HK Finally Gets A Saturday Without Tear Gas

Protesters and police faced off in a car-and-mouse game in the streets of Mong Kok on Saturday, as the city entered its 11th week of unrest stemming from the extradition bill saga.

The events of the day followed a familiar pattern: a peaceful rally gave way to groups of protesters heading to different areas. But in a change from recent weekends, Saturday did not end in tear gas and rubber bullets.

The march in Hung Hom, which was approved by an appeal board over the objections of police, went off peacefully. Organisers said 2,000 people took part. There were many families who brought along their children and one participant even brought his pet dog, complete with a face mask.

One mother brought three of her children, aged two, eight and ten. She said that the government wants the public to be afraid and not to join such events. But people shouldn't be scared and only fearless people deserve democracy, she said.

Across in the Tamar area, meanwhile, thousands gathered to show their support for the government and the police. They shouted slogans saying Hong Kong will always remain in China, while speakers urged the participants not to be swayed by "rioters" who were "destroying" the city.

The organisers said 476,000 people had showed at Tamar park, though some social media users doubted whether the venue could hold that many people.

The anti-government march also ended peacefully at Whampoa MTR station, but some kept going. They looped around, and headed back north – in the general direction of Mong Kok. But some stopped to pelt eggs and point laser pens at the district offices of the pro-Beijing DAB party.

They then targeted a Federation of Trade Unions workers’ club. As well as pelting it with eggs, protesters decorated the premises with graffiti about the 1967 riots and placed pineapples at the doorstep, a reference to homemade bombs that were used in 1967.

A group headed to Mong Kok and a tense stand-off developed outside the police station there, with protesters targeting officers with laser pointers and throwing eggs. As the tension escalated riot police arrived and the scene looked eerily similar to the preceding weekends, with reporters seen reaching for their gas masks.

As the armed police started moving along Nathan Road just after 7pm, all that was left on the road of the busy shopping district were barricades and media. The protesters had melted away, adopting their "be like water" tactic again. In the end, police walked down the street like protesters had done about an hour earlier, with shoppers and media looking on.

As the police wound up their operation, there was a tense moment when some bins were thrown on a police vehicle. One officer suddenly pointed his rifle at a group of onlookers who were on a overhead footpath on Mong Kok road, setting off screams from a onlookers on the footbridge above.

The police said an officer fired a beanbag round after protesters ignored a warning to stop throwing objects at police and their vehicles from a footbridge in Mong Kok.

The government condemned protesters for vandalism and for straying from the approved route, as well as for throwing objects at a police station.

But things quietened down and police left after. The public began to return and some shops reopened.

Law, a shopkeeper of an apparel shop on Nathan Road in Yau Ma Tei, said she was scared when police started their clearance operation. She closed the front door for about two hours, worried about her own safety and that of two customers who were inside the shop at the time.

Law said she didn’t think it was particularly necessary for the police to clear the road, though some protesters were on the streets briefly.

As the night fell, giving Hong Kong its first tear gas-free weekend evening in nearly two months, one slogan raised by several protesters on Saturday – see you at Victoria Park on Sunday – was a reminder that the weekend is not over yet.

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