After almost two months as a protest site, Nathan Road - one of the city's busiest thoroughfares - reopened at 3 pm on Wednesday.

But this did not come about easily. Live TV broadcast showed police officers faced stiff resistance and overnight clashes while helping bailiffs remove roadblocks in the protest zone in Mong Kok for a second day. 148 arrests were made, including those of two prominent activists, Scholarism's Joshua Wong and Lester Shum of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, for defying the injunction after being warned to comply. More protesters are expected to be taken into custody if they persist in their actions in contempt of court.

The vast majority of Hong Kong people support officers enforcing the rule of law without fear or favor. Oddly, instead of praising exhausted frontline officers and condemning violent radicals, some opposition lawmakers accused the police of "taking advantage of the court injunctions" in conducting the clearances. The accusation is so absurd it does not warrant further comment, because these politicians twist legal concepts to justify their defiance of court injunctions.

As the public can see, our world-class police simply did their duty by assisting court-backed bailiffs in dismantling obstacles, and where necessary, detaining unruly protesters. They did this using appropriate force and exercising maximum restraint.

The determination of the police actually reflects the will of Hong Kong people, and deserves their support. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said on Wednesday that he had full confidence in the professionalism of the police.

Judging by what has been unfolding over the past few days, the latest clearances may well be a turning point for the "Occupy" movement, which has been dragging on for two months. Hong Kong will eventually, after many twists and turns, win the battle against "Occupy". While the public can now breathe a sigh of relief people should remain vigilant. This is because some hot-headed protesters may try to re-occupy cleared areas.

The "Occupy" farce has taught the public a hard lesson: confrontation and antagonism leads nowhere. Chasing democratic dreams should not undermine rule of law. If a minority of fanatics is allowed to break the law in the name of civil disobedience, all of society suffers.

(HK Edition 11/27/2014 page10)