HONG KONG – Clashes between the police and protesters flared in a crowded shopping district of Hong Kong on Friday night, days after the police dismantled a prodemocracy camp there.
But each of the four nights since that clearance started, protesters have returned to the Mong Kok neighborhood on the north side of the city, which is crammed with shops, restaurants and bars. Many protesters said they were angry about police methods on top of their demand for the fully democratic election of Hong Kong's leader.
"People came out because they're angry with the police," said Ben W.S. Lee, a 37-year-old teacher in the crowd. "I've lost all my trust in the police, because they've used excessive force on Hong Kong people in the past few days."
The protesters at first engaged in boisterous chanting, and many shouted that they were merely returning to shop in Mong Kok, as the head of the Hong Kong government, Leung Chun-ying, has urged people to do. But around midnight the mood turned tense, and a confrontation erupted after hundreds of demonstrators tried to burst through a police cordon on Argyle Street, which had been part of the cleared protest camp.
As the number of protesters in the standoff grew, police officers warned them to disperse. When that failed, officers squirted pepper spray at the front ranks of protesters, who tried to protect themselves with umbrellas, and then pushed into the crowd with batons, tossing aside umbrellas and dragging away some protesters.
In the early hours of Saturday, groups of protesters scattered into nearby streets and continued testing the police by hurling insults, demanding the release of arrested people and crossing intersections with exaggerated slowness.
Since thousands of people extended protests to major streets across Hong Kong on Sept. 28, the demonstrators have become frayed by disputes over how aggressively to confront the government and by sheer exhaustion after weeks spent in tent cities.
