firemen riot
When we were leaving Paris, I saw a flare go up into the sky from another part of the city. Then when we got back to Lyon, we saw on the news that that flare was part of a riot that had occurred in Paris while we were there. Apparently national firemen were marching to demand a pay raise and retirement benefits and the protest got a little bit crazy when the firemen started lighting garbage cans on fire. So the riot police were sent in and then everything went crazy. Seeing all the footage on the news was crazy, because as an American I would never even imagine the police attacking the fire department. It just wouldn't happen. But here it was--violent and real. And I do mean violent:
One gendarme suffered a head injury from one of the projectiles, while another had his leg broken after being hit in the knee by a sledgehammer.
It took two days for a story to appear in an English language news source, and ironically, Der Spiegel's coverage seems to be the best. I particularly like photo 3 in their gallery. :-)
One gendarme suffered a head injury from one of the projectiles, while another had his leg broken after being hit in the knee by a sledgehammer.
It took two days for a story to appear in an English language news source, and ironically, Der Spiegel's coverage seems to be the best. I particularly like photo 3 in their gallery. :-)