etudiant
That is spot on.
The vision of over a million peaceful marchers from all walks of HK society on a couple of weekends in 2019 was extremely moving and sending a reasonable message to Beijing.
As soon as the 100 or so extremely athletic looking (much more than any wimpy HK uni student I had seen in 20 years) and ‘geared up’ radicals or casseurs as you put it appeared on the scene, trashing public infrastructure, the whole original impetus of the ordinary people was lost.
Who they were (always seemed to be the same ones who magically ran just before police arrived) and who was responsible for their sponsorship was always a big question mark for me.