#Analysis #LesterShum
Lester Shum: A possible black hole for live streaming and documenting in Mong Kok – a repeat of 831.

(10 May) The Hong Kong police were already very familiar with Mong Kok’s ‘sachet bag strategy’(a strategy which allows them to make mass arrests), and it seemed like they stepped up their game tonight.
It seems that the police are targeting journalists more strategically so no one would be able to film what happened.

• Within 10 - 15 minutes, the area around Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Shan Tung Street, Tung Choi Street and Fa Yuen Street were completely cordoned off by police and all those present were arrested, while a large number of journalists were stopped and "targeted".
• After the police started their operation, apart from those who targeted citizens, it seems like there was also a group of police who purposefully “subdued” and “dispersed” the journalists: those who could be kicked away, pushed away and sprayed away were dispersed, and those who couldn’t be dispersed due to the large number of journalists were demanded to sit down and turn their live streaming off.
• After being surrounded by the police, a number of journalists were demanded to retreat so far back that they couldn’t film the police’s actions at all.
• Given the large number of police on the scene and the strategic targeting of journalists, there was a part of Mong Kok where no one knew what happened, and how arrestees were treated.

The reason why the 831 Prince Edward Station incident happened is because the the police kicked all journalists off the platform, which is not a difficult thing to do with their resources if they have the intention to do it. But like tonight, clearing out hundreds of journalists in several streets, I don’t believe that there was no premeditation or deployment.

Journalists being targeted and brutalised by police is nothing new. But what happened tonight appears to be a premeditated and deployed effort by the police to create a black hole for reporting and documenting, like in the 831 incident.

Source: The Stand News

Further reading:
A View from a journalist - Police Brutality on Press
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/20925

#MongkokNight #FreedomOfPress #sachetbagstrategy #PoliceBrutality #PoliceState #LiveStreaming #831incident