Today is the anniversary of the Yuen Long attacks.

On July 21, 2019, a group of men in white shirts, wielding wooden canes and steel rods, laid violent siege to commuters on their way home from a protest. For 35 minutes, the police were nowhere to be found. 1/4

The attacks revealed the collusion between the government, the police, and land owning triads benefitting off colonial land policies.

Above all, it was a moment of collective trauma—a warning of the violence that was yet to come. 2/4 https://lausan.hk/2019/how-real-estate-hegemony-looms-behind-hong-kongs-unrest-an-interview-with-alice-poon/

For many people, 21 July shattered the image of stability and justice the Hong Kong Police Force have enjoyed as "Asia's Finest", as many decried the authorities' failure to respond to the attacks and to investigate and charge the perpetrators. 3/4 https://lausan.hk/2019/imagining-the-end-of-the-police/

That day, a Whatsapp group that would eventually become Lausan came together to make sense of the structures enabling such impunity.

One year on, we continue to heed the "sixth demand" articulated by Hong Kong protesters: to abolish the police. 4/4 https://lausan.hk/2019/reading-guide-police-prison-abolition-hong-kong/