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Police arrest 95 amid tight security at Paris protest

Protests against government labour reforms took place across France on Thursday, but the focus was on Paris where thousands gathered amid tight security.

Published: 23 June 2016 14:27 CEST
Police arrest 95 amid tight security at Paris protest
Photo: AFP

Protesters gathered at Place de la Bastille in the scorching summer sun for a march, the route of which has been cut short at the request of authorities fearing more violence.

More than 2,000 police were deployed, and around 100 people were barred from taking part in a bid to avoid the kind of violent scenes that marred a similar protest last week.

Unions claimed that some 60,000 marchers turned up in Paris for a march that for the most part passed off off peacefully. Police however estimated only around 20,000 protesters were present.

 
There were reports of groups of protesters gathering away from the main protest as several of them tried to block rails at the Gare de Lyon train station.
 
But by around 5pm there had been no repeat of the kind of violence witnessed during previous protests, however The Local's Oliver Gee who was at the protest said the atmosphere started to become tense in the late afternoon.

Earlier all protesters had been subject to searches as they arrived at Bastille for a protest called by trade unions opposed to labour reforms.

Even before the march began some 95 people had been arrested by police, for carrying objects that could have been used as projectiles.

(AFP)

(AFP)

However there was outbreaks of trouble in the western city of Rennes, where windows of shops were smashed.

Thursday’s march in Paris had initially been banned by police before the Ministry of Interior agreed to allow the protest to go ahead albeit on a route of their choice – from Bastille along the basin d’Arsenal and back again.

Those who turned out called on the government to back down on labour reforms they claim will simply lead to more job insecurity because it will become easier to fire workers.
 
“They need to listen to the people in the streets. François Hollande made promises but he's doing politics of the right,” one marcher, who asked not to be named, told The Local.
 
And she said they are in it for the long haul.
 
“We won't stop until they understand. We'll be here all summer, until the rentrée. We are determined and mobilized.” 
 
(Photo: Katie Warren)

Some who were there supported the so-called casseurs, the French name given to the hardcore rioters, who last week vandalised numerous shops and banks as well as a children's hospital.

“I support the casseurs, what they're doing is targeted action,” Antoine, a 23-year-old Parisian told The Local. 
 
“They only damage things like banks and advertising companies. It's anti-capitalist.”
 
 
While 200 police were also reportedly targeted and left injured during the most recent demonstrations, another student, 21-year-old William, said these were just the figures from a manipulative government. 
 
“The government is trying to use these casseurs as propaganda. I don't throw and break things but at each protest we are in the front line to show support for them,” he said. 
 
“Sure, there might be some who are just here to break things, but I've spoken to some and they were very intelligent people.”
 
While protesters and trade unions have vowed to carry on the movement, the French President François Hollande has also refused to back down despite the pressure from the street and members of his own party.

He vowed on Thursday that his Socialist government would “go all the way” to enact controversial labour reforms.

“On this draft law, we will go all the way because it is essential not only to allow businesses to be able to hire more” but to step up training that will lead to more jobs, he said as the latest of a string of anti-reform protests was to kick off in Paris.

However the fact that Hollande has already agreed to water down the reforms at the behest of more reformist trade unions has meant that many business leaders are just as unhappy with the bill as opponents are.

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PROTESTS

Calls for special police tactics to be available across Sweden

The chairwoman of the Police Association West Region has said that police special tactics, known as Särskild polistaktik or SPT, should be available across Sweden, to use in demonstrations similar to those during the Easter weekend.

Published: 24 April 2022 15:56 CEST
Calls for special police tactics to be available across Sweden

SPT, (Särskild polistaktik), is a tactic where the police work with communication rather than physical measures to reduce the risk of conflicts during events like demonstrations.

Tactics include knowledge about how social movements function and how crowds act, as well as understanding how individuals and groups act in a given situation. Police may attempt to engage in collaboration and trust building, which they are specially trained to do.

Katharina von Sydow, chairwoman of the Police Association West Region, told Swedish Radio P4 West that the concept should exist throughout the country.

“We have nothing to defend ourselves within 10 to 15 metres. We need tools to stop this type of violent riot without doing too much damage,” she said.

SPT is used in the West region, the South region and in Stockholm, which doesn’t cover all the places where the Easter weekend riots took place.

In the wake of the riots, police unions and the police’s chief safety representative had a meeting with the National Police Chief, Anders Tornberg, and demanded an evaluation of the police’s work. Katharina von Sydow now hopes that the tactics will be introduced everywhere.

“This concept must exist throughout the country”, she said.

During the Easter weekend around 200 people were involved in riots after a planned demonstration by anti-Muslim Danish politician Rasmus Paludan and his party Stram Kurs (Hard Line), that included the burning of the Muslim holy book, the Koran.

Police revealed on Friday that at least 104 officers were injured in counter-demonstrations that they say were hijacked by criminal gangs intent on targeting the police. 

Forty people were arrested and police are continuing to investigate the violent riots for which they admitted they were unprepared. 

Paludan’s application for another demonstration this weekend was rejected by police.

In Norway on Saturday, police used tear gas against several people during a Koran-burning demonstration after hundreds of counter-demonstrators clashed with police in the town of Sandefjord.

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