10/28 reassessment

Hong Kong has been an interesting place to look at regarding the recent protests for the past few months. The reaction by the Chinese government to these protests has shown either a complete misunderstanding of the situation or intentional malice towards the issues if the citizens. What has been an interesting development was how the police force handled the protests, which is to say with excessive force. This reflects a growing trend in the world stage, where common reactions to protests is riot control tactics. This appears to be mostly a tactic operated by large governments, in particular the US and France, where armored vehicles and tear gas is commonplace in the former and flashbangs are used with abandon in the latter. An interesting pattern emerges from this, where large governments, irrespective of their stated commitments to free speech, use more forceful tactics when quelling protests, regardless of how lawful they are. When comparing the US and China's policy, the 1st amendment of the US constitution stands out as a deterrent to the use of excessive force during demonstrations, however when comparing Ferguson and Hong Kong, the similarities are damning for the US's integrity when it comes to free speech. Tear gas, police beatings, rubber bullets, military force, all of these tactics were used in both situations without care for the citizenry. From this fact, it would seem that protests in larger countries more apparent on the world stage are cracked down on harder, especially when compared to smaller nations. Take Romania and the anti-corruption protests that occurred there. Despite the government having a stake in ending them quickly, they did not have nearly the level of suppression the Paris, Ferguson, or Hong Kong protests did. It could be that Romanian police did not have the same resources, but this is an interesting trend regardless. I hypothesize that there is a correlation with economic strength, political position, and a desire to keep the population in line, perhaps as deterrent to coup d'etat, but I cannot say for sure. It could also be that in the wake of 9/11 and the patriot act, the US became much more wary of political demonstration and became much more security-minded, militarizing much of the police force, and societal factors led to the use of excessive force. It's still an interesting thing to see two nations, each with opposite apparent stances on free speech, respond identically to protest.

Article: https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/752368384/a-guide-to-whats-happening-in-hong-kong

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