Tear gas filling the streets of Paris, riot police charging into crowds, teenagers fleeing baton-wielding officers, and demonstrators suffering devastating injuries from weapons designed, officially, to maintain public order.
These images have once again placed France's policing methods under international scrutiny, raising serious questions about the use of force, civil liberties, and the right to protest.
As demonstrations over the rising cost of living, deteriorating public services, and economic insecurity spread across France, another issue has increasingly taken center stage – police violence.
For many demonstrators, the confrontation is no longer just about wages, purchasing power, or government policies; it is also about how the state responds when its citizens take to the streets.
Romane Moreau, a member of the Anti-Imperialist League Organization, asserts that “What we see now in terms of repression is a major escalation. The regime is deploying much more force and many more resources.”
“Why? Because it wants the movement to lose momentum, but the movement is not losing momentum; that is precisely why it is doubling down on its resources.”
“And over the past few weeks, we have witnessed major, major police violence, whether in front of high school blockades.”
“I am thinking, for example, of the Corbusier High School in Aubervilliers, where over the past two or three days, they have deployed an enormous number of CRS riot police, the BAC and municipal police, with impressive resources to repress young people.
“And these regime forces are capturing high school students and tear-gassing them.”
France has one of the most heavily equipped police forces in Europe when it comes to crowd control.
Unlike many of its European neighbors, French law enforcement continues to rely on weapons such as rubber bullet launchers, tear gas, and explosive stun grenades.
Authorities describe these devices as non-lethal or less-lethal alternatives to firearms. But their consequences can be devastating.
Ellias Martin of the Student Trade Union Federation Organization expounds that “to try to slow down the revolt, the French regime has been very, very repressive. We see at every demonstration that the regime has a strategy of repression that is different and violent each time.”
“For example, on Thursday, November 5th, during the national strike, the police were extremely violent.”
“They charged at us for no reason, even though everything was going well. The police charges were so intense that several people from our organization suffered skull fractures and broken ribs as a result of the police charges.”
Among the most controversial weapons is the LBD-40, a launcher that fires high-impact rubber projectiles.
Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned about the risks associated with its use, particularly when projectiles strike the head or upper body.
Ellias Martin adds “There have also been deaths and injuries since the major day of protest on October 17th.”
“The repression is intensifying, and we can see that the state is adapting its repression depending on the day, and trying to scare the population so that people do not revolt and are afraid to go out and demonstrate for fear of losing a hand, an arm, an eye, or even their lives.”
“This is very serious for a country that claims to be a democracy, but where our right to demonstrate is in reality completely violated.”
Stun grenades have also become a major source of controversy. Designed to disperse crowds through powerful explosions, sound and shockwaves, these devices can cause severe injuries, including burns, fractures, permanent hearing damage and amputations.
The latest wave of demonstrations has brought the human cost of these tactics into sharp focus.
On October 5th, a 15-year-old student in Lens lost his hand when a grenade exploded during a police intervention outside his school.
A 16-year-old student in Tours subsequently lost sight in one eye after an injury reportedly consistent with an LBD projectile.
Another teenager, just 14, suffered multiple fractures to his jaw and extensive dental injuries after being struck by a police-fired projectile.
And these were not isolated incidents.
An investigation by French newspaper Le Monde, published in November, documented dozens of serious injuries sustained by demonstrators and bystanders during the recent protests.
Its preliminary findings included three amputated hands and four people who suffered severe eye injuries.
The newspaper also reported that weapons used by security forces were implicated in the overwhelming majority of these cases.
The violence continued during the October 17th demonstrations, when protests expanded beyond the student movement into a broader mobilization against the rising cost of living and police violence.
Footage and eyewitness accounts documented further injuries, including people struck by exploding grenades and caught in police operations.
The current controversy, however, is part of a much longer history. During the Yellow Vest movement, which erupted in 2018 over fuel prices and broader economic grievances, police tactics came under intense criticism.
Rubber bullets and explosive grenades left numerous demonstrators with permanent injuries, including lost eyes and severed hands.
In 2014, environmental activist Rémy Fresse was killed by a police grenade during a protest against a dam project.
Almost a decade later, the 2023 killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk by a police officer during a traffic stop in Nanterre triggered nationwide riots and reignited debate over racial profiling, discrimination and police accountability.
Ellias Martin adds “There were 1.6 million demonstrators this Thursday, even though the regime tried for three weeks to move the demonstrations outside Paris.”
“We are still here, in Paris. We can clearly see that the movement is not stopping and that repression no longer works because there were the Yellow Vests, there were the revolts following the killing of Nahel by police officers, etc.”
“We are now used to the regime's repression in France. We experience it every day. Repression has never been so intense.”
“The injured, the dead, the people arrested, the prison sentences; this regime is currently breaking all records for repression, but now the people of France are no longer afraid to revolt.”
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly criticized the use of excessive force against protesters in France.
They argue that the use of indiscriminate crowd control weapons, mass arrests and aggressive and containment tactics can undermine the fundamental right to peaceful assembly.
Romane Moreau contends “You see, high school students in front of blockades, forming human chains spontaneously in the face of the police. There are charges, and they do not retreat despite that. In fact, the police are trying to break us, but despite themselves, they are making us stronger.”
“There have also been MICAS measures taken against several activists, preventing them from going to demonstrations and forcing them to report to the police station three times a day during demonstrations, that is why we must fight against repression, and above all, unite, so as not to leave anyone isolated.”
“This is very, very important.”
“High school students too, young people from working-class neighborhoods, many of them are being placed under judicial supervision, with bans on demonstrating.”
“And so, in the face of this, the response is unanimous; solidarity in the face of repression.”
“State repression has always existed, whether under left-wing or right-wing governments.”
- The power used to restrict people's movement is called an "individual measure of administrative control and surveillance", known by the French acronym, MICAS. It is a legacy of the sweeping house arrest orders issued under a state of emergency declared in the early hours of November 14, 2015, in the wake of France's deadliest ever terrorist attacks.
- Certain emergency powers were enshrined in French law under a Counter-Terrorism Act adopted two years later, allowing the Interior Ministry to restrict people's movements when there are "serious reasons" to believe they constitute a grave security threat and have terrorist ties.
- People hit by MICAS orders are required to report at the local police station on a weekly or daily basis, and sometimes twice a day. Failure to abide by the restrictions can result in a three-year prison sentence and a €45,000 fine.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez has defended the use of less lethal weapons, arguing that they are necessary when police confront serious violence.
But the central question goes beyond the legality of individual weapons. It concerns the relationship between the French state and its citizens.
When peaceful demonstrators, journalists and even schoolchildren are exposed to potentially life-changing injuries during police operations, the distinction between maintaining public order and suppressing public dissent becomes increasingly contested.
Romane Moreau adds “With our comrades, everyone, we are not afraid to continue. And in fact, what does this do, does it make us afraid or not? No, it simply reveals the true face of this regime, which is a repressive and reactionary regime, a regime that is following the path of fascism.”
“And that is what we need to see, this true face being revealed, and the real victory is precisely that we are not weakening. That is why we are the ones who ultimately win.”
“When I talk with all our comrades, all the young people who have been repressed, the answer is unanimous: we are not afraid.”
“And what we have been seeing for more than a month now is that, whether high school students, university students, or workers, we are becoming tougher in the struggle; we are organizing ourselves better and better.”
For many in France, the right to demonstrate is a fundamental democratic principle, not a security threat, yet as economic frustration grows and confrontations intensify, the methods used to control the streets are becoming another source of public anger.
The question is no longer simply how France can restore order.
It is whether public order can be maintained without inflicting lasting damage on the very democratic freedoms the state is supposed to protect.
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