3. HOW DID HONG KONG POLICE REACT?

As protests often evolved into violence and assaults against police officers, Hong Kong police, facing tremendous pressure, had to fire tear gas and used batons to keep law and order on some occasions.

"We are responsive. If there are no violent charging at our check lines, no one attacking us, attacking our police station, we are not going to use force to stop it," Yeung Man-pun, a police officer of Kowloon City District, said on Aug 16.

Over the past two months, radical and violent protesters repeatedly charged against police lines after marches and rallies. They wantonly blocked roads, vandalized public facilities, set fires on streets and in front of police stations, attacked police officers with iron bars, corrosive fluids, hurled bricks and petrol bombs.

Since early June, about 180 police officers have been injured and police stations were attacked over 75 times.

Still, police exercised great restraint when handling unlawful protests and only dispersed violent protesters with minimum use of force.

Chief Superintendent David Jordan said in an interview that the situation on the front line is the most dangerous that he has faced in over 25 years because of the level of aggression and violence.

Jordan, 52, serves as the Commandant of the Police Tactical Unit, a force for large-scale emergencies.

"We have been incredibly restrained, and also we are only reactive," Jordan said. "I strongly feel that the role and the actions of the Hong Kong police have been as tolerant as any other police force on the planet would have been. A lot of other police forces would have acted far more productively and possibly aggressively against this kind of situation."

Jordan said the police allow some disruption before they deploy, which is an incredible amount of tolerance for an international city police force.

The HKSAR government has firmly supported the police, saying the frontline force is under enormous pressure and facing unjust accusations of brutality.