PARIS (AP) — On one side, legions of determined teenagers protesting for their future by blockading schools and taking part in marches that have sometimes spiraled into violence.
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that → protest → violence
The result, playing out almost daily outside high schools and on the streets of France, is a nationwide storm of unrest.
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result → play → unrest
The mayhem of recent weeks — with mass arrests and hundreds of injured — has sparked an uproar in a country steeped in a centuries-old culture of protest.
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mayhem → injure → protest
Even some police have turned on the government’s handling of the demonstrations.
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police → turn → demonstrations
Discontent shrouds Macron’s final months
For President Emmanuel Macron, who leaves office in May, it’s hardly the dream ending to his decade in power.
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it → shroud → power
He has faced a succession of protest movements that sapped his popularity and fueled broad criticism of how his ministers use police against demonstrators.
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ministers → face → demonstrators
With the high schoolers, the outcry has grown particularly loud.
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outcry → grow → schoolers
That’s partly because the vast majority of the 8,000 people arrested in recent weeks are teenagers under 18 and because police riot-control weapons are blamed for life-changing injuries suffered by some young teens.
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weapons → ’ → teens
The protesters’ push for better-resourced schools, particularly in poorer Paris suburbs and other cities and towns, also has a sympathetic audience as France hurts from record poverty and record public debt.
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France → resource → poverty
But police complain that they’re facing violent rioters who are latching onto the protests and using the crowds as cover to attack officers, pelting them with rocks, fireworks and other projectiles and wreaking havoc with fires, vandalism and other destruction.
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who → complain → fires
By the government’s count, more than 900 officers and nearly 150 teachers and other school staffers have been wounded.
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officers → wound → count
French history partly explains why protests are veering into confrontations between riot police and some demonstrators who come ready to fight in masks and black clothes, says Walid Hrar, a police officer and union representative in the northern suburbs of Paris.
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Hrar → explain → Paris
Everyone boasts about it, in fact.
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Everyone → boast → fact
Some political parties don’t hesitate to say that we need to disobey the law.
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we → hesitate → law
That’s what Robespierre and other revolutionaries taught us in 1789,” he said.
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he → ’ → 1789
“France always tends to react rather than anticipate,” he added.
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he → tend → ?
“In other words, we’re always going to extremes.”
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we → go → extremes
Attention focusing on police weaponry
The police have drawn sharp scrutiny for their efforts to control crowds using a variety of so-called non-lethal weaponry, particularly grenades and other projectiles, but also tear gas, water cannons and riot shields equipped with powerful strobe lights.
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police → focus → lights
“We’re sending poorly equipped, untrained public security police officers to violent demonstrations who are likely to become agitated very quickly out of anger and fear,” said Jean-Marie Godard, an author who specializes in French policing.
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who → send → policing
Hrar said some of his police colleagues “aren’t specialized in crowd control and aren’t equipped for it.
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some → say → it
We send them in because we need the manpower, so we have officers wearing uniforms that aren’t flame-resistant.
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that → send → uniforms
And if you’re hit by a firework mortar and your uniform isn’t flame-resistant, you can catch fire.
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you → hit → fire
We also have officers with worn-out helmets.
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We → have → helmets
We have shields that aren’t suitable.”
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that → have → shields
He said officers who haven’t been given permission to use riot-control projectiles and grenades sometimes struggle to keep attackers at a safe distance.
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who → say → distance
“So unfortunately we make do,” he said.
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he → make → ?
“You’ll inevitably end up in direct physical confrontation.
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You → end → confrontation
When that happens, there are injuries on both sides.”
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that → happen → sides
His Alliance police union announced this week that it is filing a legal complaint against the state, accusing it of endangering lives.
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it → announce → lives
It alleged that officers are being issued with vague and contradictory orders, leaving them “isolated, betrayed, abandoned, exposed to violence.”
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officers → allege → violence
Probes of alleged misconduct grow
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said this week that security forces have used crowd-control weapons at least 18,000 times during the protests — mostly smoke and tear gas but also projectiles and grenades.
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forces → allege → protests
They include a deafening launcher-fired grenade that Nunez said was used “about 40 times” before he suspended its deployment against high schoolers, after a 15-year-old lost a hand.
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old → include → hand
“All this equipment, all these forces, all these intermediate weapons, are used whenever necessary, with proportionality, to mark an escalation of the response, to keep people at a distance or sometimes to put them out of action,” he said.
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he → use → action
The minister said rules governing the use of riot-control projectiles are “very clear, very strict.”
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rules → say → projectiles
“We avoid everything above the neck,” he said.
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he → avoid → neck
Still, an officer suspected of firing a round that partially blinded a 16-year-old was this week charged with aggravated violence.
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that → suspect → violence
That case is among a growing number of investigations — totaling 36 as of Tuesday — into alleged police misconduct.
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case → grow → misconduct
Four involve “mutilating injuries,” another six involve “significant injuries” and others are for “blows, insults and suspected sexual assaults” and include the case of an officer accused of attempting to drown a protester
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others → involve → protester
, Nunez said.
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Nunez → say → ?
Expert says different groups get different policing
France has more than 250,000 police and gendarmes.
Sebastian Roché, a policing specialist at France’s National Center for Scientific Research, said their use can depend on the political needs of the government, which commands them.
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which → say → them
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
