Exceptionally so, especially when compared to some "protests" seen in the US and some other "First World" countries, and the stakes of those protests are also usually quite low compared to HK. I've actually been extremely surprised at the restraint shown.

I don't see how this is true at all. HKers are regularly brawling with police. I haven't seen that happen at a protest in the United States in my lifetime. If you do that here you get shot.

It started out peaceful but has since turned violent.

The police have shown a lot of restraint for sure.

pointblank gunshot to a kids chest doesnt seem very restrained to me

Not true. Just in the past few hours:

Bank set on fire: https://twitter.com/YuxuanMichael/status/1180140543973580800

Train with passengers on board attacked: https://twitter.com/liamstone_19/status/1180188091312558081

Mob beat up one person: https://twitter.com/liamstone_19/status/1180175432236195840

Undercover officer petrol bombed: https://twitter.com/BMMRobertson/status/1180126411169894400

> Undercover officer petrol bombed

That is literally the video of the off duty cop shooting a 14 year old in the leg. The mob that attacked him with sticks and petrol bombs were in response to him discharging a firearm in an area that crowded, and hitting a young teenager. What kind of misinformation are you trying to spread? Do you post Twitter instead of news because you are afraid of people hearing the whole story?

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/10/04/breaking-man-shot-off-...

Sounds like you're justifying the mob's response, which is the attempted murder of a police officer.

Nobody knows yet, at least no reports of, why the firearm was discharged. Maybe it was accidental. Maybe it was deliberate. Mob justice is not the answer.

By the way, you link to Hong Kong Free Press - give me a break. I wouldn't call them Fake News but they are very biased.

They are similar to the NY Times who literally are fake news. The NY Times had the audacity to claim an 18 year old who was shot a few days ago was unarmed.

https://twitter.com/maodunzedong/status/1179797585638445057

Well everyone here on HackerNews can use their own eyes and see what the NY Times failed to see. An armed protestor (with the blue board) beating an officer on the ground and getting shot after he struck another officer who had his weapon drawn.

https://twitter.com/qingqingparis/status/1179736413534744576

It sounds like you're justifying the attempted murder of a child.

HKFP might be biased towards democracy and freedom of the press, but not as biased as posting shill Twitter accounts.

The NYT uses unarmed in the American sense of the word - the 18 year old was not carrying a firearm.

I can scroll through Reddit and find 10s of examples of police doing the same to protestors, and yet as someone that has actually gone, the real HK police seem very professional in the face of a difficult job. Other police and gang members that are enlisted to help during the night on the other hand...

Are you up posting from 2AM-6AM because of insomnia, or because you post from an armchair in a different timezone?

It seems to me like if it were your country, and you had no $$ or foreign passport to hide, you would have a different opinion.

Yes, throwaway account for obvious reasons, as others know when they get downvoted for going against the narrative.

For example, there were protests with what looked to be a couple thousand people very near me recently. Public utilities like trash bins, road signs, street lights (it is not a busy intersection) were vandalized. No damage was done to any private business or property. Vehicles parked on the side of the road were completely intact.

Contrast with America, where as soon as you get that many people "rioting", cars are flipped and set on fire, local businesses are broken into and looted, etc.

It's completely different from American riots or even what the French yellow vest demonstrators do.

Since 1997? Yeah. Since mainland China spazzed out and decided it wanted to assert illegitimate authority over Hong Kong? Not so much.

They were for quite awhile until they got sick of being hit.