HONG KONG—Among the stream of photos of the protests in Hong Kong, one taken by an Epoch Times photographer has gone viral on the Internet.
Outside of the Central Government buildings on Sept. 28 police shot pepper spray at the protesters. One of the protesters caught a good dose of the spray in his eyes and cried out in pain: “I stood so far away from you. It’s too much. We are unarmed. How can you attack us like that?”
A riot policeman wearing a gas mask lightly patted the young man’s shoulder and said, “I know. I know.” He then took out his own water bottle and started to rinse the man’s eyes.
This was the scene that Epoch Times photographer Yu Gang recorded with his camera.
“I had been taking photos of the clash all the time, and wasn’t expecting such a moving scene,” Yu said, “I was so touched at the moment.”
That policeman was not the only one who offered help to the protesters. Yu said he was caught in tear gas and few people came to help him, among whom was a police officer. “[I know it] because I saw ‘Police’ on his shirt,” Yu said.
The photo of the policeman rinsing the young man’s eyes quickly spread on the Internet after it was posted to the Hong Kong Epoch Times Facebook page, with over a million people receiving the photo in their news feed.
Some Hong Kong police officers have announced their resignations on the Internet due to their regret at using violence against peaceful Hong Kong citizens.
One anonymous police officer wrote, “I feel guilty. I’m so afraid of being found writing this post, because I’m afraid of losing my job … My tears started to roll down on my face when I saw protesters’ painful reactions after the tear gas … I was shocked. What was I doing?”
“I sincerely apologize to the Hong Kong people! … I am a Hong Kong policeman, not a [Chinese Communist Party] public security agent!” He wrote in closing.
