Damage: Revenge Parties - From the Compound to the World - CycleBlaze

May 27, 2022

Damage: Revenge Parties

On yet another compound confined walk we heard the sound of English at the gate.  Some of our neighbor's friends had broken out of their compound in another district and walked 5km to get here.  We congregated at the gate and started cracking out the beers while introducing ourselves.  Three of them were on one side of the front gate, three of us on the other side as we kept the partying and drinking.  The guards didn't bat an eye but we got plenty of frowns from other onlookers.  

Not long after that, I got a call from a friend I hadn't seen in two months (go figure why).  He snuck out of his compound and walked over 7km to see me.  For that he got a bottle of gin.  We then mixed drinks and had another party talking through the fence at the side gate.

Elsewhere in the city things were getting wild.  A large crowd of expats and locals had either been released from their compounds or had broken out (probably both) and were thronging the streets.  Since there were no businesses open they just improvised with  a literal street party

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The police tried to shut it down but their effort was lacklustre.  If this was mid-lockdown the police would have swooped in fast and furious.  Mind you at that time nobody was on the street and even joggers got punished for going around in circles on remote roads.  

But now it seemed the rank and file police themselves were also tired of this lockdown shit.  They were just dictated to like everyone else and it would depend on people higher up to take more serious actions.  To that effect, the next day, someone higher up in the district shut down that entire block.  

Pre-lockdown this kind of thing was rare.  Parties were mainly a lot more orderly and inside bars and clubs etc.. not on the street.  But people were mad as hell and letting out their frustrations and also joy at this thing supposedly coming to an end.  It would takes years to heal.

Today's ride: 2 km (1 miles)
Total: 127 km (79 miles)

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