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A STONE’S THROW from the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris yesterday, cyclists were being put on notice by municipal workers.
Move your bikes before nightfall or the locks will be cut off and your wheels hauled away to keep them from being turned into weapons by protesters.
The notice is part of a more proactive response promised by officials to contain rioting or looting during a fourth wave of ‘yellow vest’ anti-government protests set for today.
The government has drawn widespread criticism for letting a demonstration flare into a rampage during last weekend’s clashes between protesters and police in the French capital.
Scenes of burning cars and smashed shopfronts earned Interior Minister Christophe Castaner a summons before a parliamentary panel wanting to know why police forces held back while the violence raged.
The protests began three weeks ago, initially against a rise in fuel taxes but have spread to take in other issues such as education reforms.
Castaner had hoped the protesters converging on Paris would be funnelled into a contained “fan zone” on the Champs-Elysees, under heavy police guard after demonstrators set barricades alight and vandalised boutiques on the iconic avenue a week before.
But the bulk of the protesters remained outside the perimeter and ran amok in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the avenue, ransacking shops while spreading out along the wide streets branching out from the monument.
“We have adapted our configuration … with the goal of being more mobile to respond more efficiently to the hooligans’ strategy of constantly moving and spreading out,” Castaner said at a press conference yesterday.
Some 8,000 officers will be mobilised in Paris, up from 5,000 last weekend, and a dozen armoured vehicles — more often seen in war zones — will be deployed in the city for the first time ever.
“This isn’t the army, these aren’t tanks,” Castaner stressed, saying they would be used mainly for clearing barricades.
But the vehicles will also provide cover to officers from people throwing heavy paving stones or even metal petanque balls, said Richard Lizurey, head of France’s gendarmes, the military’s urban police force.
“We’re worried. We’ve seen this movement evolve from good-natured in the beginning to radicalised, with a copycat effect, a pack effect, leading people to come not to protest but to pillage and vandalise,” Lizurey told CNews television.
‘A monster’
Officials are also on edge because unlike traditional marches by unions or other groups, the “yellow vest” protesters have given no information about where they intend to gather.
After the 8,000 protesters last weekend, Castaner said authorities expect “only a few thousand people [in Paris] but among them are ultraviolent individuals.”
“These past three weeks have produced a monster that its creators no longer control,” he said.
Police unions had fumed that they were ordered to refrain from confronting the protesters, because of fears that some might be hurt or even killed in a crackdown.
Instead they had to play defence, firing some 14,000 tear gas grenades to fend off protesters, some of whom wielded metal rods, hammers or slingshots, and launched sections of construction barricades.
“The government didn’t want to see any more images of violence on the Champs-Elysees. So they just pushed the problem elsewhere,” an officer told AFP under cover of anonymity.
“Up until now the mobile forces, with their heavy equipment, were under orders not to engage” with the yellow vests, Patrice Ribeiro of the Synergies police union said.
France’s various law enforcement branches, including the CRS riot police and gendarmerie, have a wealth of experience in controlling violent protests.
“You can’t let them create their own ‘fan zones’,” Ribeiro said, referring to the cordoned-off outdoor viewing areas set up in Paris during last summer’s football World Cup.
Police have already told shops on and near the Champs-Elysees to stay shu today and board up their windows, after dozens were ransacked last weekend.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the city had removed 2,000 billboards, grates and other objects this week so that they couldn’t be used as weapons against the police.
Museums and monuments like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, as well as libraries, public markets and dozens of Velib bike-rental stations will also be shut.
So far the government has excluded declaring a state of emergency, which would see army units deployed to protect sites at risk.
But 89,000 police will be on duty nationwide, and authorities in several regions have banned the sale of fuels and flammable chemicals like acetone to prevent people from making firebombs.
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The normal Joe and Bridget is constantly told that they can’t have house parties, they can’t congregate in groups, they must keep social distance, they are a threat to others by not following guidelines and are open to fines if they don’t follow NPHET advice. Then we have this, some country alright.
@Jack Cass: The normal Joe and Bridget are breaking those rules as well.
Just focus on doing the right thing yourself and less worrying about others.
@Fozz: I thought we are all in this together?
@Brian Madden: Yes but being ‘all in this together’ and not curtain twitching are not mutually exclusive.
@Fozz: in fairness the normal Joe and Bridget breaking rules aren’t on a major platform preaching to everyone, day in and day out, about breaking the social distancing and mask guidelines. It’s not about ‘worry less about others and focus on yourself’ that’s the issue. It’s the frustration of one rule for us and seems to be another for a certain cohort of people. Is OK for people to be frustrated. We don’t need to be told every time we see an enraging story like this to `worry about yourself’. The journal never fails to bring out the condescending folk.
Great reason to avoid paying tv license. I’m not funding those pompous overpaid presenters, if we are lucky this will be Tubridy’s final toy show!
Needs to resign, position untenable after that.
And not one of them mean it.
Sorry! Such a meaningless word when it rolls off the tongue.
@Dave Barrett: Sorry they were so stúpid as to be caught out, thats only how sorry they are.
What is it about people like this in the upper echelons of Irish society. how are they this brazen? They are the ones who covered GolfGate. . . . And they do this. How thick and arrogant do the people at that party have to be to accept an invitation to this. Good lord. There’s not a HOPE we’re getting this under control before a vaccine. Arrogant tools.
@JedBartlett: If you get on the Late Late Show or Dancing With The Stars you fall into this category.
It will interesting when they come before the Dail committee to see what questions they will be asked.
Rory Coveney and Miriam O’Callaghan’s positions in RTE are untenable thanks to their links with government.
They are no better than Brian Hayes.
The damage is done
@Ewan O’Doherty: So all should be forgotten after their faux apologies? Remember how outraged everyone was with the pub, Berlin D2. That bar apologised, they should be grand now and the Garda not apposing their licence renewal?
Apologise because they got caught.
They don’t give a toss.
aw give it a rest. they behaved no different than any other workplace. The staff in the school i work in behave in the same manner once the kids are off site
@Bala mc blaha: If other people did it an were caught a simple “Sorry” would not carry any weight with RTE if they were investigating it. RTE have been lecturing the nation on obeying the rules, running condescending adverts on covid since March. They should now pay a heavy price for their rule breaking.
@Bala mc blaha: they are not any other work place. Even consider the high profile people there who had had the virus, they should be more careful than anyone.
@Bala mc blaha: They are not in the public eye big difference when you work in RTÉ
@Bala mc blaha: Thanks for you honesty and letting us all know some of the reasons why schools are not safe.
. In our offices, 2 meters distancing at all times, one way system in and out of building and stairs, only 1 allowed in showers or toilets at a time, segregated desks and no one seated inside 2 meters, staggered canteen times and no one seated inside 2 meters, all stop points have 2 meters signage on floors and all in place and in effect since March. No meetings unless can be held in rooms where 2 meters distancing can be maintained.
@Bala mc blaha: Not in my workplace. Whilst self employed I rent a studio in the local arts center. No outside visitors, one way system, distsncing and entry/exit times strictly enforced. Monthly coffee mornings with other tenants & staff happen over Zoom when they could easily be distanced in the large theatre space.
Not in my wife’s workplace either (a major hospital). Mask on before you walk in and don’t take it off until you’re in your car 13/14 hours later (it’s obviously changed in between multiple times). Distancing strictly enforced outside of patient care settings incl canteen where what can only be described as exam invigilators make sure your mask is not off longer than it should be.
Several teachers have retired from my daughter’s school and it’s very clear from photos/video they adhered to all guidelines.
From my anecdotal experiences it’s not “all workplaces” and RTE are just taking the proverbial.
Why the extra ramifications for the pub, Berlin D2 with their licence being blocked, if a simple, sorry will do. Berlin D2 also apologised, so they should be brand now?
@Alan Wright: *grand
I don’t think anyone really wants an apology from RTE, politicians, the judiciary or anyone else.
All people really want is for the same rules that apply to RTE celebrities for gatherings apply to everyone else.
For the rules that apply to the Gardai and the IRA for funerals, apply across the board.
For the travelling restrictions that apply to migrant workers apply to everyone.
For the rules that allow multi-nationals carry on in business, be also applied to individual Irish entrepreneurs, be they barbers, boutiques, hairdressers, restaurateurs or publicans.
For the rules that allow BLM and Polish abortion protests be permitted without hindrance, apply to all Irish citizens.
You know, the stuff that used to be in the Constitution.
Ah sure it’s grand then, same as Mr. Wolfe.. Be grand sure
How many times have things like this happened in this country, even before March? Same story, high profile wrongdoing happens, scandal errupts, forgotten in 2-3 weeks…
Remember when it was bankers that thought they could just do as they please…
Of course you would not know about the real world in the private sector. In our offices, 2 meters distancing at all times, one way system in and out of building and stairs, only 1 allowed in showers or toilets at a time, segregated desks and no one seated inside 2 meters, staggered canteen times and no one seated inside 2 meters, all stop points have 2 meters signage on floors and all in place and in effect since March. No meetings unless can be held in rooms where 2 meters distancing can be maintained.
We’ve all had losses and needed to restrict ourselves from loved ones. This event had to be planned, someone dosent just up and retire but a copy and paste “im sorry ” makes everything ok. ?? I don’t think so…just screams of being a hypocrite.
Run this by me again, someone or persons unknown in RTE news dept organized a retirement party in the midst of strict contact restrictions , which was attended by household names who have spent months reporting on a pandemic including the daily naming & shaming of members of the public for minor infringements of the regulations, then they all stood around afterwards & posed for group pictures sometimes with arms around one another with masks in their hands?
That’s great but when are they all getting sacked
A lot of pent up hatred and seething dislike for RTE being displayed in the comments above.
RTE wouldn’t be my No 1 institution either but methinks a lot of the above is just using the recent incidents as a cover to vent.
Please stop apologising!
It was an error of judgement…
Yes we would all love an event night out but so be it….
Everyone wants to take the head off people as soon as a mistake is made!. We are getting closer to a vaccine and soon we can all go back to living.
I don’t like to c people being humiliated. If there is any person out there who has never made a mistake in life.. feel free to keep throwing them stones …
Life is not perfect nor should it be!
Despite being the Covid propaganda arm of the State their behaviour demonstrates how much they belive in the hogwash they broadcast every evening to the great unwashed.
Public Service Broadcaster.. Any resignations?… Any questions even?
That took a while
The same RTÉ news anchors went through for a short cut anyone in government who was on when topic of golfgate dinner was on the agenda calling for dismissals and now are very quiet when the proverbial chicken comes home to roost. Glasshouses and people throwing stone And all that
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