Several thousand people, some making heart signs with their hands, turned out in Hong Kong on Sunday in an unusual display of support for the
police force, even as riot officers clashed elsewhere with
protesters and pepper-sprayed a crowd.
Competing rallies on Hong Kong Island and wildcat protest actions, including vandalism, by black-clad youths at shopping malls dramatically exposed the deep gulf between pro- and anti-establishment camps carved out by six months of demonstrations that have shaken and split the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
Truncheon-wielding riot officers fanned out at a shopping mall where demonstrators spray-painted protest slogans on the polished stone floor and smashed glass panels.