Hong Kong | Bailiffs to move on Mong Kok protest sites after Admiralty clash

Pro-democracy protesters use a fence to break the glass window of the Legislative Council

Hong Kong will seek to remove barricades erected by pro-democracy protesters in the Mong Kok district as early as tomorrow, amid signs of escalating tension after some demonstrators broke into lawmakers’ offices.
A small group of protesters smashed through a glass door of the Legislative Council building in the Admiralty district early yesterday using metal barricades and concrete blocks. Police used pepper spray to repel people who charged at them, footage broadcast on Cable TV Hong Kong showed.
The clash yesterday morning is another sign the movement is splintering, with pro-democracy lawmakers and student leaders unable to restrain the demonstrators. The protesters want China to reverse its decision that candidates for the city’s 2017 leadership election be vetted by a committee, a process they say renders the concept of universal suffrage meaningless.
“We don’t understand the point of the action,” Alex Chow, secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told reporters today, referring to the break-in. Still, “the government in some way is pushing citizens into action as they have no options.”
Protesters’ options are shrin-
king after their attempts to negotiate with the government failed, a trip by representatives to Beijing was thwarted and Hong Kong courts issued injunctions for the removal of some barricades.
“The use of violence is definitely against the umbrella movement’s emphasis as that of using peaceful, non-violent means to fight for full democracy,” Alan Leong, leader of the Civic Party, said in a briefing with other legislators. “It seriously undermines” the movement.
“Umbrella movement” refers to protesters’ use of umbrellas as shields against pepper spray. The demonstrations, in their eighth week, are the largest since China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997.
Hong Kong police condemned yesterday’s action and reiterated that “any acts endangering public order and public safety will not be tolerated.” Six people were arrested and three police officers were injured, the government said in a statement.
Court bailiffs on Tuesday removed barricades outside Citic Tower in the Admiralty district with little resistance from demonstrators. High Court Chief Judge Andrew Cheung Kui-nung ruled last week that bailiffs can remove obstructions at two protest sites in Mong Kok on the north side of Victoria Harbor and at Citic Tower.
Bailiffs and police may undertake the Mong Kok clearance as early as today, the South China Morning Post said yesterday, citing an unidentified police official. They may first clear Argyle Street before moving on to dislodge the larger crowd on Nathan Road, a main north-south thoroughfare in the district, the SCMP said.
At least 3,000 police officers, more than a 10th of the city’s force, will go to the densely populated residential, shopping and entertainment district, the newspaper said.
Mong Kok was the scene of some of the most violent clashes during the protests for free elections.
“Some protesters have not complied with protest leaders in Mong Kok and that’s the loose canon,” said Michael Davis, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong. Students would demonstrate their respect for the rule of law by cooperating, he said.
Chiu Luen Public Light Bus Co., a plaintiff in a civil court case to dislodge the demonstrators, on Tuesday published a court injunction in the Sing Tao Daily asking protesters to stop occupying public roads in Mong Kok, a step toward having bailiffs enforce the court order. The city government hasn’t yet said when clearance will start.
The protesters are losing public support that surged in after an earlier police attempts to disperse them by using tear gas and pepper spray. About 67 percent of people surveyed said the activists should give up their street occupation immediately, a poll conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong from Nov. 5 to Nov. 11 showed.  Dominic Lau and Janet Ong , Bloomberg