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Iron railings on Gloucester Road in Causeway Bay have been removed in advance of Sunday’s protests. Photo: Dickson Lee

Police remove fences and bus stops from near Hong Kong march site ahead of extradition bill protest planned for Sunday

  • Street furniture removed is similar to that previously used by demonstrators to make barricades but police say operation is a standard procedure for mass events
  • Two men arrested for offences relating to two sieges of police headquarters by protesters on June 21 and 26

Fences and bus stop poles of the sort used by protesters to occupy thoroughfares in recent protests have been removed from roadsides in an area of Hong Kong Island ahead of another major extradition bill march on Sunday.

A small section of iron fences located around Gloucester Road, in front of The Park Lane Hong Kong hotel and Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, was removed, with orange barricade tape left in its stead, stretching for around 100 metres.

A member of hotel staff said the fences were removed on Thursday morning, although the exact time it happened could not be verified.

While some activists believe the fences were removed to prevent protesters from using them as barricades, a police source said it was a standard procedure to facilitate a mass public order event.

Orange barricade tape hangs in the place of iron railings, which were removed on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s protests. Photo: May Tse

“We do it from time to time whenever there is a mass rally. We removed the fences to widen the roads to accommodate more participants,” he said.

It was unclear if more fences would be removed.

A spokesman for New World First Bus and Citybus also said some bus stop poles had been removed

in light of the upcoming protests, subject to road and traffic conditions.

A police source said the operation was a standard procedure ahead of mass events. Photo: Dickson Lee

“For safety reasons, some movable bus stops have been temporarily taken away to avoid possible injury if the poles were to be knocked over during crowd movements,” he said.

The move came after citizens vowed to escalate protest actions as the Civil Human Rights Front announced details of its Sunday march against Hong Kong’s embattled government from Victoria Park to the Court of Final Appeal in Central.

Hong Kong has seen at least seven mass rallies since June. Large numbers of protesters have often remained in the streets after the marches have ended, and there have been some fierce clashes between demonstrators and police. Protesters have removed rubbish bins, railings and road signs and used them as roadblocks or thrown them at police officers.

Police clear protesters occupying legislature after day of unprecedented violence and chaos

A police spokesman said that in cases of large-scale public order events on Hong Kong Island, the force adopts crowd management measures on certain sections of road and requests assistance from other government departments.

Protesters have at past demonstrations removed rubbish bins, railings and road signs and used them as roadblocks or thrown them at police officers. Photo: May Tse

Steve Vickers, CEO of a risk consultancy firm and former head of the Royal Hong Kong Police’s Criminal Intelligence Bureau, warned that the public order situation would probably worsen in the coming weeks as polarisation within Hong Kong society and intense acrimony between protesters and police deepened.

“The protests are settling into a pattern of peaceful demonstration culminating in deliberately orchestrated violence, before a lull in preparation for the next ‘battle’,” Vickers said in a statement, adding that the busy calendar of demonstrations ahead heralded a ‘summer of discontent’.

Unprecedented lockdown to head off protests at events marking return of city to China

“Protesting in locales such as Mong Kok or Yau Ma Tei only adds to the threat of violence, given the population density and the presence of triad societies – who may act as agitators for either side, or simply take actions to protect their own interests.”

He said police should set out clear and robust but fair rules of engagement, so as to ensure the safety of genuine demonstrators and to marginalise and divide agitators.

“Any failure to tackle violence and make appropriate arrests will sap officers’ morale, and embolden agitators to engage in further violence.”

Separately, two men were arrested for offences they allegedly committed when police headquarters in Wan Chai was besieged by extradition bill protesters on two occasions, on June 21 and 26.

Extradition bill protesters besiege police headquarters into Friday night

An 18-year-old bartender was arrested on Thursday morning for criminal damage, having allegedly spray-painted the external wall of the building on Arsenal Street during the first siege, police said.

The other man, a 25-year-old construction worker, was arrested in a residence in Tai Kok Tsui on Thursday morning for assaulting a police officer during the second siege, when the officer, who was on his way to report for duty at the station was surrounded and assaulted by protesters outside, sustaining injuries to his face, waist and back.

The new arrests were the third and fourth made relating to the sieges.

Additional reporting by Danny Mok

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