Since early November, Cody Howdeshell has been in Hong Kong, delivering first aid to protesters. He’s seen some of the violence firsthand: Hong Kong police, he says of one incident, “went in and they beat these kids that were already half dead with their nightsticks and began to absolutely tear them out with no mercy, probably dislocating limbs, and shoved them against the wall and arrested them.”
Howdeshell joins the podcast to share why the protesters want freedom, what he thinks will happen in the long term, and what he believes Americans should learn from Hong Kong’s experience.
“Nothing in communism is voluntary, and it has to be enforced with violence at the end of the day against those that would preserve their own freedom and liberty,” Howdeshell says.
Howdeshell: When we first arrived—we arrived on Nov. 1—You could walk around the streets during the day and you would think this was just a normal city. The protests typically happened Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, and during daylight hours it was business as usual.
It was almost surreal walking out in the morning and seeing everything going on as if nothing had happened the night before. When the night before, you had seen tons of rounds of tear gas fired and pepper spray and had violent clashes between police and protesters. And even then the violence wasn’t quite as high as its become now.
I mean, it would’ve been nice if things have deescalated, but we’re also concerned because we’d come here to help [with hope] that things might deescalate in the first week and we would’ve come for nothing.
But in the last nine or 10 days with the universities being placed under siege and fortifying themselves and all the students joining in the fight more so than ever before, we’ve seen the violence escalate and the clashes occur a lot more regularly to the point where it’s been 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Yesterday evening, last night was the first night I’ve had off in probably about 10 days. Tonight seems quiet, as well. I think everyone is just burned out and the protesters are having a bit of a break. […]
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