Big trouble

With the exception of the occasional soccer hooligans, Switzerland tends to be a kinder, gentler place. Even the local police tend to look more like civil servants than your average paramilitary U.S. cop. So it was quite a surprise when I walked over to the train station from my office this evening and found it surrounded by armed police in full-on riot gear, just like this:

Anyway, I wanted to know what was going on, but I didn't think they would take too kindly to me tapping one of them on the shoulder and asking (in English, of course) what the story was. Near as I can tell, there were some sort of protests in Basel against the World Economic Forum in Davos (where we happen to have plans to go skiing in a few weeks). Why they're protesting here when Davos is several hours away is beyond me, but then again I probably wouldn't understand since I suppose I'm one of the evil globalists.