mmmmmmm that’s good propaganda
Some extremely common lies used to turn the public against a protest
Like, if you don’t want to talk about how massive inequality is in France and how much more than effects people of color, how police brutality enforces that, how last year French police raped a man of color and got away with it, how basic human rights are being ignored by the French government in the name of ‘safety’, how two horrible racist parties are running against each other for the elections, how the French police constantly escalates protests themselves because they do not like the message, if you don’t wanna talk about all the danger protestors are in from police brutality and still they show up to fight for justice… then ya, an article like this will do nicely.
Almost one hundred demonstrators were wounded by cops in Paris this May 1st. 6 cops too – one got severly injured, by his own grenade.
The demo yesterday was a butchery for protesters in the first rows of the march. They had to abandon their equipment on the ground to flee from the cops after having been attacked with loads of tear gas and dozens of sting grenades, that were sometimes thrown directly in the crowd, at the level of the protesters’ head, which is extremely dangerous. At the end it was just pure violence, used even against totally defenseless people, their only goal was to destroy the march. Three of my comrades (among hundreds of other protesters) have been seriously injured, and I frankly don’t know how come they’re not traumatised at this point.
We’re in an official state of emergency for more than five hundred fucking days now. It’s been prolongated five times by the Assembly since november 2015. Police do whatever they like, it’s the same conditions than during the Labour Law movement last year. Read the above comment for the rest; I’d add that last year several illegal cops demos took place without being repressed at all—on the contrary, the gov responded last month by extending the conditions in which police brutality could be considered as “self-defense”. 50% of cops say they agree with the ideas of the far-right party, the Front National, which today has a chance to become the head of the future government. During these demos they had all their weapons—and nazi signs—out. They fucking have all the rights they want. In fact, for a few months it all looks like the government is losing its usual control on the police. Of course, more government control would not necessarily mean less violence, I won’t repeat the usual on the fundamental links between State and violence and police brutality. But the pigs’ demos, the crazy violence of the repression, the total entitlement they showed during the (still non-solved) case of Theo (the boy who was raped by a policeman in February), all of this gives the feeling that cops have a kind of semi-independant power which they are very conscisous to have, and it’s quite scary. And yet they demand more and more legal authorisations to “defend themselves”. Today, in reaction the injuries of their colleagues, police unions have again demanded “more wherewithal” against rioters, to the point where you can ask yourself if what they really want is literally killing them and killing everyone who’ll oppose them.
Also, on May 1st the Front National organised a march as well, which was not repressed in the slightest. So yeah, some protesters want to fight actively with the police during the demos. Yeah, some cops get injured because no, we won’t let them beat the shit out of us without hitting them back. If you don’t want injured cops, don’t make them repress our demos. And help us abolishing the police.
Oh, also. Stop saying those “violent groups” hijacked the march. People who faced cops yesterday knew why they were there. Regardless of all the tiresome romanticisation of riots in ultra-left milieus, they knew why they were there and were fully integrated to the march. People supporting them but not wanting to engage in clashes with the police by fear of getting hurt were numerous among the protesters. Don’t do as if protesters and rioters were separated entities, you’re the ones contributing to divide us while we share common interests.
QueerAnarchism 