The Drop written by Sopranz,* whose research is on motorcycle taxis, has recently established a blog and has some posts about motorcycle taxis and the current protests. His latest post is very interesting:

Down in the direction of Hualompong and then into Rama VI until Aree, then back to Victory Monument. As I pass chanel 5 station, the police is setting up a road block. At the entrance of the highway right before Victory Monument as big crowd of motorcycle and people starts moving frenetically, bringing plastic barriers and wood in the middle of the street and piling them before starting to burn the pile. “The army is coming” shout a motortaxi driver as many people move in the direction of Victory Monument. Goodbye peacefulness today.

I drive into the back soi, to try to cut into Victory Monument but end up in a small closed community where police officers in anti-riot gear lounge inside a compound, taking pictures of what is going on in the street. I drive back and cut into Victory Monument as a barricade is created in the middle of the street with whatever is available and a big fire set in front of it.

The round square is surreal, completely empty with few groups of curious standing on the long overpasses that surrounds the empty roundabout. Again stillness is accentuated by the memories of this buzzing transportation node. A long line of police man in uniform but bringing no weapons or protection crosses the roundabout and stop underneath a tend on the northern side of the square, they arrive quietly saluted by the crowd. I ask around and a woman tells me that they came to prevent the army from attacking from Phahon Yothin. She also tells me that the only way out of the area is toward Ratchawithi, as the other two exits are blocked one by a military line and the other by the heavy fighting in Din Daeng.

Slowly the police officers take position in rows and move to Phahon Yothin were the fire is now releasing black smoke. The police scatter beyond the barricades and start taking it off as the crowd looks trying to understand their role. From a small gate beside the highway entrance the groups of anti-riot police exit from their refuge and take position at the right side of the crowd, an older policeman tells people around to let them do their job and reassure they are here to protect the people. A loud applause follows his words. The police take charge of the situation, rapidly removing the barricade and putting off the fire. Never in my life I thought I would see the police dismantling a barricade just built being cheered by the same people who put it on, standing cheerfully around.

Only smoking debris remains in the middle of the big road as the police takes again position in rows and the anti-riot group goes back to where they came from. An older police officer, who act as the person in charge, stands in the middle of the street and tells a small crowd formed around him mostly by motortaxi drivers to be calm and that if they don’t stop the street the military will not arrive. “Do you believe me?” he ends. “Believe” is the common answer as people applause and cheer the police battalion moving back into Victory Monument and leaving the area.

BP: Sopranz has a photo of two as well. Also see his sniper pic (although it is hard to make out) from the same post. Interested to click to read now?

Are the police taking a more hands-on approach? It does coincide with what BP noticed that between 6am and midnight that the death toll from May 14-17 increased from 35 persons to 36 persons (respective Thai language PDF links here and here). So we have gone from 12 persons a day to just 1 on May 17.

BP should also note that Royal Thai Police HQ is located right in the middle of the protest zone and well it hasn’t come under any attack at all. Many Thai journalists are based there and from video that BP has seen of the security at the entrance gates, it is virtually non-existent (just saw two police officers). The relationship between the protesters and the police was always much better than between protesters and the army, but from the above it seems the police are helping to alleviate tensions between the army and the protesters.

*Not sure whether Sopranz is hiding his identity so won’t reveal more details, but was alerted to his blog by an academic who provided details of Sopranz’s credentials. Sopranz is with an academic institution of which members of the ammart would salivate over if their kids could enter.