Exclusive | Armed radicals or indecisive and leaderless – who are the protesters who clashed violently with police after Hong Kong extradition bill march?
- Communicating via an encrypted chat group, masked youth who battled with police in early hours of Monday had only a vague plan and often contradicted themselves
- Police see it differently, with 19 ‘prepared and organised’ protesters arrested and dozens of weapons, including lighters and cutters, seized
Organised, prepared, armed and radical – that was the police description of hundreds of young protesters who took on the force across three districts in Hong Kong in the early hours of Monday.
Their organisation was loose but kept secret in an encrypted chat group; their plan was rough and uncoordinated; and their levels of readiness and radicalisation varied, the South China Morning Post has found.
Briefing the media on Monday, Senior Superintendent Kong Wing-cheung from the force’s public relations department sidestepped questions over whether there had been an operational error that allowed protesters the chance to storm the legislature, despite officers knowing there was every possibility of an unlawful assembly after the rally’s permit ended at midnight.
When the march ended at 10pm on Sunday, protesters planned to take over the driveway of Harcourt Road in a scene reminiscent of the Occupy protests in 2014, according to messages in the encrypted channel the Post has seen.
