A disturbing video shows a masked protester beating a JPMorgan employee for calling for unity between Hong Kong and mainland China. The footage was taken on the same day as Hong Kong announced a ban on face masks.
A video published by Ruptly on Friday shows a JPMorgan private banker shouting to a group of journalists “We are all Chinese.” But before he is able to enter his office building, a masked protester pounces on him, punching him repeatedly on the shoulder, neck and head.
Hunched over against a wall, the banker is later seen being escorted to safety by a group of colleagues.
JPMorgan circulated a memo to its employees about the incident, reassuring them that “additional security” had been put in place but advising “non-essential employees” to work from home over the weekend.
The unsettling footage was taken on the same day that the city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, announced that she would invoke a British colonial-era emergency law to impose a temporary ban on face masks. The move follows chaotic clashes between demonstrators and police that occurred on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Lam warned that violent protesters – almost all of them masked – were “destroying the city” and that authorities could not allow the situation to get “worse and worse.”
The ban, which will be put into effect on Saturday, applies to all types of face coverings and will be enforced for all public gatherings, even ones which have been officially sanctioned by the government.
Dating from 1922, when Hong Kong was a British colony, the Emergency Regulations Ordinance allows the city’s chief executive to issue temporary laws without parliamentary approval. Lam said the ban meant that Hong Kong was “in a state of serious public danger” but stressed that the threat did not yet warrant a formal state of emergency.
Also on rt.com Hong Kong police defend use of live fire during protests, say officers’ lives were in dangerCountless videos and photographs document how masked protesters have destroyed public infrastructure, set fires, and assaulted bystanders and police alike.
Tuesday’s unrest marked the first time that police used live fire against the demonstrators, after a masked mob surrounded and assaulted a riot cop. The officer fought back, shooting an 18-year-old student in the chest from close range. The student was hospitalized and remains in a stable condition.
The months-long protests were originally against a now-abandoned extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be transferred to mainland China. In recent weeks, the demonstrations have taken on a broader – and increasingly violent – anti-China sentiment.
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