[Peace-discuss] What to expect from Sarkozy in France? police violence

[Matt Reichel]

Something that has gone almost entirely unreported in the mainstream press is the brutal police violence that has been employed here in Paris and elsewhere against those protesting the impending Sarko government. On Wednesday night, I attended what was meant to be a march from the Jardin Luxembourg onto Bastille, only to have the march get stopped by an enormous squadron of le flic in their riot gear and all. Anyone who so much as approached them was given a healthy whack with the baton and thrown to the ground.This ensured that this rally did not meet up with another manifestation at La Bastille later in the evening, where police also reacted with extreme and un-necessary force, according to the report below that was forwarded to me on the Americans Against the War in Paris listserv.Not to mention the ridiculous prison sentences given to organizers of Sunday night's post-election actions. These were acts of civil disobedience, involving vandalism of public property in and around the Bastille, including the statue, so prison time was expected: but 4-6 months is obviously not warranted.So we see already what to expect under the Sarko regime: state repression of dissenting viewpoints, police violence against leftists, immigrants and racial minorities, and a total media blackout on anything bad the government does.Cheers,Matt R   Sent to by david barnes...  Heres his report, but we also talked, ugh/thug!!!! ! I was there, as you'll see, but this is mostly a report by my friend Jen Dick who was on the other side of the square.   As
I am writing you, it is chaos outside.  Just now I had to get up and
watch the street explode with tear bomb casings, kids rushing this and
that way, hemmed in on both sides by police.  And I mean on my little
street. I am not even speaking of what has been happening on Place de
la Bastille.  And it is now 1am.  I took some water out for a few
protesters whose eyes were bright red from repeated tear gassings.  Now
some of the smoke rises up to my window, floating in to sting lightly
my nose.  This is what the new election has already wrought, and no
press anywhere.  A bit frightening, really, the absence of the French
press.  Makes one wonder whether this will be the new attitude to
protesting "report nothing, as if it never happened at all, then
continue on your merry way". I talked to some guys filming for Czech
news earlier.    Earlier, when there were masses (of mostly
young people, anti sarko and pro segolene voters) outside, I watched as
people were cannoned with water at the corner tonight, in front of
Hippopatamous, and groups massed and then fled in circles, constantly
forced to circle back into la place de la bastille by police blockades.
 Long before anything was happening, the police had formed barriers
around la place.  They were decked out in their plastic shields,
helmets, shoulder and body pads.  They were waiting to get to do
something.    And certainly, the extremes of what I have seen
here tonight would not have broken down into such a series of conflicts
as are still going on this late had the police not attacked the quiet
protesters who had amassed simply to share their disappointment, their
traditional flares flowing bright red off place de la bastille around
9pm.  But the police had been sitting round in their giant trucks all
afternoon, bored and ready, so.... that is what happens.   
What, may you asked, happened?  A little after 10 some kids getting
bored with the nothingness of standing round la place in a quiet mass
came across those green construction tin sidings that you see on the
streets around parts of the road under work.  They started to drum on
them, making an impressive racket, and suddenly the soporific crowd
decided to flow towards them--and I do mean suddenly there was this
flow, this mass energized, like a river flodding all of a suddent, and
I started to flow AWAY from them as did some others--because you could
feel what this would lead to.  The beating on the panels was loud and
the police along Richard Lenoir behind them seemed mal at ease with
this shifting, more active crowd, and then--before I knew it--standing
as I was, just watching people amble here and there, people suddenly
were running, in droves, towards me then past then stopped head to head
with the little blockade on rue de la bastille.  It was obvious that
over by Fbg St Antoine there had been the tear gas start, and things
degenerated from there.   Some students confronted outright the very
staunch, immobile line of CRS cops on rue de la bastille, screaming
hysterically into the unperterbable police faces things like "Why?
 What were we doing to deserve this?  You don't have the right to gas
us!" etc. Others took a more diplomatic tack, but none got a single
response from this last-of-the- fallback police lines.   
Eventually, the Place de la Bastille was just a huge smoke cloud, there
were bonfires that the pompiers came and put out on occasion, and
fireworks and flares went off here and there.  Humourously, a man asked
the line of CRS by my house whether he could cross through their line
and go home.  They said no, he'd have to cross bastille to take blvd de
la bastille.  The man laughed outright into the policeman's face and
pointed at the now-deserted (temporarily) place de la bastille full of
huge clouds of billowing smoke and tear gas.  He pointed and laughed,
like "yes, right, I am going to just stroll into that to head home"   
Things kind of stayed in this space for awhile until the police decided
to advance, pushing their trucks into the place (on this side, I could
not see roquette or Fbg St Antoine).  Then the water cannon was brought
out, shooting people with massive gusts of water.  It was impressive
how some people just stood and took it.   A lot of people scattered I
don't know where, perhaps went home, too, others tried to leave and
found themselves stuck because of police barricades, whereas others
dispersed and regrouped over and over to face off with CRS groups.  I
did see police surrounding an injured person thus keeping them from
being further trampled.  But did they also injure them in the first
place? That was not clear.  A guy behind me on his cell phone was
saying "C'est mai 68 ici" though I did think that was a bit
exagerrated.  I heard glass windows had been broken on cafés and shops
across the way, but could not go out and verify that myself.  Black
smoke paired with the light grey tear gas smoke in place de la bastille
as bonfires filled the air.     Later, people dispersed even
more, then regrouped at the edge of my street, then dispersed again
until I thought everyone had gone home.  A silence ensued, but on
occasion there are these groups running round, confronting and being
confronted by the police.  I can hear them now, far off, on occasion
BOOOing, on occasion chanting or shrieking, on occasion accompanied by
sounds like what that watercannon sounded like, but I cannot see it
anymore.      But now that it is 2am the traffic is starting to
return to the center and this is a sign that people have generally
headed home for now.   Another friend (David Barnes) says he
also was out on the opposite side of bastille where, it was "tear gas,
full on riot....we were on bastille... didn't get water canonned... we
weren't on the steps or near the column by that time.. because we fled
tear gas down roquette and sheltered in Quick... for a long time there
was so much gas you couldnt get out for more than a minute... and
police sealed off the street at rue de lappe...windows were broken down
charonne and also ledru rollin...opera stpes looked good because above
the gas" He says he could see broken windows at "that furniture shop at
the metro sortie faubourg st antione... then a crowd running down
charonne from tear gas smashed lots of stuff" He also said, and this is
what I noticed too: "Atmosphere was so strange - half "this is a game"
and half "you bastard fascists how can you do this? lets get the
fascists"    Well thought you all might like to know that this is what Bastille was like, since it may never make the news.  Night   Jen> To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net> From: brussel4 at insightbb.com> Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 20:39:32 -0500> Subject: [Peace-discuss] What to expect from Sarkozy in France> > This article seems to me to be a good analysis of what the election  > of Sarkozy means fro France and Europe:> > http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=74&ItemID=12779> > --mkb> _______________________________________________> Peace-discuss mailing list> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
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