The Frogmarch

"I've got to pull up my stakes and roll, man." --Jean-Jacques Libris de Kerouac

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Lyon Calling

Another night of overtime pay for the riot cops: Things were quieter in general Monday night, although there was a relatively better-organised demonstration parading down Rue de la Republique-- better-organised in that people were actually carrying signs and banners, rather than just randomly breaking and burning stuff.

This procession marched past us down to Place Bellecour, where they were blocked by the police. I'm not sure why, since they were not particularly disorderly--perhaps they didn't have a permit. After this, chants of "Police everywhere, justice nowhere" started up, and the cops became intent on dispersing them. That's what these pictures show--first the remnants of the marchers moving past around Place de la Republique, then the police moving slowly down the street, bunched tightly together behind riot shields and brandishing tear-gas guns (or rubber-bullet guns? Hard to tell). You'll probably need to click on the photos to be able to make anything out.

After the police had moved the crowd down the street, we heard loud metallic scraping, as if the metal construction barricades further up Republique were being moved around, then several loud gunfire-like pops, as if tear gas was being launched, but we didn't see (or breathe) any gas.

Sunday night turned out to have been a pretty rough night in lots of parts of France, with 730 cars torched and 592 people arrested; 12 police were reported injured in Lyon. Some pictures here; note that #5 is in front of the tourist office in Place Bellecour (and the guy in #9 is not me).

When we moved in to this apartment, we knew the neighborhood would be lively; we had no idea just how lively. I'm starting to think about permanently mounting a camera tripod on the balcony railing... maybe it'll help with the blurriness.

Hopefully the next post will be back to the usual banal musings on French life and culture, rather than dark, blurry action shots of riot cops.





5 Comments:

  • At 4:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Let's see if I've got this now:

    You're a candidate who needs to pick up a sizable chunk of votes to be competitive so you chat up the disaffected..."Hey, YOUR vote counts. Let YOUR voice be heard! Working together, WE can change things."

    Some of them hear you and think, "well, yeah. Power to the People!"

    Of course your opponent is quick to point out that "if we let THEM take over it's going to be a national tragedy! Get out and vote or life as we know it will end."

    Election day comes with a larger than usual turnout. The disaffected and the duly alarmed contingents pretty much cancel themselves out. The disaffected are now really disaffected... no one mentioned that they might lose.

    Some things never change. Don't breathe the teargas.

     
  • At 7:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Those damned moderates. They're worse than the trash cans.

    I gather from the previous thread (frog comments) and these pictures that teargas does nothing to restore order. It takes an angry mob and instills mass panic.

    Interesting contrast with our May Day event here. It seems the L.A.P.D. showed up for riot, while everyone else was there to see who was elected Queen of the May.

     
  • At 4:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I love reading your Frogmarch. Have just a qustion-Is Mr. Sarkozy a good choice as far as the U.S.?
    Gail (aunt) johngail30G@sbcglobal.net

     
  • At 10:28 AM, Blogger Frogmarch said…

    You know, I was amused reading the American politicians' reaction to Sarkozy's election-- it was almost as if they were getting a new puppy to replace their aging lapdog (Blair). It's true that Sarko has been somewhat more pro-American than French politicans of late have been willing to be. But Sarko's supposed pro-American bent is more due to an appreciation of the American system (that is, favoring hard work over a social safety net) than it is to acceptance of any individual tenet of current US policy, foreign or domestic. This favoring of vaguely Reaganite economic policy and willingness to disassemble some of the current socialist structures (eg, the 35-hr work week) is the cause of much of the friction here, and probably where the "he's pro-American!" theme comes from.

    If Sarko were an American politician, he would be considered to be more liberal than Clinton or Obama--more in the Kucinich/Dean range. There are virtually no French politicians of any stripe who would disagree with any of the following statements, all of which would be considered controversial in the US: The Iraq war was a bad idea; universal health care is a fundamental human right; abortion should be legal; the US should sign the Kyoto Accords; George W. Bush is either incompetent or corrupt or both.

    However, in a campaign that turned almost entirely on French domestic issues, Sarko did say that the transatlantic relationship needs improvement, while most French politicians of recent years (including Royal) have held that the US requires no special diplomatic consideration or attention. There you have it.

    It is likely, though, that any overtures toward Washington will come later--after Sarko has addressed the hotter-topic domestic issues and the White House has a new occupant (regardless of who that may be) who might actually be willing to listen.

     
  • At 12:15 PM, Blogger Unknown said…

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