Thread: French police hit back at 'anti-cop hatred' after protest violence

French police hit back at 'anti-cop hatred' after protest violence

Unions call for day of action after 300 officers injured and others accused of misconduct in clashes with demonstrators



French police are to take to the streets in a national protest against “anti-cop hatred” this month, after clashes with demonstrators at rallies against labour reforms sparked accusations of police violence and several investigations into alleged misconduct.

The Alliance police union, backed by several other groups representing officers, called for demonstrations on 18 May, saying it was “outraged by the irresponsible and relentless drive to make out that police officers are savage brutes who blindly beat youths”.

Since protests began two months ago against François Hollande’s contested labour reforms, tension between police and demonstrators has been growing. The Nuit Debout (Up All Night) protest movement has occupied city squares across France, and there have been clashes at heavily policed rallies.

More than 1,000 people have been arrested and more than 300 police and gendarmes have been injured during the demonstrations, according to the French authorities. On one protest day last week, police fired teargas and masked youths threw bottles and cobblestones, leaving 24 police injured, three of them seriously, according to the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve.

The government has blamed an “irresponsible minority” of troublemakers on the fringes of the demonstrations for attacking police. But demonstrators and unions have accused the police of poor tactics and using disproportionate force and violence. Videos and photographs have been circulated of alleged police brutality. “Film a cop, save lives” read graffiti in Paris during May Day demonstrations last weekend.



One police officer is facing a criminal trial after he was apparently filmed punching a restrained high-school pupil on the margins of a school demonstration in March. Cazeneuve has said he was shocked by the case.

Another investigation was launched after footage showed a masked, plainclothes officer beating pupils at the same high-school demonstration. A further investigation is under way after a student protester in Rennes last month lost an eye when riot police allegedly opened fire with “flash-ball” weapons to control a crowd.

The leftwing CGT trade union has issued two flyers – one in April and one this week – warning against police violence. The first, picturing mock blood on the ground, said: “The police should protect its citizens, not beat them.” The most recent featured mock blood under riot police boots, and said: “Stop the Repression.” Police unions roundly criticised the images.

Trade unions, student groups and some voices on the left have questioned the Socialist government’s policing tactics. Launching a police recruitment drive this week, Cazeneuve told France Inter radio he was angry that some were saying there was “a strategy of violence orchestrated by the state, when the state is there to protect”.

At demonstrations against the labour reform bill outside parliament this week, protesters chanted what has now become a regular slogan: “Everyone hates the police.” The tension is in stark contrast to the public show of support for police after terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher grocery store last year, in which three officers were killed.



Michel Cadot, the police prefect in Paris, told RTL radio this week that he believed police had shown “very great restraint” during recent demonstrations. He said he felt it was the police who had been “victims of unmeasurable violence”.

He added: “If, here and there, there has been behaviour disproportionate to the responsible use of force, that will be the subject of an investigation and if there has been wrongdoing, there must be sanctions.”

This year the French NGO Acat (Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture) issued a report on 89 cases of alleged police use of violence between 2005 and 2015, and warned of a lack of transparency. An investigation is ongoing into the high-profile case of Rémi Fraisse, an environmental activist killed by a police grenade in 2014.

Separately, an investigation has been opened by France’s citizens’ rights watchdog after a video went viral this week showing a black man on the ground with his prosthetic legs removed, allegedly after a police check at Paris’s Gare de Lyon station. Police told AFP the man had been urinating on the platform and that it was a routine check.

Police stop-and-frisk procedures have also been in the spotlight after an appeal court ruled last year that officers had carried out unjustified identity checks on five men from ethnic minorities, and ordered the government to pay damages.

Racial profiling has long been a fraught issue in France, contributing to tension and urban rioting on housing estates.

Hollande, before his election as president in 2012, acknowledged that racial profiling in police checks was a problem and made a campaign promise to introduce a form of written receipt for all checks, but there has been no reform.

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris Friday 6 May 2016 06.00 BST

French police hit back at 'anti-cop hatred' after protest violence | World news | The Guardian

Caught on camera, the shocking moment mob of protesters surround police car during violent Paris protests before smashing windows and setting it on FIRE with officers trapped inside

The frightening video, posted on YouTube, shows the car develop into a burning fireball after being attacked by a masked mob

Shockingly when one of the officers has to leave the vehicle he is brutally assaulted by one of the protestors

Four men have now been arrested on attempted murder charges

France has seen near-daily protests against labour reform since March

Police have clashed with protesters, and claim that they are targeted

Police protested themselves on Wednesday - denouncing the violence

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and SARA MALM FOR MAINLINE PUBLISHED: 13:09 GMT, 18 May 2016 | UPDATED: 01:24 GMT, 19 May 2016

Terrifying video footage shows a Parisian police car being smashed to pieces and set ablaze while the officers are still inside.

In the shocking footage a violent mob hurls missiles and breaks the windows of the vehicle, on a day where police across France were themselves protesting at the excessive force used by protestors.

When one of the policemen is forced to exit the car he is set upon by a masked male who viciously attacks him.

When the officers then make a hasty retreat their vehicle erupts into a burning fireball.





Terrifying video footage shows a Parisian police car being smashed to pieces and set ablaze while an
officer is still inside


Paris in flames: Protesters set fire to police car during the Parisian police force's own protest against how
aggressive protesters have been with officers in recent weeks

Four men have reportedly been taken into custody on Thursday after the assault on the officers sitting inside their patrol car.

They each face attempted murder charges after a Molotov Cocktail was thrown into the rear window of the car.

Michel Cadot, the Paris Police Prefect, said the attack was 'particularly shocking', confirming four men aged between 19 and 22 had been arrested.



When the policeman is forced to exit the car he is set upon by a masked protestor who viciously attacks him

It was shortly after midday that activists torched the car by the Canal St Martin, before leaving a cardboard sign in front of it reading 'roast chickens'.

'Chickens' is used as a slang word for police in France.

Reports claim the car had munitions on board so there were fears it might explode.

French police took to the streets in about 60 cities on Wednesday to denounce the hatred and violence they say has been repeatedly directed at them during protests against the government's labor reforms.

In the capital, protesting officers faced counter-protesters, who said the police themselves were instigating the violence, after which at least one police car was set on fire.



French discussions: The scene is pictured after the blaze, which took place near the capital's Republic Plaza
on Wednesday



True irony: Protesters turned up to protest against the police officers' protest the aggressions of protesters
against police officers


A few hundred officers gathered on the Place de la Republique in Paris, after which several hundred counter-demonstrators came by, chanting slogans like 'Everybody hates the police!' and pushing up against the officers until eventually the police deployed pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

Some counter-protesters set fire to a police car in a street nearby.

Vanina Giudicelli, one of the counter-protesters, told The Associated Press that the police gathering was 'a real provocation.'

'Since the first demonstration on March 9, we notice that they generate the violence. We have been sprayed by gas, hit with batons, arrested,' she said.

Jean-Claude Delage, secretary general of the Alliance police union, denounced an 'escalation of violence' in the labor protests and said some people were harassing police officers with projectiles and Molotov cocktails and even hitting them with iron bars.

'Troublemakers provoke clashes in the middle of peaceful protests. So it's very complicated for police forces to isolate and arrest them,' Delage explained on BFM television.



Firefighters work on a police car set up on fire by counter demonstrators while police forces gather to denounce
the almost daily violent clashes at protests against a labor reform



French police across the country took to the streets to protest against what they describe as hatred directed at them



Several hundred counter demonstrators came to Place de la Republique, chanting slogans and provoking the
protesting police officers



Burn, burn, burn: The police car was soon engulfed in flames, and exploded in the street in Paris



Hundreds of counter-demonstrators came by, pushing up against the officers until police had to use pepper spray to disperse them

French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that over 350 police officers have been injured in clashes and 60 people have been convicted amid the labor reform protests.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says he is offering his 'full support' to police following the weekly Cabinet Council meeting. He said the police have instructions to take 'firm action' against those who take part in violent clashes.

'Anti-cop hatred comes from a small portion of the population ... but these 10 percent are very violent,' Jean-Marc Falcone, general director of the police, told Europe 1 radio.



Riot police officers secure the Place de la Republique before a police gathering to denounce the almost violent
clashes at protests


At it again: Riot police officers cross a canal as they chase counter demonstrators on Wednesday



Riot police officers were targeted with bottles, and used pepper spray to disperse the crowds


Riot police officers face anti-police protesters ahead of their own gathering at lunchtime on Wednesday

French police car set on fire in Republic Plaza during Paris protests | Daily Mail Online

REVEALED: French police FLEEING Calais after more than 300 are attacked by migrant mobs

FRENCH police are fleeing lawless Calais in their droves after more than 300 were attacked and injured by rioting migrant mobs in just two months.

By NICK GUTTERINGPUBLISHED: 00:00, Thu, May 19, 2016 | UPDATED: 01:47, Thu, May 19, 2016

Police are under unprecedented strain in Calais

Officers fear it is only a matter of time before one of their number is killed by rampaging asylum seekers, who are becoming increasingly violent in their attempts to reach Britain.

Today more than 100 local police protested in Calais town centre against a lack of resources and "cop hater" left-wing activists amid mass resignations and plummeting morale.


Police union leaders warned that officers are "risking their lives every day" patrolling the lawless port town, which is overrun by gangs of migrants wielding iron bars, rocks and even knives and guns.

They angrily chanted and waved banners in the town centre reading "stop the hatred against cops" and "we want protection and recognition" as the startling decline of a town once best known as the holiday
gateway to Europe was laid bare for all to see.

More than 300 officers have been wounded in the last two months

Their desperate cry for help comes amid growing anger from British haulage groups over the intolerable situation in Calais, with lorry drivers being attacked on a daily basis by migrants trying to reach the UK.

Desperate French cops said they had been vilified by left-wing media and politicians for trying to do their jobs and police the border with Britain, whilst also pleading for more men and resources to tackle the spiralling migrant violence.

Gilles Debove, regional leader of the SGP Police union, said officers are "tired" and "fear" being called out to confront brazen and often armed migrants who have taken to cutting down trees and blocking up the motorway to the port.

Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart voiced fears of further migrant chaos

REVEALED: French police FLEEING Calais after more than 300 are attacked by migrant mobs FRENCH police are fleeing lawless Calais in their droves after more than 300 were attacked and...

Truly horrendous..though the cowards are covering their identity, most look to be migrants.

You have to wonder if Soros is involved with this rioting as he is in USA. EU WAS a civil society and now that they are all muslim'd up, they are not. USA BEWARE!

The police do not counter attack - really the guy busting the police window & taking several swipes at the officer should be shot, at least, subdued and arrested. There are many video clips of police apparently trained to back ofl and let the migrants mouth off, chasing the police, telling them to go away, in UK also.

A horrible injustice to those serving society to uphold law & order, risking their lives and surrounded by scumbags that EU & UN demands the low lifes be taken in & pay for their existence while they show their ingratitude violently. Kick them out - enough with political correctness & refugee laws. A country's safety for its own people comes first - enough with these takeovers by migrants.