Friday, March 25, following a video showing a young pupil at the Bergson grammar school being beaten up by cops, a meeting was called at 10:30 outside the establishment.Tale of a demonstration that started off joyously rampaging cop stations and looting Franprix.
Hundreds of people there, and hardly any police presence. Only minutes after the hot date, a movement towards Jaurès takes form, and most people follow. The demonstration spreads quickly because the front of the procession seems to have passed the word: we go to the tenth district central police station, rue Louis Blanc (it is also in this police station that Koumé Amadou was murdered by cops a little over a year ago). There is no undesirable resistance in the form of cops, so arrive without incident in the small one-way street, where hundreds of high school students start to form a dense crowd. The atmosphere is somewhat calm, some construction barriers are placed across the road, garbage containers overturned and above all everyone is shouting slogans against the police: “Fuck the Police // Police Assassin”, “Everybody hates the police “, etc.
But soon you feel you are full up, and it kicks off, timidly before the pressure rises: after smoke bombs and firecrackers, a good number of bottles are thrown at the ridiculous 3 cops out on the steps with their defence shields and at the windows of the police station. The atmosphere is pretty damn happy, everyone is laughing and applauds bold blows or particularly nice throws. After a few minutes, we seem to have had enough, and we don’t want to find ourselves divided in two, so suddenly we jump to the other side, quietly walking towards our starting point, Bergson .
src=”http://actforfree.nostate.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ComicoXIX-e1458926698690.jpg” alt=”ComicoXIX-e1458926698690″ width=”479″ height=”256″ />But it doesn’t stop there, we just pass to tell the awesome story of our attacks to our friends still at the school, and carry on towards the town hall. It is a lot quieter there, some high school students are sitting on the ground, we fantasize a little, wonder what can be done outside a town hall apart from replicating what we just did a few minutes earlier. Apparently this didn’t appeal to many people and suddenly we leave after 5 minutes along the Buttes Chaumont park. Two or three high school girls shout not to take bottles and to stay calm. That made everyone laugh, and we begin to retrieve potentially useful objects for the new objective that begins to circulate mouth to mouth: the central police station of the nineteenth district! Not content with attacking one police station, we want to do another, and we must say we started to warm up. We tumble down the stairs, arrive in front of the Comico judiciously placing ourselves in front of the road works that will provide most of the projectiles: after the tiles and stones, we start to use props like rams, launching site barriers against the windows that fall one after the other. The crowd’s outbursts of joy respond to the broken glass that litters the pavement. Opposite the police station the court of Georges Brassens college is deserted and abandoned balls seem to say “fuck soccer at recreation, we prefer smashing police stations!”.
Still no cops in sight, but no more windows intact either, and tags “Fuck the police” and “Death to the cops” synthesize our claims pretty well, we suddenly take the Rue d’Hautpoul. On leaving, we see three poor vans heading towards the police station carefully avoiding us. Yeah, we are 500, super hot, and no one seems to be too keen to let go.
Once on Avenue Jean Jaurès, a few tags, “Under the paving stones, the cops,” “On strike until retirement,” “Retirement at 13” on a job centre. All the time full of stuff is being shouted, “We don’t give a shit about work, we don’t want to work at all!”. Clearly there is every reason to be in the street, and we don’t hesitate to say so. The video is obviously just a pretext, and the ones who can be indignant at the violence are only those who have never been confronted with cops, and so have no idea how such violence is routine when dealing with the uniformed minions. Here we are together, and the energy that carries us has very little to do with that uppercut, but one just sets off to express all that one holds back all the year: the rage against the cops, and the happiness to see them eat cobblestones.
Shouts of “We’re going to the gare du Nord [railway station]!”, “We’re going to gare de l’Est!”, and a bunch of other proposals, until one that seems to delight everyone: “Autoréduc! Autoréduc! [self-reduction]”. When we see the Franprix logo in the distance everyone understands and it is a real sprint to the store that is invaded by dozens of hilarious people who help themselves and come out waving their booty. Easter eggs galore, sandwiches and a bunch of other stuff. It goes without saying that by now the few killjoy citizens had left the demo long ago, and it is very pleasant to feel how this spontaneous looting action really cheers everyone up.
We continue along Jaurès, and a see another Franprix sign in the distance. Same scenario, sprint, we take the metal shutter, bang on the windows while others plunder what they can. Two poor security, talkies in hand, follow us from afar, but still no cops. So we continue! We have returned to Stalingrad, and then Line 2 in the direction of Barbès. Along the way we encounter a homeless guy that we pass a good bunch of groceries on to. He takes a selfie [sic] in front of the guy, smiles from ear to ear “come on, this gift is from Franprix!”. Arriving near migrants who are sleeping under the elevated railway, we mouth “So, so, so, solidarity with the refugees!” and share another part of the spoils of plunder. […]
We continue towards la Chapel and take rue du Chateau-Landon chanting “We’re going to Colbert grammar school!”. We go past it but there is nobody outside, except for a good mass of wheelie bins, also in revolt, that decide to accompany us. We pass over the tracks and there our bin companions decide to take action, many of which, including the glass container, throw themselves face down across the street, while a handful of more adventurous bins throw themselves over the barriers on the platforms of the Gare de l’Est, shouting “Let’s block everything!”.
We set off again towards Barbès, and only then do we hear the first sirens, further away. Some trucks, nothing too impressive for the few hundred people remaining. But we are starting to get tired, and arrive in a neighbourhood where targets appear fewer. The anti-riot can hardly move, suddenly we run a bit and leave calmly in the side streets. About thirty people were finally nassées par les chtars and released one by one after search and identity check.
In one morning, we were able, 4 or 500 motivated people, to attack two police stations, loot two Franprix stores and holler everything we wanted all over the place, try to block the platforms of the Gare de l’Est with garbage bins, get away without anyone being arrested, and all without stopping laughing, crying with joy and fantasizing about our ability to take the police and all the minions who support them (security guards, citizens, etc.) by surprise.
When we split up, it was in everybody’s mouths: we’ll do it again!
[Published on Indymedia Nantes, March 28, 2016]
via:https://lechatnoiremeutier.noblogs.org/post/2016/03/28/paris-recit-dune-balade-tres-sauvage-contre-la-police-25-mars-2016/
Translated by Act for freedom now!
http://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=23192