that night. Somehow, BBC thinks their voices speak the 'truth', and people in the west should take note of. The girl that was interviewed at the end saying she thinks the 'protesters' used correct amount of force to 'demonstrate' during that night. And BBC also concentrates on the fact two shots were fired in to the air. Instead both of them miss the image of wheelbarrows of building bricks were prepared and used in the 'demonstration'. If their demonstration was the result of police firing two warning shots, how convenient those bricks were sitting in the wheelbarrows waiting for them to throw at the police? It's in the middle of the developed city, not country side or a developing city. In order for those bricks to appear in the middle of the street, someone must organised the whole thing. If the same thing happens in the UK or US, I wonder how would UK police or US police response. Most importantly how would British press and US press write about the story. Oh, don't forget on the same day someone burned himself to death in front of Kensington Palace, Guess how BBC reported it? It literally reported it as one burned to death in front of the palace. That's all. What if the same thing happens in Beijing... And that news was pulled off the front page only hours after it was put on the front page.

 

[MwRYum]

No need for conspiracy theories about the Hong Kong riots. Though the handful of foreign English language reports I've read are all still trying their darnedest to spin it into the Hong Kong police were heavy handed.

So instead here are local TV news reports with videos of key instances during the riots which thankfully someone posted on Youtube. It is in Cantonese with traditional Chinese subtitles but the video pretty much speaks for itself, it is about 25min long and worth watching the entire thing.

It is obvious the Hong Kong police were initially taken by surprise as things went from bad to worse. Even though the police tried to communicate and only use minimal force when necessary the crowds kept on escalating the violence. After the riot police arrived they were able to contain and eventually disperse the rioters. No need for the PAP or the PLA. No further related violence have occurred since then, dozens of arrests have already been made, and investigations are ongoing.

Do you know why the TVB was so against the rioters? That's because the rioters ATTACKED JOURNALISTS and injured several from vaious news agencies, all caught on cameras. So those morons finally woke up after aiding and abetting those anarchist goons for so long...or at least I hope.

Sounds like the HK police are ill-prepared for the kind of civil unrest that is being fomented.

They've bad intel, that's for sure. And way too restricted ROE, I must add.

 

[Blackstone]

Do you know why the TVB was so against the rioters? That's because the rioters ATTACKED JOURNALISTS and injured several from vaious news agencies, all caught on cameras. So those morons finally woke up after aiding and abetting those anarchist goons for so long...or at least I hope.

In the US, that would be poetic justice.

 

[Equation]

I did say who responsible ....

ALL of them.

 

[PanAsian]

This is definitely politically motivated.

Local Hong Kong news have revealed additional information where the Indigenous group had earlier solicited illegal street food vendors to relocate from nearby neighborhoods to Mongkok that night. The Indigenous group had also made online appeals ahead of time to use violence to protect illegal street food vendors. Apparently there has not been particular ramping up of cracking down by authorities on illegal street food vendors, just the usual rounds of cat and mouse. Given all this information this incident was definitely a setup by the fringe political group using illegal street food vendors as a pretext.

 

[AssassinsMace]

So are activists going to claim that this self-proclaimed indigenous group and their thuggish behavior are actually Mainlanders like they charged when director Michael Bay was attacked for not paying up to local gangs while filming Transformers in Hong Kong? The media is making the connection to the overall situation.