History cannot be manipulated, the truth must be disclosed – written on the seventh anniversary of the 831 Prince Station incident in Hong Kong

Seven years ago today, at the end of the night of August 31, 2019, the alarming screams inside the Hong Kong Railway Station, the whispering noise of the cops and the squeezing pepper spray, were classified as a collective trauma in the hearts of countless Hong Kong citizens.

A, the cornerstone of memory: cross-border enforcement in the darkness

In the evening, a large group of anti-violence police and the “Dragon Squad” rushed into the prince station and the train wagon, waving police sticks to the crowd and using pepper spray. In the wagon, ordinary passengers and demonstrators shouted with terror, the ground with blood patches, became a personified symbol of the seriously out of control of public authority. However, after the incident, the station was quickly closed, independent media and ambulance personnel were once blocked outside, followed by the unilateral quality of the official calibre and the layer of coverage of the truth on the scene.

Absence of accountability: the arrogance of power in the vacuum

A violent law enforcement that shocked the whole of Port, in exchange for a total failure of the accountability mechanism:

• Independent investigation of abortions: the public and civic groups have ignored the strong call for an independent investigation committee, and the authorities have chosen to use internal censorship instead of comprehensive and open hearings.
• Lack of transparency of information: the suspicion of the deaths, medical details and disappearance rumors that night has evolved into a deep crisis of social trust due to the lack of independent third-party verification.
• Remembrance of the deprivation of power: In subsequent years, every August 31st, any citizen who attempts to present flowers and memories outside the prince station is often massively intercepted or even detained by the police, and historical memory is forced to silence.

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Why should we insist on accountability?

Commemoration 831 is not only for immersion in grief, but for the defense of the uncompromising bottom line of society:

• Combating collective forgetting: power attempts to wash the past with silence and time, and every public repeat is the strongest resistance to historical manipulation.

Establish the boundaries of power: If public power can exercise violence without having to communicate to the public, the rule of law becomes empty, and every ordinary citizen can become the victim of the next hidden corner.

At this special node, as an independent medium for the pursuit of truth and justice, we have a duty to wipe out this history and pay tribute to all those who persist in the pursuit of truth in the dark.