translated from Spanish: [VIDEO] Violent crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong

Saturday’s clashes between the demonstrators and the police came in the context of the thirteenth week of protests on Chinese territory that was separated from the Asian country for decades, being an English colony until 1997. The protests of this occasion led to a violent intervention by the police inside a subway station, with the aim of stopping several demonstrators, a situation that generated a series of records that ended up going around the world. A deep and hitherto insurmountable rift has opened up among the population and the uniformed, years ago considered – by the people of Hong Kong – to be one of the most popular institutions. After the events at the metro station dozens of neighbors of the sector took to the streets to incresure the police officers. Nick, a 32-year-old accountant and protester, told the middle of El País de España that “This is going for a long time,” and that “People no longer trust the police. They have behaved brutally, and there is no way to hold them accountable.” In fact, one of the five demands of the demonstrations is the creation of an independent commission aimed at investigating and monitoring the police’s behaviour in the protests. The other lawsuits following the protests are the resignation of the head of the autonomous government, Carrie Lam; the release of detainees in protests; the definitive withdrawal of the controversial extradition bill, now suspended, which slammed the demonstrations; and the opening of a process of democratic reform. In this last line, Saturday’s mobilizations were held in the context of the fifth anniversary of the submission of a proposal from the Chinese central government for reform to the electoral system, which caused a strong rejection in the local population, leading to the famous protests known as the Umbrella Movement, predecessors of the present ones. Undoubtedly this is the biggest political crisis in Hong Kong since its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, and the biggest challenge to Beijing’s control in years, so a simple exit in the short term is not seen. And so, during this day, thousands of young demonstrators went to the airport, a place that has an order against the holding of protests, precisely because two weeks ago the students took the place causing the suspension of all the which culminated in other violent clashes.

Original source in Spanish