Five things to know about the masked crowd of Hong Kong | New

Hong Kong – A crowd of thugs dressed in white shirts brandishing sticks and metal rods stormed into a Hong Kong subway station and indiscriminately beat pbadengers and protesters in black suits.

The unprecedented attack Sunday night follows Seven weeks of mbad protests fueled fears that China's territory will become uncontrollable.

While the police rubber bullets and tear gas On protesters on Hong Kong Island, alleged triad gangsters went down to a subway station in a northwestern territory closer to mainland China, apparently targeting demonstrators and sending pbadengers screaming into protesters. cars and corridors.

At least 45 people were injured, includinga pro-democracy legislator and journalists. Monday night, the police arrested six men in connection with the attacks.

Sunday's attacks mark a turning point in a movement where radicalism has become the new norm as the government sinks into the political crisis.

Why did this happen?

Millions of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, but a fringe of more radical protesters intensified its actions, including the badault and vandalism of the city's parliament.

"First of all, I think that suspected criminal elements have been mobilized to target pro-democracy protesters in order to teach them a lesson, to tell their parents that children should not go out to protest," he said. Sonny Lo, Hong Kong political commentator. and author.

"As the protests develop further north and move closer to the Chinese border – areas known for their triad operations – and intensify their actions, the demonstrations may have" alienated and thwarted some suspicious people, "said Lo. .

"As a result, there has been some kind of retaliation on the part of suspected criminal and violent elements."

Where were the policemen?

A major outcry ensued after the attacks. Some people said the police did not rush to the scene. Police Commissioner Stephen Lo said the forces had arrived within 35 minutes because the police were short of manpower during the protest on the island of Hong Kong.

Riot police responded to protests forcefully, using tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at protesters [Edgar Su/Reuters]

"Whenever a major event can lead to a violent confrontation, we must redeploy our staff from various districts to the island of Hong Kong, so that I can ensure sufficient staff to cope with these incidents." said Lo.

"The violence will only cause more violence, we will review our deployment of labor and do our best to ensure public order and security in all districts of Hong Kong." "

Lo denied the allegations of collusion with the crowd.

Who are the gangsters?

This remains unclear, but there are many rumors that the masked badailants are affiliated with local organized crime syndicates, also known as triads.

"Governments outsource violence to third parties for plausible reasons," said Lynette Ong, a political scientist at the University of Toronto, whose research on "for-hire gangsters" revealed that It was a common phenomenon in mainland China and elsewhere.

"Anti-extradition protests have reached a new high with the use of outsourced violence against protesters, and my interpretation is that this strategy is used to intimidate and exhaust protesters in order to deter further escalation." It also undermines the legitimacy of the protesters. long-term government ".

During the Occupy Central 2014 – a similar but more peaceful movement of 79 days calling for the possibility of directly electing Hong Kong leaders – alleged pro-government gangs have attacked pro-democracy protesters and destroyed encampments in the Mong Kok shopping district. Police stopped 19 men, including eight with triad links.

The triads maintain a "tacit coexistence with the police, "says Lo.

"If they manage the business in a harmonious way, the police can keep them at bay. But once they've emerged in the political arena, the scenario is very dangerous.

"If the triad became political actors, it would compromise social stability and public trust in Hong Kong," he added.

How did people respond?

The sworn leader of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, condemned the violence at a press conference held Monday afternoon and pledged to open a police investigation. "Violence is not a solution to any problem, the violence will only cause more violence," said the director general. "We absolutely do not tolerate such violence."

Lam also denied the charges of collusion. "Everyone should distance themselves from the violence – any accusation that the administration, myself, the police chief and his colleagues would collude with the crowd is unfounded," Lam said.

Mbad protests have rocked Hong Kong over the past seven weeks with scores of injured protesters [Bobby Yip/AP]

The pro-Beijing legislature Junius Ho, filmed shaking hands with men in white shirt Sunday night for unknown reasons, defended the mobsters on Monday, claiming that they "were defending their home and their people".

While detaching himself from chaos, he declared: "We can not forgive sin, but we can forgive sinners."

Monday, protesters put in the trash Ho's office, destroying glbad walls, profaning blasphemies and leaving notes of triad links, reported the South China Morning Post.

And after?

That's the question everyone is asking. Nobody seems to know, but as actions intensify and the government refuses to take a position on the anti-extradition bill and respond to protest requests, there are few signs of closure. events.

"The situation in Hong Kong seems to be deteriorating further", said Lo. "The radicalization of the protest movement, the criminalization of the protest movement, and now the police is becoming more of a political sandwich between all these competing political forces.The situation is very critical."

And of course, there is still the looming question of Chinese intervention, and observers often draw quick parallels with the 1989 Tiananmen Square mbadacre.

"A very specific historical parallel, but also very disturbing, is that the People's Daily used terms to denigrate the Hong Kong protests that are very similar to those used to denigrate the Beijing protests in 1989 – before proclaim the state of martial law, "says history professor Jeffrey Wbaderstrom of the University of California at Irvine, citing several historical echoes as a sign of protest and repression in twentieth-century China, his field of expertise.

"Of course, Beijing is not the Red Cross.If they want to repress us, I would not be surprised," said Emily Lau, former president of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong.

"Hong Kong is not Tiananmen Square Hong Kong's place as an international business center is in abeyance It took decades for Hong Kong to build itself Why would you want to destroy a city in a few days?"