https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/16/an-eye-for-an-...
https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/medic-shot-in-eye-durin...
It's like in all countries. Some protests/protesters are peaceful, some are not.
Some of their actions have caused trouble for others, but in general, they are not interested in pure destruction.
Of course there are exception cases, I'm speaking of the situation generally.
But why? If it is the government people protest, but why do people break shop windows and burn someone's car all the time...
It seems to be a lesser kind of terrorism for me: they don't like a country, they hurt properties instead of people.
It's good for the government because they can then say that the protests were "violent".
If you actually go to a protest in France you will realize it is pretty much the same as what is described in that text, just people trying to protest but met with unbelievable violence from police.
That's why now you see the slog "HK police is attempting to murder citizens", even though nobody has been close to dying. It's just that they perceive violence on a different scale, and people being beaten up (not even severely) is enough to claim they're trying to murder people.