With regard to MY incident, it has been suggested that by my attempting to remove the parking barrier, I was escalating the situation. The way I saw it at the time, by illegally placing the barriers to block my leaving, they had already escalated things. They were PROVOKING an escalation.
This was a classic case of a bar owner illegally blocking off the street frontage of their property, very common in many parts of Thailand and not exclusive to the bar business either. This was not a no-parking zone and the barriers they had placed, although belonging to the city or the police, had been stacked there after being used to block off vehicular access during an event at this bar the previous week. The street was open to traffic and parking.
I had parked outside this bar, but along with my friends, went to a bar directly opposite for about an hour. The bar I had parked in front of was double shophouse with steps leading up to a frontage shared by other businesses. I had not impeded customer access and indeed, his bar was already busy. It was only after returning to my car that I found my departure impeded.
The rest, as they say, is history and a valuable lesson learned.