I just left the street to get to WiFi. This video is completely unedited.
I started shooting with my Canon Mark III 5d (ancient!) but switched to iPhone when a man got a violent look on his face. I did not switch to make him happy but because my iPhone has autofocus and can shoot closer. My guess is he was somehow related to the police.
(Need major gear upgrade. Please hit my Patreon now for monthly subscription, or PayPal or other methods: https://www.patreon.com/MichaelYon )
The people wearing white shirts waving Chinese flags are “pro police.”
Having studied Chinese information war in about a dozen countries since 2014, I will guess that they either are police, family, army, or are hired by the Chinese Communist Party/PLA/related.
This video and post is completely unedited. In a hurry to get back to action. This is an inventory of the field as it is now. I will go straight back when this is posted and so will not be reading comments.
I am alone and these things can get dangerous so am turning my head a lot, and so you might see the camera not always shooting straight or my voice trail off from audio as I scan around me but the camera stays still. (Not using lav mic.)
You really must keep your head on a swivel. Notice that numerous minor fights break out. More shouting matches than real violence at this point.
My experience at violent protests is that things can get really wild, really big, really fast, from any direction. So, you are watching some drama and then very close to you someone gets shot. (No gunfire here today...just remembering previous protests.)
My experience at protests is that real violence tends to start later during day or night when people are tired and more emotional, and the inevitable drunks, druggies, crazies, werewolves, and really serious people get really serious.
Notice I talk to one lady for just a short time in the beginning. She shows the tells of a paid protestor. Real protestors who have serious agendas will tend to talk about specifics of something, such as on X date Y happened, and we must change ABC and XYZ. Authentic people tend to make lots of specifics. Paid people, robots, and so forth, just make general statements.
Nutters, robots, and paid people say general statements like, “The young people are bad.” In other words, there is no depth to their statements. Americans might recognize this as “Orange man bad” type talk. Notice she does this. Sweeping statement with no meat.
Unfortunately, video/audio change them AND me, so I switch back and forth. But this video is about 30 minutes of just taking inventory and without interruption.
I talk about fasting a little, in case that is interesting. Fitness and nutrition always are fun even when there might be gunfire, lol.
Notice there are very few caucasians. I saw one white TV crew who was completely mobbed. Mobbing is a technique sometimes used to shutdown media.
Chinese are famous for mobbing. Passive way to make sure you get nothing. The TV crew does not know what they are doing. They need to have smaller gear and dress like tourists or some such.
When I do gear upgrades, it will be to small gear that looks non professional. Luckily, the new great Sony stuff is totally pro and totally small, and if you dress like a tourist most people likely will leave you alone.
Today I dressed in shorts. Several people asked if I am a journalist. I gave different answers to gauge reactions. There seemed hostility to white journalists (just a guess on small sample size), but not towards me in general. When I said “Just a tourist. No one of consequence. Why is there a celebration tonight?” they were far more friendly.
All this stuff is happening literally in the shadow of PLA and Police HQ. Literally just at the doorstep or a few minutes walk. PLA HQ has a perfect view of the protests.
Alright, this is enough jabber. When this uploads, am going straight back to the action. Sun is down so this is when crazy tends to start at many protests.
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For the video and Facebook Post: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/posts/10156405306760665