Pan-democratic legislators wearing masks of Chinese President Xi Jinping protest as Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam attempts to give a policy speech at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. In chaotic scenes, furious pro-democracy lawmakers twice forced Hong Kong's leader to stop delivering a speech laying out her policy objectives and clamored for her to resign after she walked out of the legislature on Wednesday and then delivered the annual address 75 minutes late via television. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

HONG KONG (AP) — Calling her “the mother of the mafia police,” yelling pro-democracy lawmakers twice forced Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to stop delivering a speech laying out her policy objectives today and then clamored for her resignation in chaotic scenes that caused her to walk out of the legislature.

Lam was able to deliver the annual address more than an hour later by video, but the hostile reception inside the Legislative Council marked a slap in the face for the embattled chief executive grappling with anti-government protests now in their fifth month.

When Lam started delivering the speech, she was shouted down by chanting pro-democracy lawmakers who held aloft placards showing her waving with hands colored blood-red. They also used a projector to light up Lam’s face and the wall behind her with protesters’ key demands.

Lam left the chamber and then came back about 20 minutes later to try again, only to be met with further fury. One legislator brandishing a placard climbed onto a desk. Again, the council president stopped the session and Lam left. One lawmaker wearing a paper mask showing the face of Chinese President Xi Jinping tossed a placard as Lam walked out.

Finally, 75 minutes after the previously scheduled start of the lengthy address, Lam delivered it via video link, with China’s yellow-starred red flag to her right and Hong Kong’s flag on her left.

Describing the semi-autonomous Chinese territory as going through “major crisis,” Lam said: “People are asking: Will Hong Kong return to normal?”

She appealed for its 7.5 million citizens to “cherish the city,” warning that “continued violence and spread of hatred will erode the core values of Hong Kong.”

Standing ramrod-straight, she then launched into a dry and detailed explanation of plans to tackle Hong Kong’s shortage of affordable housing, a long-standing source of discontent, and other welfare issues.

With its focus on such minutiae as building new tunnels and freeing up land for development, the 50-minute speech titled “Treasure Hong Kong our home” seemed likely to fuel protesters’ criticism that Lam is deaf to their concerns about the future of the territory’s freedoms, unique in China.