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| Europe |
| Yellow Jacket protesters storm Paris in violent demonstration |
| 2020-09-13 |
| [NY Post] Protests in Paris erupted in violence on Saturday as hundreds of rioters took to the streets amid a heavy police presence and clouds of teargas to drive back the protestors. Videos uploaded to Twitter showed black-clad rioters stomping on a parked car and later setting it on fire. Another video showed an elderly man intervening to stop a rioter from smashing a car, only to be shoved to the ground by the rioter. By 1 p.m. Paris time, police had made more than 150 arrests, mainly on concealed weapons charges, according to a tweet from Paris police that also showed an image of the knives, sticks and mallets they had seized from the demonstrators. The black-clad anarchists who rampaged through city streets mixed with hundreds of peaceful protestors who were demanding social justice and increased environmental protections. Jean-Marie Bigard, a comedian and self-appointed presidential candidate for the Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Jackets, was booed by members of the Yellow Jackets at one of the marches in Paris, and called a "collaborator" after he distanced himself from one of the leaders who referred to the police as "Nazis." Bigard had to take refuge in a cafe after protestors threatened him, according to French news reports. The national day of protests were called by the movement after a hiatus during the coronavirus lockdown. Several hundred protestors gathered near two squares in Paris, where stores had been boarded up with plywood in anticipation of the authorized marches. Police had banned the group's protests two years ago when rioting against the government of French President Emmanuel Macron turned violent.
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| Posted by:Frank G |
| #7 That's how I understand it. Perhaps JFM could elaborate. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2020-09-13 22:57 |
| #6 If I may add another tidbit, Macron wanted to raise fuel taxes, You’re right, Clem— that was the original trigger. I’d forgotten, so I’m glad you were here to remember for me. :-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2020-09-13 19:50 |
| #5 /\ ...no practical access to public trans.... |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-09-13 18:39 |
| #4 Good recapitulation, TW. If I may add another tidbit, Macron wanted to raise fuel taxes, but that would have mainly affected people who had to drive (i.e., practical access to public trans) and also farmers versus the city dwellers who had the various public transportation systems available. It was a truly grass-roots movement but not without attempts at being co-opted (Marine Le Pen, for one). The French do have a penchant for protests. Perhaps Zhou Enlai's statement "too early too tell" was correct after all. |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-09-13 18:38 |
| #3 Yellow Jackets are black clad? Usually the Gilets Jaunes are referred to in English as Yellow Vests, named for the yellow reflective safety vests every car owner is required to have in his trunk for roadside emergencies. They started out spontaneously protesting every weekend against President Macron’s financial cost-cutting in an attempt to get closer to balancing the French national government budget, including raising the age for full pension payments and reducing government payroll and benefits. Eventually the small business owners who were the core of the original protesters faded away, replaced by the usual Black Bloc types who in America now call themselves Antifa. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2020-09-13 17:26 |
| #2 The politicians in Paris hate the Yellow Jackets. They are probably eagerly blaming riots caused by other people on them, instead of the usual Marxist suspects. |
| Posted by: Vernal Hatrick 2020-09-13 13:57 |
| #1 Something just doesn't ring true with this story. Yellow Jackets are black clad? They are burning cars? They are calling the police Nazis? That sounds more like Antifa infiltrators than it does Yellow Jacket protestors. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2020-09-13 10:44 |