An Eye For An Eye

CW: eye injuries, blood On 11 August 2019, HK police shot a street medic in the face. Source: Telegram, Aug 2019 It was not the first, nor would it be the last serious eye injury from ‘non lethal’ rounds (that we know of/ was captured on camera, because, you know), but the incident marks the point from which a bandaged bloodied eye becomes part of the HK protest iconography, and the tone of the pro-democracy takes a turn darker. The era of ‘laam chau’ begins. The HK police shot ‘K’ in the eye with a beanbag round in Tsim Sha Tsui on11 August 2019. The photos of the immediate bloody aftermath, including that of the projectile clearly cracking open the goggles, would become some of the most iconic images of the pro-democracy protests. Source: Telegram, Aug 2019 The police shooting kicked off something dark. Within hours, protest art turned raw and bloody. The crescendo of police brutality has been building over such a short time that HKers were still too in shock and denial to…