No, these are not Riders of Rohan.
They are Albuquerque mounted police, ready to do, well, your guess is as good as mine what. They are on patrol during a large protest that is taking place in Albuquerque, New Mexico over, particularly, the police murder of James Boyd on March 16th and, more generally,
the carnage APD has been responsible for over the course of many years.
And no, these aren't air balloons being inflated in preparation for a float in an upcoming Macy's parade.
The protest has apparently been going on for almost twelve hours now, multiple rounds of tear gas have been fired into the crowd, and some reports suggest the cannisters have been tossed back at APD. The protests do not seem to be letting up.
More tweet pictures from tonight:
Sun Mar 30, 2014 at 10:47 PM PT:
7:11 AM PT:
7:15 AM PT: