Dragon NEWS Intern Reporter Struck By Police ‘Flash-ball’ in Marseilles Protest

Published on: 9 Dec, 2018
Updated on: 10 Dec, 2018

Bruising suffered by Guildford Dragon intern caused by a French Police “flash-ball” round.

Dragon NEWS intern Anthony Parker, on holiday in the South of France, suffered bruising by police gunfire in the “Gilet Jaune” protest in Marseilles on Saturday. He was hit by a non-lethal projectile as he filmed some of the unrest that has swept France over the past month, caused by a planned increase in diesel prices the Macron government has since cancelled.

By Anthony Parker

France was tense, waiting to see what would happen this weekend. People turned on the TV as soon as they got out of bed. On Friday, one car in 10 that passed us on the road from Marseille to Aix-en-Provence had a “gilet jaune“, the high-vis yellow jacket every driver is required to carry in France, displayed on the dashboard.

Families compared 2018 to the student protest barricades in 1968; some sympathised with the government, others argued no revolution had ever succeeded without violence.

Gilet Jaune protestors in Marseilles. Photo Anthony Parker.

At the Old Port in Marseille, the Gilet Jaune and protesters for La Marche Pour La Climate met in a light mist of tear gas. Already, armoured cars and CRS (riot police) had closed off the northern side of the port. La Marche Pour La Climate marched up the Rue de la Canabière.

Much has been made, not least by US President Donald Trump, of the anti-environmental stance of the Gilets Jaune. Many wore yellow jackets and chanted “Gilets Jaune, Gilets Vert, Macron demission” [Yellow jackets, green jackets, Macron has got to go] and held signs including “Pas d’écologie sans justice sociale!” [No ecology without social justice].

La Marche Pour Climate was allowed to march peacefully up La Canabière, but the Gilets Jaune were harassed by police. At the start, it seemed like children playing cops and robbers in the playground. Running from the police and surrounding and gassing the protesters was a kind of game. Plain-clothes police slipped their orange armbands on and off as they moved throughout the protest.

The Gilets Jaune whistled and shouted slogans then ran down a side street before police reinforcements arrived and began releasing more tear gas. Then the police turned violent. I saw no violence from the Gilets Jaune. I saw one gendarme beating a protester with his baton. The Gilets Jaune outnumbered the police and they shouted insults but they neither threatened nor assaulted police officers.

French Police officer with a flash-ball gun. Photo Wikipedia.

I filmed outside the Palais de la Bourse. Trails from the tear gas canisters arced from police lines into the protesters and was thrown back. On the Vieux Port, the columns of gas looked like spray coming off the ocean; the building 20ft away was half-concealed in the acrid mist.

Tear gas smells of melting plastic, white pepper and fireworks fumes. At three o’clock, La Marche Pour La Climate had just gone past and the street was filled with Gilets Jaune, couples shopping on a Saturday morning, pedestrians and old men and women.

People covered their eyes, mouth and nose in their scarf, jumper, coat or a hand and the air was filled with sirens, coughing and the explosions of tear-gas canisters. Young protesters began dragging portable fences across the road to make a barricade. The change was sudden. Small, square tear-gas canisters skidded across the ground and the smoke obscured vision.

A flash-ball 44mm (1.75inch) cartridge.

Protesters began running in all directions. The police had moved into the square on our left and, concealed by the gas, began firing “flash-balls”, a kind of rubber bullet. This missile is a French invention, about the size of a golf ball that travels at almost 400 km/h and, if it manages to avoid a vital organ, it leaves you with a bruise the size of a grapefruit.

I ran, filming, to the side of the road. I was not wearing a yellow jacket or a mask, just filming, but I saw a plain-clothes police officer take aim at me and fire. I then watched the small, blunt object fly through the air. I was running but it hit me on the side of my abdomen. It was painful and it stopped me dead in my tracks for a short while but the adrenaline was flowing and it did not completely immobilise me, although I was hobbling around for a while.

While their colleagues were firing at protesters some police waited with batons over their shoulders. One saw my phone, lowered his nightstick and joined his colleagues in beating a protester on the ground. We had to leave but we could still smell tear gas seven miles away.

The bruise caused by the flash-ball strike.

Tomorrow (Monday, December 10) President Macron is expected to meet business and union leaders and announce emergency measures. The Gilet Jaune protests have caused economic havoc through French cities and towns, some shops looted, restaurants and tourist attractions forced to close but the movement is still said to have 60% population support.

The BBC timeline for the Gilet Jaune protest:

• 17 November: 282,000 protesters – one dead, 409 wounded – 73 in custody
• 24 November: 166,000 protesters – 84 wounded – 307 in custody
• 1 December: 136,000 protesters – 263 wounded – 630 in custody
• 8 December : 136,000 protesters – 118 wounded – 1,220 in custody

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