Right outside my building on Rachadamri the police and red shirts look ready for a clash.  Red shirts have started throwing water bottles and other stuff at the police but the police have been rather calm.  Tensions are rising.  Going back out to get more photos.

stay safe !

don't wear red

I thought today was Chakri Day - and therefore no violence?

Somebody forgot to tell both sides.

Saw some Asian chick start bad mouthing the reds right in the middle of them. Police and red shirt guards the only thing between her and a visit to the emergency room.

Sounds noisy from my place in Wireless.

........ I plan not to get out of bed today though.

Coming back in for a breather and to get my backup batteries in the charger.

Looks like the red shirts have pushed the police back from the mouth of Mahatlek Soi 2 to the Ratchadamri BTS. The reds have moved their trucks past the Soi 2 intersection which means they feel confident enough that they can keep the police on their backfoot.

I woke up this morning and heard two different people shouting through loudspeakers at each other. It was loud. Much louder than any other morning. I knew something was up. I grabbed the camera and went downstairs and the police were occupying my soi (soi 2) and had their loudspeaker truck there. The red shirts had their main loudspeaker truck on the intersection.

There were riot police lined up right at the intersection. The red shirts were pressing up against them and some were throwing water and later they would begin throwing water bottles. The police really haven't reacted much. Once the reds pushed past the intersection the police have been moving back a few inches here and there but have not really pushed back.

I will have to say that the red shirt security has been very good at trying to keep the peace. They've been face to face with the police and it looks like both sides are trying to keep this from getting out of control. The guards have pulled their own people back when things got too hot and the guy on the loudspeaker has scolded people for throwing water bottles.

The red shirts have been very friendly and I haven't really felt any real danger. A woman came running up to me and asked me to take as many pictures as possible to "show the world." Not sure what she meant by that since at the time the red shirts were throwing water bottles at the police.

I was also given prime real estate to take pics by some red shirts who saw me with my camera. They helped me up a little wall at the Four Seasons hotel so I could get a better angle of the crowd.

I'll go back out there shortly but for the moment there seems to be a lull in the action which is why I decided to heed the battery indicator on my camera and try to get a quick charge in before standing back out there in the hot sun. Man it's hot!

It can change in seconds mate, wouldn't get too comfortable with the friendly chilled out vibes!

Good update.

So this seems to be the only location where the police are making a half hearted attempt to do something? And what do you think the police were trying to do exactly?

No attempts either side of Rama 1 or on Ratchapraprop it seems.

A few shots on Thai TV (TNN) but otherwise Red TV is showing a concert on the main stage with a large crowd and all other channels have normal programming.

Jatuporn announced as seen on PTV: "If we can't live in peace in this country, let be it."

@beej: Yeah, I saw how quickly they pounced on that Asian chick who was bad mouthing them.

I do have to say that it was the red shirt guards who came to her defense first. They immediately jumped in and started pulling red shirts away even though she was standing right in front of a police truck and the cops sort of stood there until the red shirt guards took action.

The police here are wet rags.

If there was some tea money to be made out of all of this, they would be in there like **** off a shovel!

Its a military job if anything.

Whether it is the police or the military beej both are poorly trained for crowd control as we have seen in the past. You end up with police firing dodgy tear gas in an inappropriate manner directly at people and blowing their legs off.

Also, let us not forget that a sizeable % of the military units that would be used are young guys from Isan who could be facing their relatives in any operation.

Well LG, the military did show up and then backed down. They were escorted out of the riot zone by red shirts and red shirt guards.

When I returned back downstairs with fresh batteries the crowd was really pushing the police line back. As I walked off of Soi 2 onto Ratchadamri I saw riot police casually walking around back to Soi 2 where they had parked their motor bikes.

As I walked down Ratchadamri following the crowd it looked like the police had completely withdrawn. Now it was about 100 army soldiers in riot gear holding their ground . . . temporarily. Almost as soon as I got there the military began to withdraw. Completely surrounded on all sides and outnumbered they agreed with the UDD to withdraw.

The red shirts formed a chain down each side and the army - in full riot gear - retreated under the protection of the red shirts. Many people tried to offer the soldiers water and other courtesies. The police were basically sitting around taking pictures with red shirts and getting lunch.

Meanwhile the army was marched all the way to Lumpini where according to the Bangkok Post the red shirts locked the gates to Lumpini park preventing the soldiers (as well as people already in the park) from leaving.

How do you send in troops, either police or army, and not have a plan for something like this? Politics aside, the police and army ineffectiveness during both the red and yellow rallies is shocking. Who's decision was it to allow the police/army to be flanked and then completely surrounded? They were sent there to surround the protesters but instead they found themselves surrounded. ::sigh::

I'll be posting photos shortly in another journal.

Pretty amazing how this is unfolding. The government just spent over 200 million baht on riot protection equipment, and this is what they show for it?

I was on Regent house to apply my visa this morning. Ater finished and leave the building I found that I was on the red crowd while I wore blue!! Indeed, I can felt tension between red group and police...

Sign too!!