It's Not About the Cause... It's About the Chaos!

On August 27; after a full day of exploring Seoul with my friend from home we were heading to the subway when we found ourselves in a most precarious situation. Upon turning a corner we found ourselves on a street lined with 1000’s of riot police for as far as the eye could see. They were armed with masks, batons and shields; standing in formation and chanting.

To our utter confusion, while caught in the middle of the ranks they were dispatched and began jogging and chanting. With nothing else to do we followed behind attempting to take photographs of this most obscure event. For half an hour we followed them to a location where they stopped. I began calling my friends around Korea to see if they knew what was going on, but no one had even heard about it. At this point we sat down and agreed that it must have been a drill.

As soon as we decided to call it a night and head home we could hear chanting and see flags approaching down the main road. Over 10,000 protesters were soon marching by and the situation became real. Not knowing what was going on we stopped at a corner store and bought a bag of beer and began marching, no longer with the police, but rather with the protesters chanting the Buffalo Bills theme song in the heart of an unknown conflict.

We continued on with the protesters several kilometers, ironically to the Peace Park where the masses congregated for a speech. The whole time the riot police followed closely behind and lined the sidewalks around us. People began to cover their faces in preparation for tear gas, which was used on the same protest in Pusan weeks before.  We did what any sane person would do and kept the cameras rolling and the beers flowing.

Eventually we went home when it proved uneventful. The following day we learned that the protest was in response to a long struggle against a shipping company firing workers to benefit share holders and CEO’s ; typical of all world economies today. The second day of protesting in Seoul resulted in the use of water cannons to disperse protesters as the conflict continues to be platform of debate today.