The demonstration was brutally put down. Police lashed out, their blows temporarily paralysing slower protesters who couldn't escape the random thrashing. Women were amongst those badly beaten during the demonstration, held in Zimbabwe's second-largest city Bulawayo, last Wednesday. Some were mid-afternoon shoppers who'd been scuttling between stores, searching for scarce commodities like bread to take home to their families. Several were unaware of the protest until it was too late, and they were caught on the wrong side of the police cordon.