Rioters' imperious inhumanity makes them HK people's enemy: China Daily editorial

Parts of Hong Kong ground to a halt on Monday morning as black-clad rioters launched their so-called Dawn Action to paralyze the morning commute in an attempt to effect a "general strike".

The rioters were not only depriving law-abiding residents of their right to go about their normal life by interrupting the mass transit rail services and blocking major thoroughfares across several districts during the traffic peak hours on Monday morning.

They were also threatening residents' personal safety and even lives by starting fires on trains and throwing objects onto the rail tracks - aside from attacking motorists, passengers and even police officers who tried to remove barricades on the roads.

In one particularly heinous act, a group of rioters surrounded a passer-by, who disagreed with them, poured a flammable liquid on him and set him alight. The immolation happened in broad daylight and in front of media cameras.

In another incident, one rioter was shot when he and others tried to seize the gun of an isolated police officer. This confrontation could well have been avoided had they held up their hands after the officer drew his pistol in a warning action.

The forbearance and restraint Hong Kong police officers have consistently demonstrated over the past five months - emphasizing dispersal operations - seems to have emboldened some with a more violent disposition to unleash their aggression.

A few lunatics have even openly threatened on online platforms to kill the wife and daughters of the police officer who fired his gun on Monday morning.

The leniency Hong Kong judges have so far demonstrated toward the offenders involved in the months-long unrest - by allowing them to apply for bail on easy terms and handing down extraordinarily light sentences - has also served to encourage inhuman terrorist acts.

So far, more than 3,000 people have been arrested for various offenses including assault occasioning bodily harm and arson during the five months of turbulence. But none of the arrestees has been jailed. Thanks to the judicial leniency, many rioters have made themselves repeat offenders.

Yet the intensifying violence is not simply because the rioters have been emboldened in their lawlessness by the lack of deterrent punishments. It is a politically motivated attempt by the rioters to deter the law-abiding public from speaking out against them and to disrupt the District Council elections.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor denounced the violence on Monday saying the protesters are relentlessly destroying society. She said the violence has far exceeded protesters' call for "democracy" and they had made themselves "the people's enemy".

Indeed the rioters' recklessness, their defiance of the law and their contempt for others who do not share their views shows it is they that manifest the oppression they claim to be fighting against.