Chaos and bloodshed in Hong Kong district as hundreds of masked men assault protesters, journalists, residents
The group used bamboo sticks and other weapons to attack people in the area and in the West Rail Line station, injuring Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, who was seen bleeding from his mouth in a social media live stream.
For another reporting of the triad attack, see BBC [1] and the Times [2].
It was leaked a few days ago that the government was planning to use triads to do the dirty work (See point 4 in [3] and [4] in Chinese). Using triads happened during the 2014 umbrella protest, but this time the attack on arbitrary citizens (not necessarily the protesters) is on a completely different scale: a terrorist attack.
And there are videos showing that the police “co-operated” with the triads (by turning a blind eye: arriving at the scene late [5] [6], chatting with the triad attackers [7], closing the police stations and not responding to cases during the events).
[1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49066982
[2]: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2c35b094-abe5-11e9-b657-1...
[3]: https://www.facebook.com/ChanKamShui/posts/2336638383089638
[4]: https://nextplus.nextmedia.com/article/2_682569_0
[5]: A video showing two policemen turning their back on the the subway station right before the attack: https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/cg0hm2/hkpf_leavi...
[6]: A video allegedly showed how the triad members (on the left) left the scene when the police (on the right) arrived at one scene: https://www.facebook.com/ChanKamShui/videos/477470036387268/
I wonder if it’s like Maduro’s socialist ‘colectivo’ gangs [1] in Venezuela that rove around on motorcycles and assault and even murder anti-government protestors without punishment from the state. But obviously less serious and violent.
[1] https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-maduro-venezu...
Edit: there were accusations that HK gangs were 'hired' last time when a large group of weapon wielding gangs assaulted protestors in 2014: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/04/hong-kong-legi...