Police vs. Yellow Vests in Nice

The following video shows from two different vantage points what happened to a 73-year-old woman who was protesting with the Yellow Vests last Saturday in Nice. The protest there was smaller and milder than the massive, riotous version in Paris, but the tactics used by the police seem similar.

Note: The woman who was badly injured is not a right-winger. Most of the Yellow Vests seem to be leftists/progressives, rather than conservatives or reactionaries. People who are angry with the Macron government tend to join in, and that includes plenty of leftists.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below is an article from Connexion France about what happened in Nice last Saturday (hat tip Reader from Chicago):

Activist, 73, Injured During Gilets Jaunes Protest

Genevieve Legay suffered skull fractures in incident at demonstration, daughter says

Relatives of a 73-year-old gilets jaunes demonstrator who was injured in a police charge are to file a complaint, the family’s lawyer has said.

Genevieve Legay, described as ‘someone who fights for peace’ by her daughter, was hospitalised after the incident in Nice’s Garibaldi Square during a gilets jaunes’ protest on Saturday.

Video transcript (timed from two separate clips that have been composited):

00:00   The name of the female protester wounded this Saturday morning in Nice is Geneviève Legay [flag]: PEACE
[chant] Resistance! Against those who want to
00:04   delegitimize the people. The people want:
00:08   73 years old, for years she has been a militant personality in Nice, member of ATTAC [alt-globalist movement, insisting on state-enforced protection of nature]
[chant] Resistance against those who want delegitimize the people.
00:12   We are going to use force!
00:16   Last warning!
She was wounded during the police charge, in particular, hit in the back of the head. She suffered multiple skull fractures.
00:20   Charge! Go ahead!
00:29   Back off, please.
00:37   Make room!
     
00:04   Faced with this flag of peace the state answers with force
00:08   [order for the police] Go! Go ahead!
00:12   For several minutes all eyes are focused
00:16   on this female protester; at the end wounded not too severely [see update].
00:20   This woman on the floor, voilà the picture
00:24   that will remain of this morning at Garibaldi [Square].
00:28   The blood of Geneviève Legay
00:32   was spilled here in her town of Nice because of
00:36   the authoritarianism, the deafness of this government and of President Macron
00:40   And we won’t forget it! More fortitude,
00:45   which is in contrast with the friendly atmosphere a little earlier.
00:49   No big reinforcement, Paris-style, [just] a couple of protesters, with no permit, united
00:53   in a pacifistic way. [chants] Freedom! Freedom!
00:57   That they would rather use law enforcement rather than listening and solving
01:01   problems in a political way! People, especially in Nice, we are pacific —We aren’t thugs!
01:09   We are protesters, we are fighting for our rights!
01:13   Police were in fact more numerous than they [the protesters] were. At first they
01:17   surrounded [the protesters]… then charged.
01:22   In one direction… AND in the opposite.
01:26   They made us leave the square, and then
01:30   they made us go back in the opposite direction. So we don’t know, we are being beaten with batons
01:34   I was hit with a baton — just for their fun. We don’t know where we’re going.
01:38   Leave, please. Also removing the journalists… was the solution
01:42   disproportionate for the protesters?
01:46   There’s NO question about it.
 

2 thoughts on “Police vs. Yellow Vests in Nice

  1. “Fighting for peace” I think that there is something wrong with their logic.

  2. This video is very telling. It tells us a story of deeply panicked state apparatus. Only government short with nerves and cool would have to break 70 something year old womans skull in confrontation that it could be resolved with can of Raid for bugs, to “send a message”. I guess one of these days French will figure out that “their” government has no problem with killing them. And that’s gonna be a truly interesting day for “their” government.

Comments are closed.