I started writing this post last night but couldn’t find a good way to lead off. I was somewhat distracted by the red shirt protests that were well into day 3 and the fact that they were still going strong well after midnight (making it day 4, technically).
I woke up this morning to dueling loudspeakers. My Thai isn’t good enough to make out amplified shouting but I had a sense that the police had had enough and had come down for a confrontation. I grabbed my camera and ran downstairs. I didn’t need to run far because the police were mobilized right in front of my building.
Hundreds of police in riot gear and hundreds of protesters were facing off. Each had a truck with a loudspeaker and from what I can tell one side was shouting to disperse and the other was saying “uh, no.”
The tension was think and from time to time someone would throw water on the police and infrequently an entire water bottle would be launched at them.
There was an Asian woman standing next to me and I heard her say (quite loudly – in English) “this is so f*cking stupid.” I took that as a clue to get as far away from her as possible lest anybody think the two of us were together.
A few moments later I saw a sea of red shirted protesters pounce on her. She had obviously repeated her feelings to someone who wasn’t quite down with her political views.
The security forces from the protesters were the first to come to her aid pulling red shirts away from her. The police stepped in too and the red shirt security and police acted together to save this woman a trip to the emergency room.
As for me, people were mostly cool. One lady came up to me when she saw my camera and told me to take pictures so show the world. I wasn’t sure why she would want that since at that moment it was the red shirts who seemed to be trying to escalate the situation by throwing water bottles but I followed her orders.
I must say though that the red shirt speaker on the loudspeaker did scold people for antagonizing the police. It seems both sides were looking to avoid any violence and the red shirts knew they held no moral ground if they were in fact throwing stuff at the police who were simply standing their ground.
I was invited by some red shirts to get a better vantage point to shoot pictures and they helped me up onto a wall at the Four Seasons Hotel. From there I was able to stand out of the crowds and watch as the protesters pushed the riot police back about 50 yards. The police were obviously trying to keep the situation from escalating because they didn’t resist and pulled back.
That’s an odd sight to see as an American. Mostly police push forward in riot situations. Here in Thailand, keeping the peace is so valued that police seldom like to use force in situations like this. They back off, let the situation cool down, and try to talk.
I’m taking a bit of a break because it’s hot as hell out right now but I’m uploading what pics I already have and will post them soon.
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