Hong Kong police anger has reached boiling point after force is cast as public enemy in extradition bill fiasco while protesters break law at will, insiders say

Plain-clothes police say better tactics are needed while extra equipment cannot protect them from people who want to ‘take officers’ lives by any means’

Source says officers have never been so angry, and the reason is because society glorifies radical protesters while putting all the blame on the force

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There were unprecedented scenes of violence in Sha Tin on Sunday as police and protesters fought in a mall. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 9:48am, 17 Jul 2019Updated: 4:00pm, 17 Jul 2019

Anger among frontline police has reached boiling point as the Hong Kong public continues to see them as the enemy despite the escalating violence with extradition bill protesters leaving more than a dozen officers injured, insiders say.

Plain-clothes police officers told the Post on Tuesday that better operational tactics were needed and that extra equipment could not protect them from “zombie-like” protesters who acted as though they wanted to “take officers’ lives by any means”.

The frontline officers were referring to the unprecedented violence at the New Town Plaza shopping centre in Sha Tin on Sunday, when 13 police officers and 15 demonstrators were injured in vicious clashes following a large rally in the New Territories town.

A sergeant lost part of a finger while a constable was kicked off an escalator and brutally assaulted by youths as he fell to the ground. Two officers were initially in a critical condition after they were hit by hard objects, believed to be bricks, in the head and stomach respectively.

Four officers remained in hospital as of Tuesday evening.