A 15-year-old student has had their hand blown off after picking up a stun grenade being used by police as mass school protests continue across France, local authorities said.
The incident comes as nearly 500 schools are expected to be completely or partially closed following student protests across the country over dilapidated schools and classrooms, overcrowding and teacher shortages preceding a nationwide day of demonstrations on Tuesday.
Advice to mitigate issues isn’t the same as putting blame. I think you’re confusing pragmatism for moral opposition. Cops being bastards isn’t their victims’ fault, but that observation isn’t worth jack shit if they continue to be bastards.
When the police send provocateurs to help them crush protests, you can hardly rely on the police to also control the provocateurs. Of course nobody should have to do the cops’ job, and not everybody can realistically stop someone from starting shit, but on a practical level, isn’t it strictly better if somebody does something?
They won’t suffer consequences, of course, but that’s not my point. We both agree that it’s the fault of the system for being fucked up.
On the other hand, if they were prevented from doing their job (such as other protesters holding them back from trying to attack), what are the police gonna do? Arrest people for stopping violence? I’m sure that’s a great look.
It can be both, but either way, isn’t it strictly better to prevent them from being attacked and undermining that pretense? Because that’s what I’m on about: what can be done?
If you have a suggestion for how to deal with this problem, I’m all ears; that’s what these discussion spaces are great for.
I just don’t think “Shit’s fucked, but it’s not my fault” is a productive mindset. It’s not wrong, just not very useful for unfucking things.
I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t think “self-policing” is a good approach either. If the perpetrator is an infiltrated cop, you’d be assaulted and charged for assaulting a cop (they act in group, and their colleagues will attest the cop identified himself as a cop). If the perpetrator is not a cop, it will most likely end in a fight and police will have again an excuse to intervene to “break up the fight”… by beating everyone.
The first thing I can see is document and expose them. The cop throwing projectile has been identified and his unmasked photo is now on Internet.
The second and even better thing is the propaganda doesn’t work well: a farmer union just announced they will join the protest to protect the kids and add their issues, that they see all related. More teachers want to join the protests, another large general union wants to join the protests.
At some point, they won’t be able to pretend everyone is violent and causing troubles.
Good points all around. Thanks for the civil contribution!