When I walked down stairs this morning, this was the view I had from standing out in front of my apartment

 

 

As you can see the police and military have the red shirts held north of Soi 2.  The Ratchadamri BTS is to the immediate left of the soi.

 

 

Red shirts begin to clash with police.  Nothing too serious.  Mostly a lot of pushing and shoving and both sides trying to de-esculate the situation.  

 

During one of the lulls in the confrontation.  

Red shirts eventually push the police and military back south of Soi 2 right about where the Ratchadamri BTS is.

The police seem to lose control of their own vehicles during the standoff.

 

Police don't seem to be able to hold the line and red shirts frequently mingle in and out of the police ranks.

 

 

Surrounded on all sides and with the reds occupying the BTS station (the high ground) the military decides to withdraw.  

 

 

The big boss assessing the situation

 

 

Military troops protect the boss' withdrawal

 

 

Riot police stand on the sidelines and watch the military withdraw.

 

 

Some police chat, laugh, and take photos with red shirts

 

 

The looks on the troops faces pretty much say it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Retreating soldiers are offered water 

 

 

Red shirt guards provide security for . . . the military

 

 

The red shirts declare victory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shortly after, according to the Bangkok Post, they marched the soldiers to Lumpini Park where the protesters locked the gates to the park thus trapping the soldiers as well as everyone else who was in the park at the time.  

 

 

That last piece was bullshit - I was at Lumpini Park and I saw what happened - I'll post pics soon.

They were some scuffles and pushing and shoving. The soliders retreated. But they didn't need to - there were loads of reserves nearby. The soldiers went back to their barracks at Lumpini Park once the situation was calm. As they walked in, Red Shirts clapped and smiled, the soliders smiled back.

I didn't follow them down to Lumpini so that's why I say that it's according to the Bangkok Post. The rest I did witness. I followed them to about where the US ambassador's residence ends.

That being said, the smiling wasn't happening when they were being marched down Ratchadamri. They looked scared and or just had their morale broken a bit. There was no smiling or waving by the soldiers though many in the crowd were smiling, waving, offering water, and saying "thank you" to them for backing off.

If anything they seemed very paranoid. Even all the way down by the US ambassador's residence they were constantly looking over their shoulders, holding up their shields, and acting like they were about to get jumped at any moment.

Even the security around them (the red shirt guards) seemed a little jumpy. They were backing people off from their path and formed a line on each side of them holding hands so people off of the street could not approach them. One lady broke through the lines with her child and the child offered a solider water but the soldier just stood there. One of the red shirt guards came over and shooed her away.

Even I got caught up by the guards. I was taking pics and the crowd was moving so quickly that one of the red shirt guards caught me by surprise and bumped into me and pushed me backwards. He sort of did a quick threat evaluation and then laughed and told me to move to the side saying "be careful."

On the other hand the police were laughing, joking, taking pictures, and eating lunch while this was going on.

Today the Red spokesman told us that no Reds pushed or thew bottles at police or soldiers. Those were all fake reds. We caught one and he was a solider, he said.

uh huh.

The did actually nab some dude. He was wearing an army-type uniform but had a red scarf and a red armband. They grabbed his and it looked like they tied his hands up because they were trying to push him up on the back of the truck and I never saw him using his arms to brace himself. They also threw water in his face and stripped him of all of his red paraphernalia.

Whether he did or did not throw water and was or was not a soldier . . . I don't know but they I do know they snatched that dude right in front of my face :-)

I wasn't able to get a good shot of the guy but here he is:

He's the one in military fatigues. They were a bit rough with him. I thought they had snatched him from the army but when I saw the red I thought they might have caught a spy or something. Bad spy disguise if he was a spy.

I can't believe you got a pic of allseasonsman atop the police truck!