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When asked how to mend the relationship between the police and the public, Public Relations Branch’s Officer Kwong replied: “The public should give more heart gestures to the frontline police officers.” (Source: Xinqi Su.)
(DAILY RECAT^TM) [MONDAY 12/9]

See list of prior Recats^TM here. Please visit the Hong Kong Protest Live Feed for up-to-the-moment news sourced from Hong Kong.
[NEW as of 12/11] Recommended English translated article here: “Report: November 18th Yau Ma Tei Stampede.” (Source: Open Source Intelligence HK)

Recommended Viewing

* Video with translation of a granny asking police to leave Tai Po around midnight.
* Photos of man shot in the face with pepper bullet. Locals observing the incident allege that it was at point blank range. Photos of locals who report being targeted in the eye areas and the back of their heads. Video of arrest for “not having ID.” Photos of police with AR-15s patrolling around schoolchildren in the morning.

Announcements

* 12/12 Alex Chow Tsz-lok’s funeral.
* MISSING SINCE 12/10: Ng Ka-yan, 16yo female, 1.55m, 41kg, slender with oval face, Asian skin tone, black hair, and was wearing a white coat, beige sweater, black pants, black sneakers, and a black backpack. Last seen leaving her home in So Uk Estate. She also has a mole on the bottom edge of her left eyebrow. See photo.

New Laws, Legal Challenges, and Elections

* (Gun Seized) Hearing re gun seized in raid on the morning of 12/8 prior to the large march. 2 of 5 arrestees granted bail. See RTHK article.
* (Firefighter Arrest) Firefighter charged with three counts (possession of 4 petrol bombs, metal bar, hammer, and knife); refused bail.
* (American Banker Arrest) Granted bail for assaulting a police officer who refused to identify himself and had initially claimed to NOT be a police officer. See Alvin L thread.
* (Detained Bookseller) Sweden’s former Ambassador to China Anna Lindstedt charged with “arbitrariness during negotiations with a foreign power” for meetings with HK bookseller Gui Min-hai, who was detained in China. Lindstedt led the negotiations for Gui’s release.

Pro-Establishment

* (Police Presser) Confirmed case that an officer on leave was stopped at airport on 12/8 for having an extendable baton in his luggage. Arrested 12 in Sheung Shui during Operation Daybreak. Police admitted that frontline police language could improve and more heart-shape gestures from the public would really help police. See Xinqi Su thread; HK Free Press thread.
* (Sing Tao News Group) Pro-Beijing owner Charles Ho waiting for Carrie Lam to step down.
* (Police Tactics) Mong Kok arrest for “not having ID”; AR-15 used for regular patrolling; lunch time searches of youngsters; patrolling in areas where there has been no trouble reported; profane or unprofessional language (insecticide for cockroaches); shooting pepper ball at man’s head from point blank range; targeting eyes and the back of the head.
* (Police Ammunition Used) Counted by Galileo Cheng (a member of the public and a reporter).

Protestors

* (Operation Daybreak) Protestors called for this online but they did not actually follow through en masse at the appointed time. It’s unclear whether this was a ploy to frustrate the counter-strikers who came up with their own plan to stop Operation Daybreak, or if protestors just felt like sleeping in. There were morning roadblocks in 10 districts across HK and some arrests (targeting youngsters today; Lam Tin arrest). After the 12/8 march, protestors were reportedly angry that the government did little else than to recognize that the freedom of assembly was alive and well in HK. Some drivers and locals self-helped and cleared roadblocks. Police were deployed to 24 MTR stations and 25 other locations starting at 4am, and 12 people were arrested in Sheung Shui for possession of tools that could puncture tires. See HK Free Press thread.
* (Nighttime Protests) Confrontations began after nightfall in Tai Po but spread to other locations (Mong Kok). Police reported that a homemade explosive was found in an open area near Wah Yan College Wan Chai, but the bomb squad defused these “exceptionally dangerous and credible devices” that could have a range of 100m or more and contained around 10kg of explosive material. Once the confrontations began, police again targeted the locals’ and protestors’ sensitive areas, such as the face, eyes, and the back of the head. But even the most helpless locals, such as the elderly (translation), are voicing their grievances. Scenes from Tai Po (here; here), Mong Kok (here; see HK Free Press thread; shooting pepper ball at man’s head from point blank range).

Neutrals

* (PolyU) Second semester to start in January as scheduled.

International and Mainland Reactions

* (EU) European Magnitsky Act in everything but the name. See Sjoerd Wiemer Sjoerdsma thread.
* (Reporters Without Borders) Urges HKSAR not to handpick journalists for events.
* (Taiwan) Pastor Huang Chunsheng denied knowing most of the substance of The NY Times article re HK protestors sneaking into Taiwan.

Updated, Missed, and Miscellaneous News

* (12/8 Court Burning) Jimmy Sham: “I don’t think our marchers feel the need to attack the courts.” HK Bar Association statement.

Lost and Found (Persons and Bodies)

* Missing since 10/28: Organizer of the Anti-Police Brutality Rally. See translation here.