Barbarous protests in Hong Kong terrorize its law-abiding citizens

The anti-mask law introduced by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government on Oct 4 has proved effective in reducing the number of protesters on the street, as now that they can no longer hide their identities and are prone to arrest, many of the rioters have lost the courage of anonymity.

However, to make up for the growing manpower shortage, the organizers of the rioting have compensated by raising the intensity of the violence that has seen running battles between rioters and the police in many parts of the city on a regular basis. That the violence has been intensified was evident on the weekend, when a police officer was seriously injured after he was slashed across the neck by a rioter with a parcel cutter, and many police vehicles were vandalized and police stations fire-bombed.

In a particularly alarming development, Hong Kong police say a homemade remote-controlled explosive device intended to "kill or to harm" police officers was detonated on Sunday.