| Nearly three years after the 2019 protests in Hong Kong rocked the world, hundreds of young people arrested that summer are still awaiting trial. Since that explosive time, Hong Kong has become a city transformed, writes journalist Suzanne Sataline, "due to an unprecedented new security law that Beijing imposed on the city in June 2020. Its broad provisions and unpredictable enforcement gutted the city's democracy movement, and the richness of civic life vanished." The charges, for many, revolve around the things they carried into the protests. Young people were very resourceful in what they brought into the streets to protect themselves and annoy the police. They used traffic cones and umbrellas to protect themselves from tear gas canisters, and laser pointers to prevent the police from filming the scene.
Prosecutors in turn came up with new ways to charge protesters for the things they carried. After their arrests, some have faced years in prison, where the Hong Kong government has instituted a program of "de-radicalization." What happened in Hong Kong that summer is a warning to any society where free speech and protest are in danger. "They kill every citizen who pursues freedom," says one student sentenced to prison for carrying laser lights, "mentally and spiritually." Michelle Legro | Deputy Editor, Features |
.jpg "Photo collage of Mark Zuckerberg, the January 6th Capitol riot, a person scrolling on their phone, and dominoes")
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