The Gilets Jaunes aka Yellow Vests - PART EIGHT - Opposing Forces

THE GILETS JAUNES

Their estimated numbers vary greatly depending on where you get your information. For example, a total of 50,000 Gilets Jaunes was the official total number given by the Ministry of the Interior for January 5th. According to the Swiss website Les Observateurs the total number according to local data in the major 30 urban centers (including Paris) was 58,000.

If the active Gilets Jaunes out in the streets are still a minority, the movement enjoys popular support. How much support exactly is hard to say. The results of polls vary greatly depending on the questions and the sponsors of the polls. The figures that I have seen range from 66% to 82% of the French population supporting the Gilets Jaunes movement.

The Gilet Jaune is remarkable in as much as there is an unprecedented number of retirees and women taking part week after week after week. Another remarkable aspect of this moment is that the Gilets jaunes are putting their political partisan views aside. Walking side by side, you have the working and the middle class together, centrists, the “far right”, the “far left” and everything in-between.

Equipment and weapons of the Gilets Jaunes:

• yellow vests
• fists
• loudspeakers
• eggs
• flags and banners
• ski goggles
• surgical masks
• gas masks
• chickens
• one forklift
• loudspeakers
• emergency flares
• fireworks
• drums
• helmets (roller ball and moped helmets primarily)
• cobblestones

Their tactics:

• marching
• chanting
• lying down, sitting or kneeling with hands up
• pushing back against advance of police
• blocking roads and traffic circles
• letting cars drive through automated freeway tollbooth with paying
• marching into chain grocery stores
• standing in front of banks

THE POLICE

80000 total police for Act 9 on the 12th of January
5000 of these forces are in Paris

Equipment and weapons of the police:

• dogs
• manure
• boats
• armored vehicles
• armored vehicles with teargas lance-grenades lacrymogènes et d'une mitrailleuse de calibre 7-62
• vehicles
• riot gear (helmets, protective clothing, shields)
• cobblestones
• clubs
• water cannons
• “flashballs” LBD 40
• tear gas spray canisters and grenades
• stingball grenades (GLI-F4)
• a “secret weapon” “never used before in an urban zone” “to be used on orders of higher authorities” (per the police) was considered by the head of the Paris police in the middle of December: Berliet VXB-170 armored vehicles equipped with grenade launchers to disperse a high dosage pulverized incapacitating substance (according to an informant, it was CS gas whose use in war is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention)

Their tactics:

• some have no badge numbers (can’t ID them)
• blocking the advance of the protesters
• charging
• clubbing
• spraying glas close contact
• launching various grenades in standing crowds
• planting projectiles in demonstrators backpacks
• confiscating protective gear such as helmets, ski goggles, camera stands and masks (even medication!)
• arbitrary arrests (most are later released without charge)
• forcing people to delete memory cards or their camera will be confiscated
• frisking and searching including breasts and groin area
• blocking ingress to the site of a demonstration
• blocking all exits and containing the protesters in the same area for hours without possibility of food or going to the toilets
• shooting at the protesters with LBD 49 “flashballs” and aiming at the head (orders overheard clearly on some videos)

A note about the more dramatic pictures of destruction of property, looting and torching cars.
A common phenomenon is the presence of “casseurs” (the literal translation is “breakers”) who infiltrated demonstrations for the sole purpose of destroying property. These “casseurs” are well known by the police forces. Many of them are dressed in black with black helmets and are concealing their faces. It is notable that none of them were arrested. Instead the blame for their actions was put on the violent Gilets Jaunes by the MSM. It does not exonerate the handful of Gilets Jaunes that were destructive, but by and large they are an minute minority.
Several videos also show plain clothes police dressed like “casseurs” getting out of police vans. Perhaps less reliable but just as noteworthy is the testimony of a bystander describing plain clothes police setting a car on fire.
As far as the violence at the point of contact between the police and the protesters, I have reviewed hours of raw video footage. In an estimated 90% of the cases that I have observed, the police is the first aggressor, either by charging the mass of people in front of them, by using water cannons, or shooting grenades without any physical provocation.
It is also important to say that before these attacks by the police, there are also verbal exchanges. These are of two kind: hostile and conciliatory. Hostile: booing and insults towards the police: “sons of bitches”, “murderers” and the equivalent of government whores. Conciliatory: the Gilet Jaunes appealing to their common bond, and chanting “The Police With Us!”.

I want to finish with a video of the effect of the LBD 40 shot onto a stainless steel sheet. Imagine what it does when the police aim at the head and faces of the Gilets Jaunes. The video is in French, but has English subtitles.