A journalist takes pictures of a fire set by protesters in Hong Kong on Sunday. Photo: Wang Cong/GT

A Hong Kong police spokesman on Monday slammed violence against common residents over the weekend in the city as "inhuman" and said rationalizing and glorifying violence will only kill Hong Kong.    

The comments made in a Facebook live cast late on Monday afternoon after a regular press briefing was called off following disruptions by some reporters.

Tse Chun-chung, chief superintendent of the public relations branch of the Hong Kong police, presented videos and pictures of rioters damaging the entrance to the Xinhua News Agency office in Hong Kong on Saturday, biting off district counselor Andrew Chiu's ear, hurling Molotov cocktails and attacking residents across the city.

The police played a video showing rioters beating a man in Mong Kok, ripping off his underwear and leaving his face covered in blood.

This "public shaming" was "totally against humanity," Tse said.

Since last Friday, Hong Kong police have arrested 325 people - 247 males and 78 females aged between 14 and 59 - for possessing offensive weapons and assaulting police officers, Tse said.

Three male suspects were arrested for their alleged involvement in the incident at a mall where a Hong Kong council member had his ear bitten off. Police would launch a full investigation into the case and bring all suspects to justice, Tse said. 

"Hong Kong is not a place without management," Tse said. "For anyone who violates the law, the police will conduct law enforcement. Malls and houses will not be shelters for criminals. The police have the right to get into these places."

Chinese experts said the violence at the weekend shows Hong Kong becoming more divided.

"Apart from the increasing violent conflict between the police and rioters, violence between people with different political views is also increasing in the community," Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, told the Global Times on Monday.

Lau said this means that more and more people are angry about the protesters who are creating havoc in Hong Kong.

"Protesters are now facing increasing resistance from the society which has already suffered badly economically and politically," Lau said.

Twelve officers were injured during the weekend riots, Tse said. He stressed that it was the Hong Kong police's duty to restore public order and to live up to public expectations.

"Do not make up excuses to glorify rioters' violence," Tse said.

"Continuing this rampage is a lose-lose situation."

Tse said during the live that the more than 5 months of "man-made disaster" have damaged the city.

In the five months of violent protests, "460 sets of traffic lights have been damaged, around 45,000 meters of roadside railings have been dismantled and 85 MTR stations have been damaged," he said. 

If the society remains silent when rioters blocked the traffic, set fires, destroyed store and beat residents who have different opinions, "then there will be no one to voice for you if you are attacked by rioters one day."

"Violence is a kind of ordinary people's private settlement to resolve disputes," Liang Haiming, dean of the Belt and Road Institute at Hainan University, told the Global Times on Monday.

"This is illegal, and if the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government let these people keep resorting to violence, Hong Kong will be more divided," Liang said.

Liang warned that such violence will happen again unless the HKSAR government acts to end violence and restore order as soon as possible.

Hong Kong police held the online event after the cancellation of a regular police press conference, scheduled for 4 pm on Monday as six reporters staged a protest in the media briefing room and refused to leave the event after the police requested them to do so.  

"They have deprived the public of access to getting information from the police, and they have also deprived other reporters of their rights to cover our press conference," Tse said.

Newspaper headline: ‘Public shaming’ inhuman