HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong judge on Thursday convicted seven people, including a pro-democracy former lawmaker, of rioting during mob violence at a subway station at the height of the city’s anti-government protests in July 2019.
Prosecutors accused former legislator Lam Cheuk-ting and the six other defendants of provoking members of a group of about 100 men armed with wooden poles and metal rods who attacked protesters and bystanders at a train station. The men, all clad in white shirts, in contrast with the black worn by protesters, claimed to be protecting their homeland in Yuen Long, a residential district in Hong Kong's New Territories.
Dozens of people, including Lam, were injured in the violence, a key chapter that escalated the protest movement as the public criticized police for their delayed response. The landmark ruling could shape the city's historical narrative of the incident.
Judge Stanley Chan ruled that Lam was not acting as a mediator as he had claimed, but rather was trying to exploit the situation for political gain.
He said Lam's words directed at the white-shirted men had “fanned the flames."
The seven defendants are expected to be sentenced in February. Several members of the public sitting in the gallery cried after hearing the verdicts. Others waved at the defendants, with one shouting to Lam, “Hang in there, Ting!” Lam appeared to be at ease.
The prosecution alleged the defendants had either berated the white-shirted men, used obscene hand gestures, hurled objects or shot jets of water at them with a hosepipe.
The defendants had pleaded not guilty to the rioting charge.
During the trial, Lam said he chose to go to Yuen Long because he hoped his then position as a lawmaker could pressure the police to act quickly. He said he could not leave the scene while fellow residents were in danger. Some defendants who targeted the white-shirted men with a hosepipe argued that they were just trying to stop the attackers from advancing.
Chan, the judge, rejected the arguments of some defendants that they acted in self-defense.
The 2019 protests were sparked by a proposed extradition law that would have allowed criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to the mainland for trial. The government withdrew the bill, but the protesters widened their demands to include direct elections for the city’s leaders and police accountability.
The social movement was the biggest challenge to the Hong Kong government since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. In response, Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020, leading to the arrest of many activists. Others were silenced or went into exile.
In November, Lam was sentenced to six years and nine months in jail in the city's biggest national security case.
More than 10,000 people were arrested in connection to the protests for various crimes, such as rioting and participating in an unauthorized assembly. About 10 white-shirted men were convicted in other cases related to the mob violence in July 2019, local media reported.
Journalists wait outside District Court in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, ahead of its verdicts on a landmark riot case involving a former pro-democracy lawmaker on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)
FILE- A pro-democracy lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting, center, gestures with five fingers, signifying the "Five demands - not one less" as he is surrounded by riot police during a news conference to mark one-year anniversary of the Yuen Long subway attack at the subway station in Hong Kong, July 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
Fewer grandparents were living with and taking care of grandchildren, there was a decline in young children going to preschool and more people stayed put in their homes in the first part of the 2020s compared with the last part of the 2010s, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday, reflecting some of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest figures from the most comprehensive survey of American life compares the years of 2014-2018 and 2019-2023, timeframes before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the virus' spread. The American Community Survey data show how lives were changed and family relationships altered by the pandemic and other occurrences like the opioid crisis.
The survey of 3.5 million households covers more than 40 topics, including ancestry, fertility, marital status, commutes, veterans status, disability and housing.
The decrease in grandparents' taking care of their grandchildren is most likely the result of a decline in opioid-related deaths during the more recent timeframe since substance abuse is a leading reason that grandparents find themselves raising grandchildren. A reduction in the number of incarcerated women also likely played a role, said Susan Kelley, a professor emerita of nursing at Georgia State University.
“It's very rarely for positive reasons that grandparents find themselves in this situation. Usually, it's a tragic situation in an adult child's life, either a death, incarceration or mental health issues which correlate with substance abuse," Kelly said. "Many grandparents thrive in that role, but there are still socioeconomic and emotional burdens on the grandparents."
A stronger economy in the most recent period also may be a reason that the number of grandparents living with their grandchildren declined from 7.2 million to 6.8 million by making it less likely that adult children with their own children were seeking housing help from their parents, she said.
The decline in the number of young children enrolled in preschool stemmed from an unwillingness to send young children to school and the closure of many schools at the height of the pandemic, according to the Census Bureau.
“These data show how the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on patterns of early childhood education,” the bureau said in a separate report. "Future research will show if this was the start of a long-term trend or if enrollment will bounce back to prior levels."
Americans continued to get older, with the median age rising to 38.7 from 37.9 and the nation's share of senior citizens up from 16.8% from 15.2%. The share of households with a computer jumped to almost 95% from almost 89%, as did the share of households with a broadband connection to almost 90% from 80%.
Additionally, fewer people moved and more people stayed put in the most recent time period compared with the earlier one, in many cases because of rising home values and the limited availability of homes to buy.
Home values increased by 21.7% and the percentage of vacant homes dropped from 12.2% to 10.4%. The median home value jumped from $249,400 to $303,400 nationwide.
In some vacation communities popular with the wealthy, the bump was even more dramatic, such as in the county that is home to Aspen, Colorado, where it went from $758,800 to $1.1 million, and in the county which is home to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, where it jumped from $812,400 to $1.1 million.
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FILE - Gabriel Swift, 7, second left, wins a bike race against his brother, Isaiah Swift, 5, and his grandparents, Kim and Steve Swift, as they ride their bikes around the loop in the empty parking lot on Monday at One Faith Fellowship in the 1300 block of Tamarack in Owensboro, Ky., on April 1, 2024. (Alan Warren/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP)/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP, File)
FILE - Aaliyah Floyd, 10, right, selects school supplies with volunteer Cindy Blomquist, left, at the annual Back to School Distribution Day at The Pantry, Friday, July 29, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The Pantry works with grandparents who are the primary caregivers for their grandchildren, offering free backpacks, lunch boxes, school supplies and sneakers. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
FILE - Third-grader Dallin Curry, 8, smiles as he talks with his grandmother, Mary Durr, Sept. 6, 2024, during a Grandparents Day celebration in the lunchroom at Burns Elementary School in Owensboro, Ky. (Alan Warren/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP, File)
