A protester who was arrested in Hong Kong over the weekend says she's "fighting for justice and freedom".
Hang Tung Chow, a 28-year-old law student, told Newsbeat she was one of the first on the streets protesting against anti-democratic Chinese rule.
She was arrested on Saturday evening while trying to stop police confiscating equipment used to broadcast her protest messages.
She's now spending her nights on the streets of Hong Kong.
Hang has joined thousands of others as part of the Occupy Central movement.
The protests in Hong Kong began with a group of students who were disillusioned with the lack of democracy in their city.
Chow says there are now thousands of people joining in.
"We'd set up an original plan to boycott lessons for a week," she told Newsbeat. "But then things got out of control in the first few days.
"When we stormed the civic square, police began cordoning off the area and more and more people came, and it just hasn't stopped since."
She says it is all about the lack of democratic process in Hong Kong, a process that was supposedly guaranteed when Hong Kong gained independence from the UK.
"The Beijing government have given us a plan that is completely undemocratic and people are angry about that," she said.
"People are demanding we have true democracy and true elections."
Demonstrating against the Communist Chinese leaders isn't easy, but Chow says they have to try.
"If you don't do something about it, it will never happen," she said. "If you do, maybe you'll get something."
She describes the situation, where citizens can only vote for candidates pre-approved by Beijing, as "completely unacceptable" and "not something the Hong Kong people can accept at all".
"We don't even have the right to choose our own government," she says. "How can we say we are a people who control our own destiny?"
As part of their protests, many students have set up public address systems to broadcast their protest messages.
But, as Chow told Newsbeat, protestors need a licence to hold any protest and her group doesn't have one.
"That's the thing with freedom of expression in Hong Kong, you need government permission," she laughs.
As police officers tried to confiscate their equipment she was arrested for obstructing them.
Chow says police in Hong Kong are "quite civilised" and she was released soon after being processed.
But her attitude towards the police changed when, the following evening, the police tried to disperse protesters.
"It was completely unexpected," she said. "There was no warning. We were listening to people speak and they just threw tear gas bombs at us.
"It's just uncalled for. There's no violence happening. People were completely unprepared and shocked."
She then describes the chaos as hundreds of people tried to avoid the gas.
"Police kept throwing them, countless of them," she said. "You kept hearing 'Pum, Pum, Pum,' as they were going off.
"People were scared, they couldn't see anything and were running around everywhere."
She says this is unprecedented in Hong Kong.
"We live in a civilised society," she said. "We don't even leave litter on the streets after demonstrating. It made people very angry."
She says the actions taken by police have only stirred up more unrest and even people who don't oppose Chinese rule have joined the protests.
"People are getting really angry, many of my friends who maybe didn't understand the arguments, are now angry about the police," she said.
"Now people are not thinking about whether they can change anything any more, it's just something they can't stay silent about any more."
Chow tweeted this picture of her friend's leg, who she claims was beaten with a police baton
According to Chow, the authorities say police were responding to violence from the protesters, but says nobody believes what they are being told.
She says all people see on the TV is police brutality, and even the most conservative sections of society are now turning against the police.
And Chow doesn't think she'll be leaving the protests any time soon.
"There's a public holiday here until 2 October, so we'll be here at least until then."
For the time being, Chow says she'll stay in the city centre, where despite there being no violence overnight, she knows it could happen again at any time.
"Even though it's quiet, it's sort of a tense quiet - knowing something might happen. The atmosphere is strange."
Follow @BBCNewsbeat, external on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat, external on YouTube
