HONG KONG RALLIES AGAINST COPS
HONG KONG: Holding up posters saying “Don’t shoot our kids,” Hong Kong residents and schoolmates of a teenage demonstrator shot at close range in the chest by a police officer rallied on Wednesday to condemn police actions and demand accountability. The shooting Tuesday during widespread anti-government demonstrations on China’s National Day was a fearsome escalation in Hong Kong’s protest violence. The 18-year-old is the first known victim of police gunfire since the protests began in June.
HONG KONG: Holding up posters saying “Don’t shoot our kids,” Hong Kong residents and schoolmates of a teenage demonstrator shot at close range in the chest by a police officer rallied on Wednesday to condemn police actions and demand accountability.
The shooting on Tuesday during widespread anti-government demonstrations on China’s National Day was a fearsome escalation in Hong Kong’s protest violence. The 18-year-old is the first known victim of police gunfire since the protests began in June. He was hospitalised and the government said his condition was stable.
The officer fired as the teen, Tsang Chi-kin, struck him with a metal rod. The officer’s use of lethal weaponry inflamed already widespread public anger against police, who have been condemned as being heavyhanded in quelling the unrest.
More than 2,000 people crowded into an open-air stadium near Tsang’s school in Tsuen Wan district in northern Hong Kong on Wednesday night. Many held posters reading, “Don’t shoot our kids” and chanted “No rioters, only tyranny.”
Hundreds of others, including students, sat crossed-legged outside Tsang’s school chanting antipolice slogans.
Several other rallies were also being held simultaneously in two malls and other areas, with protesters vowing not to give up their fight for more rights including direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability.