Skip to content

Protesters Risk Dramatic Escape at Embattled Hong Kong University

  • World

Harry Reid Says Early Voting States Iowa, New Hampshire ‘Not Representative of the Country Anymore’

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said on Nov. 18 that early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire are “not representative” of the United States in the modern era. “I don’t think it matters what happens in Iowa or New Hampshire because those states are not representative of the country anymore,” the longtime Nevada senator told reporters in Las Vegas. Reid said his state of Nevada is the third to weigh in on the election but the first that looks like the rest of the country, with a sizeable Latino population and significant groups of Asian American and black voters. While Nevada’s population is about 48 percent white, Iowa has a white population of about 85 percent and New Hampshire has a white population of about 90 percent, according to…

Pro-democracy protesters trapped inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University abseil onto a highway and escape before being forced to surrender during a police besiege of the campus in Hong Kong, China on Nov. 18, 2019. (HK01/Handout via Reuters)

HONG KONG—Dozens of Hong Kong protesters staged a dramatic escape from a university campus sealed off by police on Nov. 18 by shimmying down plastic hosing from a bridge and fleeing on waiting motorbikes as the police fired projectiles.

Many more protesters remained trapped inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and two prominent figures were allowed by police onto the campus late on Monday to mediate, a sign that there is a growing risk of bloodshed.

“The situation is getting more and more dangerous,” Jasper Tsang, a pro-Beijing politician who is the former head of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, told Reuters soon after he arrived at the campus.

As he spoke, big explosions were heard and flames flared up at a distant part of the campus.

A fire is seen at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in Hong Kong, on the early morning of Nov. 18, 2019. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

The university is at the center of a standoff in the past week that has seen the most intense violence in five months of pro-democracy demonstrations.

Some of the protesters who escaped on Monday did so by lowering themselves about 10 meters from a bridge they had occupied on the campus to a flyover below. They then sped off on the back of motorcycles which were already waiting or quickly arrived.

A number of them appeared subsequently to have been arrested, a Reuters witness said.

Other protesters tried repeatedly to break into the campus but police fired tear gas and water cannon Monday to push them back.

The size of demonstrations has dwindled in recent weeks, but clashes between protesters and police have worsened since early last week, when police shot a protester, a man was set on fire and the city’s financial district was filled with tear gas in the middle of the workday.

The city’s hospital authority reported 116 injuries on Monday, including one female in serious condition.

Medical staff carry a protester out of the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) during clashes with police in Hong Kong on Nov. 18, 2019. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Tightened Cordon

Earlier on Monday, police tightened their cordon around the Polytechnic University, and fired rubber bullets and tear gas to pin back a few hundred pro-democracy protesters and stop them from fleeing.

Dozens, choking on the tear gas, tried to leave the campus by breaking through police lines, but were pushed back.

Pro-democracy demonstrators run from a water cannon during clashes with police near the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in Hong Kong on Nov.18, 2019. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

“If the police decide to come in by force, to make their arrests then there will be very strong resistance from the protesters, and we’re afraid we may see bloodshed. This is something that we want to avoid,” Tsang said.

Tsang, who with legal scholar Eric Cheung was the first prominent mediator allowed by police to enter the campus, said there were young children and elderly people trapped inside the campus and that it was a priority to get the children out first.

Police said officers had been deployed “on the periphery” of the campus for a week, appealing to “rioters” to leave.

“All roads to Poly U are blocked,” said a policeman who stopped Reuters reporters at a road block on Monday night. “All are blocked.”

A road blocked near the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in Hong Kong on Nov. 18, 2019. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

Witnesses estimated there were more than 300 people still on the campus.

Arrests Mount

Police say 4,491 people, aged from 11 to 83, have been arrested since protests began in June.

Demonstrators are angry at what they see as Chinese meddling in Hong Kong’s promised freedoms when the then British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. They say they are responding to excessive use of force by police.

China’s foreign ministry said on Monday no one should underestimate its will to protect its sovereignty.

Chinese soldiers in a base close to the university were seen on Sunday monitoring developments at the university with binoculars, some dressed in riot gear.

Chinese troops in shorts and T-shirts, some carrying red plastic buckets or brooms, emerged from their barracks on Saturday in a rare public appearance to help clean up debris.

The Hong Kong government invoked a colonial-era emergency law in October banning faced masks commonly used by protesters. The High Court ruled on Monday the ban was unconstitutional and police said they would suspend all such prosecutions.

By James Pomfret and David Lague

This article is from the Internet:Protesters Risk Dramatic Escape at Embattled Hong Kong University

Oklahoma Walmart Shooting Leaves 3 Dead, Police Say

At least three people were killed during a shooting at a Walmart in Oklahoma on Monday morning, it was reported. Fox affiliate KOKH reported on the deaths, saying the shooting occurred in Duncan, which is about 75 miles south of Oklahoma City. KFOR also reported that the three people were killed. It cited the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford told KSWO that the people were shot and killed outside the store by a vehicle, and one of the people who was killed was identified as the shooter. District Attorney Jason Hicks is on the scene of the crime, telling KOKH that the scene is contained and it is not an active shooter situation anymore. Several people were wounded in the incident, according to The Associated Press, which…