A day after thousands of people took to the streets peacefully to press their demands on a number of issues, it was regrettable that an orderly demonstration outside government headquarters in Central had an ugly ending yesterday morning.
Dozens of university students and others opposed to the National People's Congress Standing Committee ruling on the Basic Law's right of abode provisions had stayed overnight outside Central Government Offices. When they refused to leave at dawn, police tried to disperse them forcibly. Television news footage showed police pushing and shoving the protesters, with one officer using pepper spray and another waving his fist.
The students accused officers of using excessive violence - an allegation rejected by police and by Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, who insisted that only minimum force had been used to break up an unauthorised gathering.
Hong Kong is a society in which freedom of assembly, of procession and of demonstration is guaranteed by the Basic Law. All agree, however, that some restrictions of time, place and manner need to be imposed on public rallies for the sake of maintaining order. Most protests in Hong Kong take place amicably. When violent clashes occur, however, laying blame is never easy.
With the students vowing to file a complaint, an inquiry will probably be conducted. Judging from what one sees on television, it might be legitimate for investigators to ask whether the officers involved might have tried too hard to emulate their counterparts in Seattle and Washington - for our protesters are no match for the battlers who tried to disrupt conferences of the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank by bringing those two cities to a halt.