I am definitely not saying there absolutely is no police brutality, especially when there are so many violent protestors. If HK police have the same protocol as US police, many extreme violent protestors would have already faced a much more serious consequence.
And I am certain there ARE lots of efforts to delegitimize the protestors. However, it's also true that the vast majority of US media choose to not report on the unimaginable violence activities carried out by many protestors on daily basis.
A few friends of mine in HK (not trying to generalize it but a valid argument) feel frustrated that they are the ones to suffer all the short and long term consequences while the "friends of HK" western media would be more than ok to watch HK burn in the fight for the true democracy that's so important and HK never had under both UK or China's governence.