Having seen the red shirt blockade and watched footage of them on Thai TV that will never be seen overseas, it is obvious that they ( or at least a significant number ) are IMO a bunch of thugs out for blood, and wish for nothing less than the overthrow of the present government by any means.

Would such a provocation be tolerated in any "democratic" country? I doubt it, and I reckon there must be "something" going on behind the scenes that we are definitely not privvy to, for the blockades of Bangkok to be allowed to continue for so long.

If the red thugs win, they will get a thugocracy, not a democracy. The democracy rhetoric is mainly to fool the foreign press.

If anyone attacks the law enforcement they deserve to be taken out and no one should worry about that. These will also happen in all civilized societies