Add Thailand to the list of places I wouldn’t want to be right now. Just like the Kyrgyzstan riots I reported on yesterday, this also stems from the people’s problems with their government.
The shotguns in the picture appear to be Remington 870s
Picture #3 – Soldiers carrying HK G3 Rifles
Picture #6 – M16A1 rifles that protesters seized from soldiers
Picture #7 – M4 Carbine and a M1911 pistol
Picture #31 – Remington 870
Picture #33 – Piles of HK G3 rifles , M16A1 rifles, and some unknown break action single barrel shotguns seized by protesters
A couple of the pictures definitely look suspect when it comes to the real brand name weapons as opposed to clones.
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A common theme of protestors starting out with rocks, and upgrading to riot gear and rifles compliments of retreating police/military.
I also noticed something else from this particular photo set, as opposed to the pictures from Kyrgystan yesterday: I’m assuming that the shotguns are loaded, but I didn’t see another single weapon in the Thailand pictures with a magazine inserted. The magazine pouches on the tactical vests some of the troops are wearing appeared to be empty too. Even the weapons siezed by the protestors who are waving them around, have no magazines. Maybe I missed one, but on first glance that’s what it looks like to me.
Holy you’re right, I wonder why that is…
You know… that is gonna put a serious damper on my plans to go see my girlfriends/bargirls in Phuket and Pattaya soon.. :D Oh, and #9 i think it was, with the praying Ronald McDonald behind the riot police was great.. way to protect the valuable assets guys :}
As for the loaded weapon/magazine issue, the guy surrendering his seized AR and 1911 in #7 seems to have unloaded the mags from them on the table. The caption said it was seized from parliament, so maybe only certain groups of police had ammo, perhaps to minimize on a pissed off officer/soldier returning fire after being hit by a rock?
You’re girlfriends will miss you :P
I think a lot of times they just stage ammunition for photo opportunities. Maybe not in this case though, but I don’t think it is out of the realm of possibility.
That would be funny if not all the police had ammo like you said.
I don’t think that rifle in picture #7 should be called an M4. M4’s have some significant differences over that weapon. That weapon has the older M16/M16A1 style rear sights; M4’s have the A2 style. That weapon has a forward assist, but no brass deflector; M4’s have both. M4’s have a 14.5”, stepped down barrel (to accept the M203), this weapon has a straight barrel, that appears much shorter than that of an M4. I would guess that’s something similar to a Colt 629/XM177E2, which has the older sights, no brass deflector, and an 11.5” straight barrel.
There’s the one photo where the guns are returned to the police station, with the ammo lined up on the table.
What really struck me was the kindness of the protestors. Yes, they’re ruthless when facing the police, but when a soldier is down he is picked up. Protestors wiping soldier’s faces, or attending their injured. If I were to interpret this, part of it is the Thai legendary reputation the Thais have for hospitality, but it seems as if the protestors understand that the police are just doing their job, and one that individual policemen might not want to be doing.
Very different from Kyrgystan, and just about every other civil uprising I’ve ever seen.
That’s a great observation! That’s pretty impressive that they do stop like that to give aid. Sure they’re using brute force to oppose and seize equipment, but then to return equipment and weapons, and render aid to individual injured soldiers and police; that shows a remarkable amount of restraint and civility. It certainly is a stark contrast to the protests in Kyrgyzstan. I like photo #32, where the protestors are greeting the retreating soldiers. It’s almost like two opposing sports teams shaking hands after a game, recognizing that it’s nothing personal.
Good call.. it’s definitely interesting how sportsmanlike they are with the rioting.
Good riot, guys, see ya next week!
The Thai army has been given strict orders to avoid confronting the protesters. There is a serious concern that the military will be forced to stop the protesters and it will delve into violence, thus given the Red Shirts the perfect chance to show the ruling gov’t is against the working class people (aka Red Shirts). This has even extended down to the soldiers removing their magazines if they are being overrun. The theory is that then the protesters don’t have any bullets even if they do have the guns, although they do get a great photo op. Agreed, the protest is remarkably civilized.
I am flying in this week, will see if I can get some other photos.
Interesting info, thanks Tim. It would be great if you reported back with some of your pictures.
Pic 31 is not a rem 870. Looks more like an Ithaca.
It looked weird to me; I’ve never seen an 870 with that type of setup on the front of the magazine tube. But, that definitely looks like an 870 trigger /trigger guard, not an Ithaca (none that I could find a picture of anyway).