Street violence and indiscriminate vandalism have escalated since the shooting incident on Monday in which a young rioter was wounded by a police officer who tried to fend off the rioter reaching to snatch his gun.

Growing signs point to possible use of illicit substances such as marijuana on young rioters to turn them into mindless “soldiers of doom” by the masterminds and organizers behind the scenes. Far more reports of brutal attacks of innocent Hong Kong residents by masked thugs in black simply because of opposing opinions have emerged in the past three days than in the previous five months. That is why more and more people agree that the illegal campaign has morphed into bona fide terrorism and will only become more deadly if not crushed immediately.

What happened in Hong Kong in the last few days has shocked the world, thanks to the internet and social media. So much so, in fact, that many Western mainstream media, which have been reluctant to honor true journalism in the past five months, have started to give the public the truth they had withheld for so long. As a result, voices of shock, disbelief, horror and outrage are rising every minute, while many self-appointed apologists and defenders of the “black revolution” have realized they were fooled by political deceit, moral corruption and a criminal conspiracy that spawned all this madness. Unfortunately, the rising tide of public condemnation has not reached the ears of the many young agitators. The only viable explanation to such a cognitive block is their having been brainwashed and being nearly insane due to induced hallucinations.

There have been numerous online posts about increased cash rewards for those who act the most violently and cause more damage than others — as much as millions of Hong Kong dollars for seriously wounding or even killing a police officer, or setting fire to a major government facility in great fanfare. Whether such stories are verifiable notwithstanding, they are finding more and more people willing to believe they are true. That is why a growing number of local residents began to take matters into their own hands and defend their neighborhoods when law enforcement authorities have been unable to arrive in time. Sadly, that also indicates the top decision-makers of the SAR government appear to have let the people of Hong Kong down to some extent, and they must do everything in their power to turn this terrible situation around under existing law with absolute resolve, conviction and even extreme prejudice, because what they are faced with is undeniable terrorism!

The longer they hesitate, the more tragic things will happen, such as the man who was doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire by ruthless rioters on Monday. He is now hospitalized with third-degree burns covering 50 percent of his body and kept alive by machines. And how many more misguided and reckless youths have to be stopped by bullets fired by police because no one — not even their teachers and parents — is stopping them from ruining their own lives for all the wrong reasons?