Friday, November 04, 2005

The View From My Window




While I was working on my previous post, a protest started in front of my office building and I just had to give you the scoop. The front banner says it's the National Coordination of Cooperative Victims (see here and here for details.)

First, the group grew to fill the intersection, then it became a sit-in, which of course backed up traffic for the whole block.

And then gun shots were fired. Apparently, it was a police officer in plain clothes who was pissed off that his SUV couldn't go through. What I did see with my own eyes is two men in t-shirts and jeans with their black handguns drawn.

Of course, the crowd panicked. My own heart skipped a beat when the first shots were fired because I sit with my back to the window. Anyway, no harm to anyone that I can see. The protest is regrouping as I write this.

A sampling of the signs and chants: "We don't want of live like animals, we don't want the IMF", or "We don't want to be hungry, we don't want the IMF", and after the incident, they chanted "Latortue stole our money, now he's shooting at us".

That last one is rather inaccurate (Latortue "inherited" the problem) but then again, it's not like much has been done in favor of these people.

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