Letters | Hong Kong protesters, police and even reporters are losing their humanity during this crisis

Am I the only one to be shocked by watching the video of the mainland Chinese banker being hit by a protester (“JPMorgan to boost security after employee punched by Hong Kong protester as tensions run high”, October 4), shocked not because of the intolerance of the protester, but because of the reaction of the several journalists, who did not think it appropriate to intervene, but just carried on taking photos, as if they were simply spectators to a drama?

Equally I was looking at the headline concerning the 14-year-old boy who was shot and did a double take when I realised that the kid himself had been arrested rather than the policeman who shot him. I guess he could have escaped arrest if he had been killed. Had he been, I don’t think anyone would be thinking that he should have been arrested had he lived. A little more humanity on all sides wouldn’t hurt.

I strongly support the government’s step to ban the wearing of face masks in public. The ban should have been imposed much earlier. True revolutionaries do not need face masks as they are ready for death for their principles; only fake revolutionaries, hypocrites, criminal gangs, cowards, posers, fantasists, unhinged egoists, misdirected juveniles, the medically ill or perhaps the offensively unsightly need to wear face masks in public.