Yes, a doctoral student was hit in the head by a police officer in Paris

• Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education and Research, presented her wishes on Tuesday at the Musée de l'Homme, in Paris.
• Researchers were mobilized outside the building to present their own wishes to the Minister. One of them was allegedly injured in the face by a police officer on this occasion, according to viral posts shared on social networks.
• The various witnesses interviewed by 20 Minutes , in the same way as the doctoral student concerned, Gilles, confirm this incident, while retracing the course of events.

" After the "yellow vests", the firefighters, students, teachers, lawyers, railroad workers, the beating power ... the researchers! "

In a Facebook post that has gone viral since it went online this Tuesday evening, the page "Brains not available" is indignant at the treatment which was allegedly reserved for one of the demonstrators who came to participate in "a very important rally [in front of the museum de l'Homme, in Paris] to disrupt the wishes of Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation ”.

Far from remaining limited to this Facebook page, this rant was taken up by many Internet users, as were the photos showing the researcher "clubbed", his face bloodied. In a video also shared on numerous occasions, the young man, visibly injured, addresses his colleagues with a loudspeaker, claiming in particular to be there to ensure that the university is not used "to define the first of roped "or by launching the song" everyone wants the cops' retirement! "

Our comrade will simply need points. He is devastated to have received such a response for our wishes.
To say that he was only holding a megaphone and singing when a policeman who was behind started to hit him in the face. # ViolencesPolicieres #VidonsVidal

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A rally was planned, this Tuesday at 7 p.m., place du Trocadéro (16th arrondissement of Paris), in front of the Musée de l'Homme where Frédérique Vidal presented her wishes to the higher education, research and research community. 'innovation.

“On this occasion, we were several researchers who wanted to participate and to communicate our own wishes to him, which are not really the same, in view of the multi-annual research and retirement reform law that awaits us. Access to the museum was closed, very few researchers were invited: those who tried to intervene inside were expelled by the order service, ”explains a member of the Facs et labos en Lutte collective.

"When I arrived at 6:45 pm, the police were already there and there were only around 30 demonstrators," said Jonathan Moadab, a freelance journalist. “At first it was quiet, and then the ranks of protesters started to grow to around 150 or 200 people. This is where the police began to push them away in peace, ”continues the man who notably filmed and tweeted this first face-to-face meeting.

The police reject the professors and students who came to demonstrate against Minister Vidal in Paris #trocadero # universities #Retraites # Greve21Janvier pic.twitter.com/FTrW2oxlDn

"We were given to understand that there would be no police"

“Then a small group of demonstrators wearing masks of the minister [Frédérique Vidal] arrived. They walked with a determined step towards the police and stood in front of them without necessarily trying to pass the security cordon, "continues Jonathan Moadab.

Gilles Martinet, doctoral student at IHEAL (Institute for Advanced Studies in Latin America) whose face has gone viral since his injury, confirms this sequence of events: “We put on the masks 10 meters from the meeting . They served as much to form a group and to ensure that there is no personalization of the mobilization around a person, since it is a collective fight, as to allow certain people in precarious situations in the teaching environment to be able to demonstrate without problem, because it is very complicated for them. "

"We wanted to ask the police to let us enter the museum, since the minister's office had indirectly suggested to us that there would only be screening and no police, which was clearly not the case , as we saw on arrival by discovering the CRS vans, ”continues the doctoral student.

"I did not see if he had an object in his hand"

It was only once near the police cordon that the situation changed for Gilles Martinet: "I found myself in the front line of the procession, which often happens when we have the megaphone, and pushed towards the police cordon . They held us back without apparent difficulty, but one of them ripped my mask off. Then a smaller policeman, who was behind the cord jumped on me to hit me in the face. I didn't see if he had an object in his hand, so I thought it was his glove, but some colleagues say they saw a sparkling wine. "

"I was three meters behind Gilles, I did not see the blow go but, a priori, it was a blow with his glove hull", tells us for his part the member of the collective Facs and labs struggling. A version confirmed by Jonathan Moadab: "Gilles was at the head of the procession when a policeman placed behind the security cordon jumped on him to punch him". Contacted by 20 Minutes , the Prefecture of Police did not respond to our requests before the article appeared.

If the tension persisted a short time after this coup, no other incident was deplored afterwards, Gilles Martinet having notably taken up his megaphone to motivate his colleagues, despite their concern for his injury. Taken in by the firefighters and taken to the hospital, he was finally diagnosed with multiple wounds on the face, which earned him stitches and a temporary temporary incapacity for work for 8 days.

“My injuries are not serious and I was able to benefit from a lot of media coverage as well as the support of my research laboratory and my university, because I am fortunate to have a social capital which gives me access to it. This is not the case for the majority of victims of police violence, who suffer far more serious injuries, and it is a reflection of the inequalities that structure our society, ”concludes the doctoral student.

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• Demonstration
• Research
• Police
• Paris
• Fake Off