Hong Kong Protests: Organic or Manufactured?

Protests generally bring into the streets people with mixed motives for being there. When half a million people come out as in Hong Kong, it might be overstating things to attribute these protests solely to the CIA, National Endowment for Democracy or NGOs. Still – as this article points out, if we look at the equipment used to fight the police, it’s a cut above the usual material available to protesters. In addition, some of these protesters were paid to a) show up b) show bruises c) be quoted in the media.