Living in a different country during a time of political turmoil is very frightening, yet revealing of the system I live in. Here in Paris, there are ongoing protests over the lack of classes, teachers and funding for schools. It started with high schoolers protesting, but it quickly spread to higher and lower education levels.
How Paris works politically is that we have 21 mayors: 20 for each arrondissement and 1 main citywide mayor. This causes major divisions in how each section of the city is dealing with these protests. Some of you have probably seen the very powerful videos and images of the mayor of Saint Denis being tear-gassed and pushed by police while he’s trying to protect his citizens. This gives you insight into just how scary it can be.
The police here are no strangers to force. All the protests I have seen while walking around Paris have been completely peaceful, with no civilian violence. However, the police are very quick to be agitated by anything. I saw a protest with maybe 10 people, and the police were already there, their shields ready. So this naturally has created a new type of protest.
Yesterday I was walking through the Luxembourg Garden when I passed a larger group holding signs. I assumed they were for the education-based protests, but when I got a closer look, they were all about police violence. I assume that over the coming weeks, these protests will grow larger, and more of the city will be shut down.
The government’s reaction to this has been very interesting. They have now promised 3,000 more teachers to the students as their first attempt to appease them. But at the same time, they are sending in these malicious groups of officers who are more than willing to body slam and tear gas one of the city officials.