This was not quite June 4, 1989 in Beijing, but the attitude behind it was the same. Clear the streets at any cost. So phalanxes of police armed with helmets, shields, visors, batons and supported by an artillery of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullet launchers advanced on huge crowds armed at best with paper masks, umbrellas and plastic bottles. They were protesting against a bill which would in effect extend mainland jurisdiction into supposedly autonomous Hong Kong by providing for extradition to it.