Mask ban defied in Hong Kong
Lawmakers let rule proceed, agree to hear challenge later
HONG KONG — Shouting “Wearing a mask is not a crime,” tens of thousands of masked protesters hit Hong Kong’s rain-drenched streets Sunday in defiance of a new ban on facial coverings.
Riot police later swept in with volleys of tear gas and arrested protesters in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
The ban that criminalized the wearing of face masks at rallies was intended to deter rioting and calm anti-government demonstrations that have gripped the international trading hub for four months. Instead, peaceful marchers have continued their protests, and more radical black-clad youths have continued to lob gasoline bombs and trash subway stations and China-linked banks in the city.
For the first time in the crisis, men on the roof of one of the Chinese military’s barracks in Hong Kong raised a yellow banner warning protesters they were breaking the law by flashing laser pointers at the building, according to video broadcast by Hong Kong media. The powerful laser pointers are intended to temporarily blind officers and confuse facial recognition cameras.
Police said masked rioters also attacked bystanders, including two men left unconscious after bloody beatings and a woman who took photos of rioting.
A peaceful march to the central business district — on streets spray-painted with the word “resist” and hemmed in by high-rises that echoed with protesters’ chants — came as Hong Kong’s High Court rejected a second effort to invalidate the mask ban.
Lawmaker Dennis Kwok said the court refused to grant an injunction but agreed to hear later this month an application by 24 legislators against Hong
Kong leader Carrie Lam’s use of sweeping emergency powers to impose the ban without legislative approval.
Lam’s government says that the mask ban will make the identification of rioters easier for police, and that other measures are possible if violence continues.
The city’s MTR network of subways and trains that was closed Saturday partially reopened Sunday with greatly reduced service. Protesters said that made traveling to rallies harder, but it didn’t make them want to stay home.
“Carrie Lam is not the god of Hong Kong. She can’t do anything she likes,” said retiree Patricia Anyeung, marching masked with her sister, Rebecca.
“They can’t arrest us all. There are thousands of us,” said Anyeung. “There is no going back — we are at the point of no return.”
Anyeung, who holds a British passport, said she may leave Hong Kong if the city’s freedoms are extinguished.
Many malls also remained shuttered as streets downtown turned into a sea of umbrellas. The protesters use them as protection against the rain, but also because they’ve become a symbol of protest, used by demonstrators as shields against police identification, tear gas and rubber bullets.
Critics fear Lam’s use of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, which gives her broad powers to implement any measures she deems necessary, could pave the way for more draconian moves. The law was enacted by British colonial rulers in 1922 to quell a seamen’s strike and was last used in 1967 to crush riots.
“This emergency law is so ancient and draconian. Carrie Lam is using it as some sort of weapon of mass destruction to nuke Hong Kong,” said legislator Claudia Mo.
Lam says she will seek the legislature’s backing for the mask ban when it meets next on Oct. 16. The ban makes the wearing of masks and even face-paint at both illegal and police-approved gatherings punishable by up to a year in jail.
A police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said some arrests were made Sunday for violating the ban, but he couldn’t give any numbers.
Enforcement is tricky in a city where many have worn surgical masks since a deadly respiratory disease outbreak in 2003.
The ban turned the wearing of masks into an act of rebellion for many protesters.
“For the sake of our freedom, there’s nothing we’re afraid of,” protester Feng Yiucheng said through his black mask, accompanied by his wife and 2-yearold son. “We cannot let them act like emperors.”