It was to be their first day of class, but instead, tens of thousands of Hong Kong university and middle school students turned up at peaceful rallies on Sept. 2 to vent their frustrations against the government, as the city entered its fourth month of mass demonstrations.
The boycott followed a weekend of heightened violence as police were heavily criticized for charging at protesters inside a subway station and train cars, spraying passengers with pepper spray and beating them with batons. On the streets, police fired tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets at a small group of hard-core protesters who threw petrol bombs and burned barricades.
