In Yuen Long, Anger Runs Deep At Police Inaction

As protesters marked two months of a brutal attack that took place at the Yuen Long MTR station there, many residents came out to express an anger that has been lingering about the incident and police inaction.

While many residents jeered officers who came to detain violent demonstrators, some people even opened their homes to protect some protesters.

Some residents recalled how the police were absent from the scene when a white shirt mob went on a rampage at the MTR station two months ago, sending 45 people to hospital.

More than a hundred people jeered the police on Fung Yau Street North, after police subdued a number of people, including 73-year-old Chan, a familiar face at protest sites, trying to mediate peace.

Chan, who had undertaken a hunger strike that went on for days in support of the anti-extradition bill protest, was pushed to the ground amid chaos and pepper sprayed.

The residents who gathered after the event mocked police and chanted slogans saying officers were not seen on July 21.

One woman named Cheng who was among the angry crowd said she was at the MTR station when the attack occurred two months ago.

"I was at the train station at 11.45pm [that day]. None of the police, none of the MTR staff there," she said. "Our police is not making us [feel] safer, they are making it dangerous."

In an earlier incident, dozens of protesters were allowed to escape from police into a residential estate, Yoho Midtown, as residents let them in.

One of the residents, 35-year-old Cheng who said he is a civil servant, said Hong Kong people must protect each other.

"We don't want to police to hurt the young protesters. We have a place for them to rest and change clothes," he said. "After the Yuen Long attack, we have a chat group to help each other and we don't want to seek police help."

The help came for those who got trapped after MTR suspended operating the station and road traffic snarled into a gridlock in many places.

A group of volunteer drivers helped protesters to get back to their destinations. But one of the drivers, 35-year-old IT worker Wong, said he was not helping just protesters.

"I dont care they are, and they don't have to tell who they are. Public transportation is down and we just want to take people home," he said.