Asia/Pacific

Hong Kong protesters target police station

The demonstrations that have rocked Hong Kong for about two months moved into the city’s luxury shopping district this weekend, with some demonstrators throwing rocks and bricks at a police station, according to the Associated Press.

Protesters moved to the district after riot police used tear gas to clear them out of the part of the city they were previously occupying, according to the AP.

{mosads}Earlier Sunday morning, police targeted a police station, with authorities saying they shattered multiple glass windows with rocks and bricks. Police claimed to have made more than 20 arrests on charges ranging from unlawful assembly to assault after protests on Saturday.

The demonstrations began in response to a bill that would allow some Hong Kong residents to be extradited to the Chinese mainland. Since Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced the bill was “dead,” the protests have continued, with activists calling for Lam to formally withdraw the bill and resign and for an investigation into heavy-handed police tactics.

Criticism of the police’s handling of the protests has increased since several men, many of them with links to organized crime, attacked demonstrators with sticks and metal bars in a subway station with little interference from police.

Whether the bill is pulled or not, protesters said they remain concerned that it represents a broader erosion of the city’s autonomy since the British formally relinquished control in 1997.

“We are not just another Chinese city. We are Hong Kong,” Cara Lee, an insurance agent who said she was attending her 13th demonstration, told the AP.

“I feel ashamed because for a long time we didn’t do anything. But now we are awake. I have to speak out for the next generation. It’s our moral responsibility,” she added.

Protest organizers are calling for a statewide general strike Monday, according to the AP.

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