HK People Defied Protest Ban & Went on Protest, Suggesting It as a Gathering for Pokémon GO

By
George Yang
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Now, before you go, “Wait, banned protests? Aren’t all protests banned?”, hold your horses.

In other countries, it might not be illegal to hold protests—in fact, go to the White House and you’ll most probably see people gathering outside the iconic premises, holding posters like “Give me $54 Huawei phone!”

If you watch US political drama often, you’ll often see the President looking out into the crowd and frown, and then muster his courage and say, “That’s it, I’m going to be the people’s president and sign an executive order to give them the $54 phone.”

Which is why, when protests happen in Hong Kong, governments all over the world only condemn the violence and not the protests.

But this latest protest in Hong Kong?

It’s supposedly banned.

Protests Are Planned & Not Impromptu

And here’s something that might be new to you, too: when people gather to protest, they don’t just walk around, make friends and then decide to protest because their movie is starting later.

They’ll plan in advance and let others know about the protest.

So, yesterday, the people of Hong Kong decided to protest (again) in Yuen Long, this time with a different agenda: they’re not protesting about the “dead” controversy extradition bill or about their country’s government, but about the attack by suspected triad gang members at a train station last week, whereby they claimed that the police was slow to react to the attack.

The police, in a rare move, decided that they would be banning this protest for the fears of the villagers attacking the protestors.

The acting regional police commander said, “Anyone who comes out to march, they would be violating the law.”

The last time that a protest was rejected was in 2014.

However, the protestors DGAF: instead, they’re suggesting that this rally is a shopping spree in Yuen Long and not a rally to protest.

In fact, some even suggest that it’s merely a mass gathering for Pokémon GO.

And it worked. Sort of.

Thousands Appeared in Rally

The rally yesterday (27 July 2019) attracted thousands of people, and many shops had to close due to the crowd. The police were, as expected, there.

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With the ban, the people were of course not happy, with one saying, “The police and (the government) are together suppressing people’s freedom to express their views.”

The police had to conduct “dispersal operation” and fire tear gas as protestors allegedly tossed bricks and hard objects at them.

Throughout the ordeal, the police were updating their Twitter account with the same message: leave the area.

They even have a video that’ll remind you of TVB dramas:

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By night, the police then warned that they will start to arrest people who still refused to leave.

Eventually, by 11:00 p.m., the area was finally back to its calm moments.

And the police issued another video, this time telling others why they’ve “banned” the protests that are scheduled for today:

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In the meantime, over in Singapore, people have forgotten about a protest caused by a $54 phone.

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]