Читать книгу Rebel City - South China Morning Post Team - Страница 47

Jeffie Lam

On July 21, 2019, a white-shirted mob went on a rampage attacking protesters and ordinary Hongkongers.

Before July 21, chef Calvin So Jee-leong had attended only one antigovernment protest. He was among the record-breaking 2 million people who, according to organizers’ estimates, braved the sweltering heat to march on June 16.

He had gone only because his friends were going, and admitted that at the time he had no strong feelings about the extradition bill protests. “All I wanted to do after a 10-hour shift in the kitchen was play video games,” he recalled of his life at that time.

He was unprepared for what happened to him on the night of July 21. It was about 9.45pm when he finished work at a restaurant in Yoho Mall, a shopping center next to Yuen Long railway station, and as he headed out he noticed something unusual. He muttered aloud: “There are lots of people in white clothes here.” Almost immediately, about 20 men armed with sticks and rattan canes began assaulting him. He tried to get away, but they continued raining blows on him. He dropped his smartphone as he fled, but the men chased after him and struck him several more times. So suffered severe injuries to his back, hands and legs and his shoulders swelled up. He spent three days in hospital, and was on medical leave for more than a month to recover.

It was only the morning after the attack that he learned he was among more than 40 people assaulted during 45 minutes of terror, when about 100 men in white thrashed MTR passengers and members of the public at the station in northwestern Hong Kong. The masked men, believed to be triad gangsters from the area, descended on the station wielding sticks, rods and canes. Some waved Chinese national flags and placards that read: “Defend Yuen Long, defend our homeland.”

As screams filled the air, they charged and struck at crowds taking the escalators, people on the platform – even passengers inside a train that stopped there. The thugs targeted people dressed in black – protesters on their way home after attending an anti-government demonstration elsewhere – but they also hit others in their way, women as well as men, including a handful of journalists and a pregnant woman. The assaults left several victims injured and bloodied, but police were nowhere to be seen. The mob attack was mostly over by the time officers showed up. The force came under intense criticism for taking so long to arrive at the scene, many accusing it of turning a blind eye to the attack or even colluding with the mob, a charge the force denied.

The events in Yuen Long that night came to be known as “the July 21 incident” and marked a turning point in public attitudes toward police. There had already been criticism of police handling of protests, with accusations of brutality by some frontline officers. But the apparent inaction of police during the attack shocked even moderates, with some saying the incident made them lose all confidence in the force. Chef So, for one, said: “Most people did not consider police a very serious problem before July 21. People only wanted to hold one or two officers accountable for brutality. But now we realize it is not a problem of one or two frontline officers. There is something wrong with the police force, and the government which insists on backing it.”

After that night, So began watching live broadcasts of protesters clashing with police, and started attending protests in his free time. At work, his colleagues switched from listening to pop music in the kitchen to tuning in to the proceedings of Legislative Council meetings and press conferences.