european protest story.
i went to the protests in Paris yesterday. it was crazy. i got off at Place de la République with a hunch that would be where shit went down. as i exited the metro the square was empty and police where getting into position on all the roads that emptied into the square. then the protesters arrived. after a short rally some of the crowd began to disperse. there were a bunch of plain-clothes officers that arrested some immigrant kids who were trying to start trouble, and that got a bunch of people pissed. then the crowd started to get crazy. a bunch of punk immigrant kids started kicking the shit out of this hippie reporter that was videotaping (if they didn't want to be filmed they shouldn't have intentionally jumped in front of the camera). anyways that pissed a lot of people off. during this confrontation some fucking kid tried to jack my camera. luckily i had it attached around my wrist so he didn't have much chance, and i gave him an intense look of death. i had then positioned myself up against a wall to the metro so i had my back protected and was hanging out with these moms and their daughters. after a while the police had succeeded in pushing the crowd back to where i was standing. all the immigrant kids where throwing balloons filled with paint, glass bottles, cones, light bulbs, helmets, and anything else that was around. i had planned on hanging out with the families since they were pretty mellow and i figured i would be more or less safe. but the police kept advancing with pepper spray, and i was pretty much over being between the violent protesters and police so i followed the crowd that was retreating. by now the pepper spray was so thick in the air that everyone was coughing, sneezing and crying. it was crazy. then another force of police came out from another street and flanked my position. the situation looked like it was starting to get down to the anarchists and disillusioned youth, so i decided it was probably best to leave. but the police had blocked off the road of escape and weren't letting people pass. a bunch of people wanted out and were yelling at the cops to let us pass. there was this reporter there and she asked me what was going on and to confirm that the cops were blocking peaceful protesters from leaving. after a few tense moments the cops started letting people through. i hung out for a while and watched the cops bringing back the people who had been arrested. all in all it was a pretty exciting afternoon.