One of the officers, ate a meal with too much garlic, eggs, cheese, onions and beans.

Likely the police shot a tear gas off field or dud. (they use a launcher, hence why the noise and some light smoke comes from the police side) The weight and numbers are not that important: riot police are specifically train and equipped to handle bigger crowd, with the crowd lacking proper organization to hold the line.

I can't say I've had or read of any real trouble with our local police. Last time I was stopped by some police following me in a dark night. They asked me whether I know why they stopped me. I said I can't say I do.

They said all my lights at the back of the car were dead, so my car couldn't really be easily detected from behind. Blimey! In the end they told me to use my extra fog lights so that people driving behind me could see me, and get those dead lights fixed ASAP. I didn't get a fine or anything, just a reminder.


Now, as for e.g. Thailand countryside, I was stopped by the local police because according to them I was unnecessarily driving on the "wrong" lane (both lanes went to the same direction). Too bad though that the left ("correct") lane was in a very poor condition so it was near impossible to drive on it.

It was quite obvious the local police had an intentional money trap there, as they knew people couldn't drive the left-side lane at that point. Anyway. the problem was solved "somehow". I deem the thai police even lower now than before.

Also when a friend of mine decided to visit Mexico (he was a tourist in US at the time), only a few kilometers from the border he and her wife were stopped by the police, and they kept insisting he is missing some "tourist document" that he should have in order to enter Mexico.

It was quite obvious they were lying through their teeth, but when they started threatening my friend with putting him into jail etc. unless he paid a few hundred US dollars to them as a fine, eventually my friend just said phuck it, paid up and turned back to US. And vowed never to come back to that shithole known as Mexico ever again. Quite a fast trip, that one.