Hi folks,
I heard there was a student protest so I headed out on my bike
and with my camera to take some photographs here in downtown Santiago, Chile.
I pretty much hung out behind lines with my camera aimed at the police and captured them waiting for battle and or heading into battle.
The impoverished youth head to battle with shopping carts filled with bottles and pieces of bricks and concrete to hurl at the police.
Lots of cops standing guard.
The battle going full tilt.
Police working the perimeter.
Young girls head away from the cops blocking the street as the protestors who were without a permit heading downtown on the giant boulevard Bernard O'Higgins.
The protest pass in front of the presidential palace and other big governmental buildings and monuments.
Squad formations waiting for trouble.
This old lady yakked at me, then went across the street to yakk at the motorcycle cop.
The Entel Building stands above the street scrimmages.
The heavy machinery of the militarized police comes through.
And into the fray they go.
Young people of all types take turns running forward and launching projectiles at the cops. For some Chilean youth this is like a passage of manhood and a way to show off for a girlfriend at the same time. For others, it is a way to release steam at the system and of entrenched poverty.
I left soon after this as I forgot my gas mask and this armorelite was spitting water mixed with tear gas and the cops also tossed a few canisters of cs gas at the mob.
This is a local Basiclica de los Sacramentinos not too far away from the battles where I could relax and clear my eyes and sinuses from the cs gas.
