Opinion | Hong Kong in crisis: protest violence is wrong but government inaction is worse

Back in June, it was relatively easy. The government was clearly wrong in pressing ahead with controversial legislation after only a cursory public consultation and ignoring widespread unease. The students were heroes preventing the bill’s passage by physically blocking access to the legislature. The police were heavy-handed in dispersing the crowd.

In the ensuing weeks, the government just appeared stubborn in refusing to use the word “withdrawal”. The police’s mysterious disappearance during the Yuen Long incident in July left their reputation in tatters. Protesters’ gratuitous vandalism and targeting of sovereignty symbols, while unnecessarily provocative, were, to an extent, understandable.

Since then, the situation has become more nuanced. Protesters’ recent escalation of violence and the disruption they inflict on the general public is alarming and unacceptable. Dropping heavy objects onto fast-moving traffic is not how to secure democracy. Slashing a policeman’s neck with a box cutter is a very long way from the peaceful protests with which the exercise began.

The two incidents last Monday and the reactions to them are revealing and not reassuring. In the morning, a police officer shot a protester with a live round. In the afternoon, a protester splashed flammable liquid on a man and set fire to him. Surprisingly, most media, including international names such as BBC and Financial Times, focused on the first incident.