We're in 'Nam - There Are No Rules

Day one in Vietnam found us in Hanoi trying not to see anything interesting, lest we ruin the experience for when Kyle's parents join us on the 7th. So we spent the morning at the train station, bought some tickets, checked our luggage, and hit the drizzly streets with no particular destination in mind. While having coffee, we witnessed the following:

Small dining establishment with traditional low plastic tables and stools adorning the sidewalk suddenly becomes animated. Patrons are hustled inside, propreitors are grabbing chairs, chopsticks, and condiments with an urgency rarely seen in South East Asia. Equally determined in their pursuit are 6-8 uniformed military police officers (picture the bright green and red accents of the North Vietnamese in every movie you've ever seen - its exactly the same) on motorcycles. The police grab the remaining restaurant furnishings, which consist of two erected sidewalk umbrellas, which they struggle to retract with authority. Within seconds, a pickup truck with two other officials pulls up and the umbrellas are deposited in it, atop a motley pile of stools, tables, and other sidewalk dining implements. The truck speeds off, flanked by half a dozen motos with pairs of cops. The restauranteurs skulk in the doorway of their establishment, looking angry but saying nothing. The sidewalk is now relatively empty.

Moments later, the truck and moto procession speeds by in the opposite direction, having added a glass display case and surely numerous condiments to its pile of booty. Within one stoplight cycle, the tables reappear from the pilaged restaurants and patrons are reseated; tea cups and soup bowls are returned as al fresco dining as usual resumes.

What are the possible explanations? We've come up with the following:
1) Annual police picnic is coming up, and they require supplies for their family-oriented festivities. Later, they will raid the rice market for gear for the sack races.
2) Police cadets are undergoing rush week, which requires rigorous displays of authority and coordination.
3) Speed and agility of shopkeepers is tested regularly by the local police force to keep them fit for entry into some Hanoi-based reality TV slash game show of Japanese derivation.
You be the judge.