Hundreds of Red Shirt protesters defied a state of emergency and gathered for a demonstration in Bangkok, Thailand on Sunday, where they called for early elections. At least ninety demonstrators linked to the Red Shirt movement were killed in two months of clashes with security forces that ended in April.
An angry mob outraged by a plan to build a highway in the middle of a Russian forest attacked the mayor's office in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, smashing windows with stones and smoke grenades, France 24 reports. YouTube user Berillii gave this account of his video to the French network's Observers program, confirming a report in Kommersant newspaper that the incident was the work of anarchists rather than environmental activists:
"At 6pm a big group of young people were gathered at Trubnaya Square in Moscow: there were anarchists, punks, young communists and regular students. Many of them looked like they'd just come to listen to a concert and didn't know that the music was a just a cover for a planned riot. At about 7pm, a singer from one of the bands climbed up on a statue overlooking the square and declared that police, private security guards and Nazi thugs were attacking the environmental protesters in Khimki, and that we should take revenge. He called everyone to go to Petrovsko-Razumovskaya train station, and we set off from there to Khimki in 10 minutes.
I think there were at least 200 people participating in the protest and ensuing riots: I saw several train wagons full. I recall seeing one guy pick up a metal rod from the rail track, and I was thinking that things could get ugly. The crowd marched down Moskovskaya street up to the administrative building. The column of people stretched all the way down the street. When the start of the protest reached the building and started shooting from traumatic pistols (Russian rubber-bullet self-defense guns), people at end of the procession thought that a clash had broken out between protesters and security. (In fact, security guards were completely taken by surprise, and quickly fled the scene.)
I ran to the front of the procession and started filming. My video shows what happened from then on: the shooting, the stone-throwing, the graffiti, then the retreat, the march back to the train station. Everything went very fast."
At least 50 people were arrested in Phoenix during protests against a tough new Arizona immigration law on Thursday, the day the law took effect. The videos below show SWAT officers and sheriff's deputies arresting demonstrators.
User name: Barriozona Location: Phoenix, Arizona Date uploaded: July 29 Event date: July 29 Views: 19 User notes: On the day Arizona immigration law SB 1070 was implemented, around 200 demonstrators carried acts of civil disobedience by blocking Washington Street between Central Avenue and 1st Avenue. Phoenix Police arrested several protesters who refused to clear the street. Video produced by Eduardo Barraza | Barriozona Magazine Click here to watch this video on YouTube.
The Chinese government has dispatched paramilitary troops to the city of Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, to control protesters demanding compensation for land that was razed to make way for factories, according to the AP, which writes: "Such disputes are common in China as swaths of farmland are razed to make way for factories, office parks, golf courses and other urban sprawl."
Videos uploaded to YouTube show protestors clashing with police, and hundreds of security agents streaming into the city.
152 hotel workers and labor supporters were arrested in San Francisco on Thursday outside the Grand Hyatt hotel, part of a nationwide demonstration for higher wages and better working conditions in hotels. The AP reports the San Francisco demonstrators were arrested for refusing to obey police orders to leave. Scenes of the protest begin around 1:40 in the clip below.
Business owners along a stretch of Broadway in downtown Oakland, California are removing graffiti and repairing broken windows in the wake of last night's riot. At least 83 people were arrested for failing to disperse, resisting arrest, burglary, vandalism and assaulting a police officer, according to KGO-TV.
Demonstrators marched through central Hong Kong today to mark the 13-year anniversary of the return to Chinese rule. They used the occasion to criticize recent electoral reforms which they said did not go far enough to ensure universal sufferage for Hong Kong residents.
A Toronto passer-by tackled a man trying to steal a box full of goods through a smashed store window at Saturday's G20 demonstration-turned-riot. "Don't steal," the passer-by admonishes in the video that captures the incident:
Police in Athens, Greece fired tear gas at protesters who hurled rocks and bottles and set garbage bins on fire in the latest strike against government budget cuts. The demonstrations took place near Parliament, where lawmakers are considering a round of austerity measures that include cuts to pensions and raising the retirement age, according to the BBC. Thousands of workers around the country are on strike while the changes are debated.
Protesters rallied in Alexandria, Egypt today against police officers who they say tortured and killed a 28-year old businessman. According to the AP, "the death of Khaled Said has become a rallying point for pro-reform activists and rights workers who say police abuse is rampant." The wire service reports "demonstrators chanted once taboo slogans against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak" and the head of the country's police force.
Nationwide strikes over plans to raise France's retirement age from 60 to 62 were captured by users on YouTube today. The demonstrations are a reaction to France's President Nicholas Sarkozy's view that the proposed pension reform is necessary to keep the system funded.
User name:lapetitechroniqueuse Location: Paris, France Date uploaded: June 24 Views: 26
User notes: A short video of the demonstration against the pension reform in Paris on June 24th without commentary.
User name:jean2419521 Location: Pau, France Date uploaded: June 24 Views: 22 User notes: Pau had a great demonstration against pension reform on a beautiful sunny day ... of course! Click here to watch this video on YouTube.
Cairo's streets are echoing with demonstrators' cries for justice for the death of Khaled Saeed, 28. Saeed's death on June 6, 2010, has become a rallying point for critics of the government who believe the incident to be an example of law enforcement's rampant abuse of power, according to The Associated Press. Today courts called for a second autopsy of Saeed's body.
Videos are flooding into YouTube today from the large demonstrations on Sunday, June 13:
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