Belgians tweet cat pics in following orders not to reveal police action
CBC News | Posted: November 23, 2015 5:21 PM | Last Updated: November 23, 2015
With a lockdown limiting their options, people turned to an internet staple: feline photos
As Brussels residents enter their third day under lockdown, Belgian police have asked them not to tweet about any police action they see in the streets or near their homes.
But with the subway and schools closed, it limits people's options on things they can tweet. So the internet settled on what it knows best: cat photos. People flooded #BrusselsLockdown hashtag with cats following the rules, cats getting a little in over their heads or cats just being commonly cute felines.
Many of the photos were in solidarity of the raids from those experiencing the lockdown first-hand.
More showed cats misbehaving
The photos occasionally mention Belgian surrealism, an art movement with which the country has a rich history. Belgian artist René Magritte painted The Trechery of Images — a smoking pipe with the words "This is not a pipe" in French.
Still, maybe some of these cats got in over their heads.
A contingent of the cats had seemingly joined up with an empire from a galaxy far, far away.
Some of the cats went on raids of their own.
Over the weekend, authorities arrested 21 people after police ran 19 raids. As the raids continue into today, the Canadian government said its embassy will be closed until further notice. The police and troops remain on the streets of the Belgian capital in search of one or more suspected extremists, including Salah Abdeslam, who has been named a suspect in the Paris attacks.