My TakeFrustration grows over Occupy protests in Hong Kong

Was it a case of the police failing to do their job, so triads took matters into their own hands? Or perhaps they were agents sent from Beijing to provoke and intimidate the young Occupy protesters.

Conspiracy theories are coming left and right since hundreds of anti-Occupy people confronted protesters in Mong Kok and Causeway Bay. Some news media reported the disturbances as fights involving members of the public fed up with protesters disrupting daily life, with the police caught in the middle. So who's right? I think all sides are to an extent.

It's clear more and more ordinary people are frustrated and angered by the protests, which have adversely affected their businesses, the schooling of their children and their daily routines. Many ask why the protesters are occupying their districts when their beef is with the government and Beijing over democracy.

Yet it's clear there were elements of organised crime behind the disturbances. Groups of intimidating muscular men, in jeans and T-shirts and wearing medical masks, were seen in both Mong Kok and Causeway Bay approaching and picking on young protesters.

Given the districts in question, it's not unreasonable to assume some of them were triads. But mainland-hired agents? Highly unlikely. Perhaps those were the "patriotic" triads that mainland honchos used to talk about.

The two districts are complicated social environments mixed with all kinds of people. The protests affect not only the livelihoods of ordinary business operators but also the triads, which run legitimate businesses like restaurants in those places. The pan-democrats and supporters of the Occupy movement naturally assume those who disrupt the protests were either mainland agents or triad criminals.