About 17,000 police officers were deployed to subdue at least 9,000 people who rallied in the streets of Bangkok on Saturday to call for the overthrow of the Thai government. Protesters believe the current prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is doing the bidding of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from the post in 2006.

Demonstrators, organized by the royalist Pitak Siam group and led by retired Gen. Boonlert Kaewprasit, attempted to scale concrete and barbed wire barriers to enter the protest site, Bangkok’s Royal Plaza, not far from the parliament.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.