Officers repelled one attempt Monday morning with tear gas, driving a few hundred protesters back onto the campus.
Cheuk said police have the ability and resolve to end the standoff peacefully so protesters should not “try their luck.”Protesters won on a legal front when the high court struck down a mask ban imposed by the government last month. The court said it did not consider antimask laws unconstitutional in general, but in this case, the law infringed on fundamental rights further than was reasonably necessary.
The head of a nationalistic Chinese newspaper said Hong Kong police should use snipers to fire live ammunition at violent protesters. “We are exhausted because we were up since 5 a.m. yesterday,” said a protester who gave only his first name, Matthew. “We are desperate because our supplies are running low.”
A few hundred streamed out of the campus about 8:15 a.m. in an apparent bid to escape, but they were driven back by police tear gas. Some wearing gas masks calmly picked up smoking tear gas canisters and dropped them into heavy-duty bags, but the protesters decided to retreat with a phalanx of officers lined up across the road in the distance.