Hong Kong Police Have Become Unhinged

That's nuts, brother! I hope everything can be worked out for the better.

I'm going to assume that the Chinese Communists didn't replace the Hong Kong police force with their own personnel following the transfer of ownership from the Brits. If they had, we'd likely see a vastly different situation developing. Thus, I suspect that the HKPD is reacting out of fear of the consequences from angering both sides, the Chinese Communist overlords and the HK population. They are, in the classic sense, stuck between the rock and the hard place, and likely will not please either.