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Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters versus the police: understanding the psychology of hate
- In a new series of in-depth articles on the unrest rocking Hong Kong, the Post goes behind the headlines to look at the underlying issues, current state of affairs, and where it is all heading
- With society split into two camps, and online platforms strengthening mutual antipathy, we look at the psychology of hate, and its effects on how the young activists see the authorities
Reading Time:12 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Every evening at Muk Lun Street Playground in Wong Tai Sin, families with children and elderly in tow loll about for fresh air and young couples dawdle en route home. But last Monday, it was a battlefield.
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As dusk fell, hundreds of agitated young protesters who had gathered there hours earlier were contemplating their next move. They had gone to the working-class district which houses the disciplined services quarters – where police officers and their families live – for a second siege after a first attempt two days earlier. With their helmets, masks and cling film as armour and a seemingly unending supply of projectiles, they succeeded in breaking multiple windows on the second and the third floors with bricks.
“Shame on the dirty cops!” they chanted. “Police are triads!”
During the night-time siege two days earlier, residents fought back by throwing projectiles – including water bottles, glass objects and even plastic bags filled with excrement – down at the protesters from the windows of the same building.
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What began as a protest against the controversial and now-shelved extradition bill has metastasised into deep anger and hatred towards the police force, the government’s bogeyman as the administration refuses to accommodate any of the protesters’ demands.
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