https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2026/oct/17/hundreds-arrested-protests-across-france-in-pictures

“I don’t think the British are aware that their money is being used to beat French kids.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/17/french-police-uk-funded-4x4-vehicle-ram-student-protesters

Evan, a 15-year-old studying carpentry at a vocational high school, had a hand blown off in the explosion of a police stun grenade outside a school protest in Lens, northern France, on 5 October. His lawyer, Bertrand Wattez, said: “His injuries resemble war injuries.”

Wattez said Evan had gone to school to attend class and discovered a protest under way. He said Evan had not taken part in violence and denied the Béthune state prosecutor’s assertion that the grenade had been picked up from the ground. When the grenade exploded, Evan lost his left hand, several fingers from his right hand and suffered injuries to other parts of his body. He remained in hospital “in a very difficult condition” and his family had filed a criminal complaint, Wattez said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/16/french-police-injuries-teenagers-school-protests-arrests-custody

Another boy, Eden, 14 – who had been near a school protest in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, north-west of Paris – suffered extensive facial injuries, including two fractures to his jaw, the loss of his bottom teeth and all his top teeth broken after he was allegedly hit by a shot from a grenade launcher.

His lawyer, Elsa Marcel, said the shot from a grenade launcher was fired at close range, from a distance of 1.5 metres. “This is the equivalent of war weaponry,” she said. The family has filed a legal complaint for attempted murder.

The interior minister explained the youth that it's actually just a communication issue: they don't understand that the police protects them (the kids, naturally).
Actually French cops have a unique arsenal of weapons across Europe... for this brilliant result.

i can't say i feel especially sorry for some of them...
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c6e3xjw37wn7o

a proverb that politicians need to learn

"If the young are not initiated into the tribe they will burn down the village just to feel its warmth."

direct link to the video for those who can't get through www.bbc JavaScript nightmare ☞ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85f6Tn_BfPI

or they will be shot with live ammo 🤷‍♂️

The burning is the easy part, the reactionary part. It's the simple expression of anger.

Revolutionary action, who get to say more, or becomes seen as being worthy to listen to, is as always, defined by who rebuilds.... And what they're rebuilding.

But we almost never get to see revolutionary action there. In fact, that's often the disintegration phase of political protests. Mourn the end of the protest, not the begining.

or they will be shot with live ammo 🤷‍♂️

are you on this community by mistake? I didn't post on politics@lemmy.world

this post is about what's happening in france. The day "live ammo" is used to repress protests, you're no longer talking about a "protest" or "policing"

you’re no longer talking about a “protest” or “policing”

what a concidence, i am not talking about any protest. i am talking about mindless illiterate mob performing an act of vandalism. destroying invaluable cultural artifact is not a protest, it is a crime. and the severity of the crime should dictate severity of the response.

are you on this community by mistake?

oh? did i miss some rulebook issued by anarchist headquarter on how to be proper anarchist? people like you do anarchism bad name.

people like you do anarchism bad name.

you know nothing about me.

what a concidence, i am not talking about any protest. i am talking about mindless illiterate mob performing an act of vandalism. destroying invaluable cultural artifact is not a protest, it is a crime. and the severity of the crime should dictate severity of the response.

france is proud of its 'french revolution', for example. I guess, if you were there at the time, you would be talking "about mindless illiterate mob performing an act of vandalism. destroying invaluable cultural artifact". Go kiss your king's arse and get the fuck out of here.

you know nothing about me

unless someone else is writing your comments, i know something. that is kinda the point of internet discussion.

I guess, if you were there at the time, you would be talking “about mindless illiterate mob performing an act of vandalism

oh boy. you are in for a big surprise when you finally graduate elementary school, open high school history book and find out about the rabble who took power during that revolution. there is a reason corresponding chapter in the books is called reign of terror and dictator seizing power at the end of that ordeal suddenly looked like not that bad deal for most of the people.

Go kiss your king’s arse

i don't have a king. i live in a democratic country where sure, things could be better as everywhere, but we don't just burn down cultural artifact or 10 yo car belonging to our neighbour trying to survive as everyone else, just because netflix is down and we couldn't think of anything better to do with our time.

get the fuck out of here

oh no, does someone challenging your kinder-anarchism make you nervous?

Last month, thousands marched in protest at a proposed “licence to kill” law seeking to establish a legal “presumption of self-defence” for police officers and gendarmes using firearms in the line of duty.

The law, opposed by civil rights groups, leftwing politicians, the magistrates’ union and the UN, would in effect shift the burden of proof on to victims and their families to demonstrate that a police shooting was disproportionate.

In essence, critics argue, it would institutionalise police impunity; reinforcing, once more, a security culture that treats public dissent and social tension not as democratic realities to be managed, but as insurrections to be repressed. The battle for France’s streets is far from over.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/20/france-culture-violent-policing-protests-riots

Unlike in Germany or the Netherlands, French unions, while they may strike often, are not formal government negotiating partners. The top-heavy, presidential structure of the Fifth Republic marginalises institutional consultation.

That means a heavily centralised state often passes laws with little popular agreement, making the “power of the street” one of citizens’ few viable means of forcing concessions. Protest here is regarded as a civic duty and a legitimate democratic tool.

That creates a vicious circle. French authorities see large crowds as an existential threat, so send in the police. Their military-style tactics entrench the aggression and alienate peaceful demonstrators. This prompts the more radical groups to opt for more violent tactics. But rather than isolating those elements, police respond with baton charges and munitions. And that turns protests into battles.

Mourn the end of the protest, not the begining.

🙃

oh no, does someone challenging your kinder-anarchism make you nervous?

No. But i checked your post/COMMENT history. Bye.

it seems it does. so much that your inability to answer my question led you to dive into my history to find at least some way to keep your face as you run away. well don't worry about it and pay attention in school when you get to that history book, it might explain some stuff.

it's pathetic to seek superiority on online communities and that's all you do in your comment history. You have nothing to share. Go away.

interesting you seemed willing to communicate when you thought you had the higher ground. once you found you can't answer simple question, you are the one running away and you are trying to mask it with badly played confidence 😆

interesting you seemed willing to communicate when you thought you had the higher ground. once you found you can't answer simple question, you are the one running away and you are trying to mask it with badly played confidence 😆

you think you have the "higher ground"? Pathetic! What a needy person.

Please leave this thread. I'm going to post updates and you have nothing to bring. Please leave.

you think you have the “higher ground”?

you think you do? you tried to engage in the discussion when you thought you had some one-liner gotcha. when you found out that was not the case, your brain short-circuited and the only reaction you are capable of is shouting please leave, please leave, please leave. yes, it is pathetic.

i hope for your own good you are like ten. do something for yourself and go read that history book.

Varoufakis is always interesting to listen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V-ImFZekQ4 - Yanis Varoufakis & Wolfgang Munchau - France is at war with itself

dissect the catastrophic collapse of Emmanuel Macron’s ‘revolutionary centrist’ experiment in France, exposing how a decade of technocratic austerity and underinvestment has fuelled widespread social unrest and pushed the country to the brink of insolvency, while revealing the cowardice and hypocrisy of the EU’s current Ukraine strategy that they warn is steadily bankrupting Europe, deepening its geopolitical vassalage to the United States, and leaving the continent powerless to shape the inevitable outcome of the war.

oh, piss off, will you?