The pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have taken a dark turn, as new video shows a gang of police beating a handcuffed man.
Those “Umbrella Revolution” protests, which began in late September, stem from China’s announcement that semi-democratic Hong Kong could only vote for a list of predetermined candidates in upcoming elections. Some media outlets have previously lauded the protests as “polite,” though growing increasingly tense.
That tension has now apparently broken into violence. New video, reportedly taken late Tuesday evening, shows uniformed police officers carrying off a handcuffed man the Wall Street Journal identifies as a protester, then beating and kicking him as he writhes on the ground.
Warning: Footage is disturbingly violent.
In a news conference decrying the incident, pro-democracy Hong Kong legislator Lee Cheuk-yan referred to the officers “black cops” and called for a full police investigation.
Photo via Elvert Barnes/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed
